Dr. Ray Smilor: Championing Entrepreneurship

As an author, public speaker, investor, consultant, and teacher, Dr. Ray Smilor is an internationally recognized expert in entrepreneurship. He is Emeritus Professor of Professional Practice in Management, Entrepreneurship and Leadership at the Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. From 2009-2015, Ray served as Professor of Professional Practice and the Robert and Edith Schumacher Executive Faculty Fellow in Innovation and Technology at TCU’s Neeley School of Business. He was executive director of the Beyster Institute at the Rady School of Management at the University of California, San Diego from 2000-2009. The Institute became a leading education, training, and consulting organization focusing on advancing entrepreneurship and employee ownership worldwide. Ray was vice president of the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, Missouri. Before joining the Kauffman Center, Ray earned his Ph.D. in U.S. History at the University of Texas at Austin. He became a tenured professor in the Graduate School of Business there, developed a renowned entrepreneurship curriculum, and served as executive director of the university’s IC2 Institute. Ray has published extensively, including fifteen books. He has made presentations to many companies such as IBM, 3M, Bell Helicopter, and government organizations including the U.S. Department of Commerce, Small Business Administration, and Minority Business Development Agency. In 2013, 3 Day Startup, a company that kickstarts student ventures, selected Ray as one of the top 25 entrepreneurship professors in the United States. In 2015, he received the Karl Vesper Pioneer Award for "distinguished achievements in advancing the discipline of entrepreneurship."

Ray currently teaches his course in Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the Executive MBA Program at the Neeley School. He serves as chairman of the Advisory Board for the Neeley School’s Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and as a member of TCU’s College of Science and Engineering Advisory Board. Ray has been married to his entrepreneurial partner in life, Judy, for 50 years. Together they have raised two sons, Matthew and Kevin. They treasure their daughter-in-law Melissa and their two grandchildren, Natalie Elaine and Samantha Erin.