Michael Crooke is: A) former CEO of Patagonia and Revolution Living (parent company of Flexcar); B) a former Navy SEAL; C) the University of Oregon's first Professor of Practice; D) helping the Lundquist College's new Business Innovation Institute redefine the space where entrepreneurship and sustainability intersect.
When Lundquist College of Business undergraduate Brittany Lundberg set out for her first Bend Venture Conference last year, she was "intrigued, but not quite sure what it was." When she left a day and a half later, her mind was made up: "I knew without a doubt I wanted to be an entrepreneur." This year, Lundberg--now the marketing officer of the college's Entrepreneurship Club--headed back to Bend with nine of her fellow club members to watch aspiring startups compete for $265,000 in seed money.
Judy Sheldon, MBA '11, spent three weeks in September hosting China's Hongxia Wei as part of the Global Sports Mentoring Program—a newly launched collaboration between the U.S. Department of State and espnW. The program's goal is to connect international and American women to build capacity for sports programs that empower women and girls worldwide. Of the seventeen participating organizations, the University of Oregon was the only academic institution invited to take part.
"I have not seen such a group of energized, talented, and hungry students in my thirty-year business career. There is something special going on in Eugene." said visiting executive Lawrence Jackson, former president and CEO of procurement for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., after spending the day at the Lundquist College of Business.
When Pam Birkel, MBA '13, offered her services to TrackTown12—organizers of last summer's Olympic Trials at Hayward Field—she figured she'd land a spot as a recycling volunteer. Instead, she played a key role helping the event gain gold-level sustainability certification from the Council for Responsible Sport (ReSport), the national nonprofit advancing responsibly produced sports events. And because the Olympic Trials was the first multiday competition to be evaluated by ReSport, Birkel's work also helped set a benchmark for future multiday events throughout the nation.
"When we started, no one bought TVs at WalMart," Vizio founder and CEO William Wang recalled, in a Q&A session with Lundquist College students and faculty this October. Radically reshaping the shopping landscape is just one of the ways that Wang's ten-year-old company has changed the world of consumer electronics. During a discussion moderated by Dean Kees de Kluyver, Wang described the "perfect storm" that helped drive his company's success and covered some of the other game-changers Vizio pioneered.
