WORCESTER, Mass. – Today, Frank Hoy, an internationally known authority on entrepreneurship, was installed as Paul R. Beswick Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the university’s Department of Management during a ceremony held on campus. Hoy, who was most recently director of the Centers for Entrepreneurial Development, Advancement, Research and Support at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), also serves as director of the Collaborative for Entrepreneurship & Innovation (CEI), WPI’s nationally ranked entrepreneurship center. Hoy joined the WPI faculty in August 2009.
The Beswick professorship was established through the generosity of Paul R. Beswick, Class of 1957, and his wife, Siang Kiang. Beswick is the founder, president and CEO of Beswick Engineering Inc., an engineering consulting firm in Greenland, N.H. The Beswicks' gift enabled WPI to recruit and recognize Hoy, a world-class scholar and educator who is helping the university make entrepreneurship an integral element of its mission and instilling the spirit of innovation that is necessary for students to succeed in today’s technology-driven world.
“WPI's entrepreneurship program is well established; we have received national recognition, and we have generated significant interest from our faculty members, students, and the business community," said McRae C. Banks, head of WPI's Department of Management and founding director of CEI. "As an academician who has gained national and international visibility for his research, teaching, program building, and work with entrepreneurs, Frank Hoy has the credibility that WPI needs to take our program to the next level."
WPI's Collaborative for Entrepreneurship and Innovation is a university-wide center established to capitalize upon the synergy between WPI's many entrepreneurship and innovation initiatives. Its serves WPI students, faculty, staff, and alumni, as well as the external business community, through a wide range of programs that nurture a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation on WPI's campus and accelerate knowledge and action in the transfer of technology. In a typical year, CEI works with over 3,400 students, faculty members, and business people interested in entrepreneurship and innovation in its more than 40 programs, workshops, and competitions.
Hoy holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from UTEP, an MBA from the University of North Texas, and a PhD in management from Texas A&M University. He spent 10 years as a faculty member in the Department of Management at the University of Georgia, where he founded and directed the Center for Business and Economic Studies, coordinated the entrepreneurship curriculum, and served as director of the Georgia Small Business Development Center (SBDC), one of the first SBDCs in the nation to be certified by the Association of Small Business Development Centers.
He was named the inaugural Zwerner Professor at Georgia State in 1988, and in 1991 returned to his hometown of El Paso, Texas, to join the faculty of UTEP as a professor of management and entrepreneurship and dean of the College of Business Administration. Additionally, Hoy spent five years as chair of the Central European Small Business Enterprise Development Commission, created by Congress to work with the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland to establish networks of small business assistance centers.
The author or co-editor of seven books, more than 40 scholarly articles, and more than 90 conference papers, Hoy is past editor of Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, past Latin America editor for the Journal of World Business, and honorary editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business. His research and educational activities have been funded by more than $15 million in awards and contracts from the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Education, the U.S. Small Business Administration, and the Mott and Kauffman foundations, among other agencies and organizations. He is past chair of the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management and former senior vice president of the International Council of Small Businesses.
About Paul R. Beswick '57
After receiving a B.S. in mechanical engineering from WPI, Paul Beswick worked for several years in the aerospace industry before founding Beswick Engineering Inc. in 1963. Headquartered in Greenland, N.H., the company, which makes miniature pneumatic devices, has developed more than 50 products based on proprietary designs and earned more than a dozen patents. Recognized as a leader in the miniature fluid power industry, the company received Product Design & Development magazine's Engineering Silver Award and was a runner up in Design News magazine's Golden Mousetrap Awards. Beswick is as a trustee and member of the executive committee of Berwick Academy, an independent school in South Berwick, Maine. Since 1997, he has been a member of the advisory board for WPI's Collaborative for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI) and has served as a guest entrepreneur for a number of CEI programs.
About Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Founded in 1865 in Worcester, Mass., WPI was one of the nation's first engineering and technology universities. WPI's 14 academic departments offer more than 50 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science, engineering, technology, management, the social sciences, and the humanities and arts, leading to bachelor’s, master’s and PhD degrees. WPI's world-class faculty work with students in a number of cutting-edge research areas, leading to breakthroughs and innovations in such fields as biotechnology, fuel cells, and information security, materials processing, and nanotechnology. Students also have the opportunity to make a difference to communities and organizations around the world through the university's innovative Global Projects Program. There are 26 WPI project centers throughout North America and Central America, Africa, Australia, Asia, and Europe.
