UofL’s College of Business to honor top entrepreneurs

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    LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The University of Louisville’s College of Business will add two names to its Entrepreneurship Circle of Fame on Nov. 16.

    Van Clouse, a 30-year UofL professor who co-founded the entrepreneurship MBA program, and Hank Conn, a UofL alumnus who pledged over $20 million to create the J.B. Speed School of Engineering’s Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research, are this year’s honorees.

    The public is invited to attend a 3:30 p.m. ceremony beside the granite monument where their names will be inscribed located just outside the college in Jane Goldstein Plaza.

    Clouse, who will retire at the end of the academic year, is the Cobb Family Professor of Entrepreneurship and director of the Forcht Center for Entrepreneurship. He has taught thousands of students and coaches entrepreneurship MBA teams in regional, national and international business plan competitions.

    Conn earned his undergraduate degree from the Speed School in 1966, an MBA from COB in 1969 and a Master of Engineering from Speed in 1972. Since 1983, he has been involved in more than 25 startups.

    Mahendra Sunkara, director of Conn Center, attributed Conn’s passion for entrepreneurialism in shaping the center’s focus. “Hank has fueled the spirit of the university’s challenge for excellence and contributed significantly to the vision for innovation-based entrepreneurship that accelerates technology concepts to the marketplace,” he said.

    Clouse and Conn will bring to 16 the number of honorees in the Circle of Fame, begun in 2012.

    For further information, contact Janet Cappiello, 502-852-1104.

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    Janet Cappiello covers student success for the Office of Communications and Marketing. She has more than 30 years’ experience in journalism, including working for The Associated Press and magazines such as Vegetarian Times and Sustainability: The Journal of Record. She has been at UofL since 2014.