Entrepreneurship Department

Alec Johnson has published in entrepreneurship and strategy journals with his work focusing on entrepreneurial strategy and finance. He is active in developing case studies on opportunity identification, business models, entrepreneurial management and entrepreneurial finance. In 2013, Johnson and colleague James Ebben developed the innovative Lemonade Stand Class, which earned the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship® 2013 award for Special Recognition in Entrepreneurship Education Innovation. He received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

AnnMarie Thomas focuses her research on design process and prototyping, and the ways creativity and play can enhance learning environments. She is the founder and director of the St. Thomas Playful Learning Lab, which invites students to look at engineering challenges through a playful lens. Working with St. Thomas undergrad students in the PLL, Thomas founded Squishy Circuits, a product that uses homemade play dough to demonstrate electrical properties and turns kids into circuit designers. The success of Squishy Circuits led to a popular TED talk.

In addition to teaching courses in entrepreneurial finance, business development and small business management, Jay Ebben advises the Practicing Entrepreneurs group. In 2010, Ebben won the Julie Hays Teaching Award in the Opus College of Business. In 2011, he received a Fulbright Scholarship to teach in Slovenia in 2011, where he has returned each summer to lead an entrepreneurship program sponsored by AMCHAM and the U.S. Embassy. He has started several businesses and has worked with entrepreneurs at many stages of business development. He earned his B.S. in industrial engineering from Marquette University and his MBA and PhD in entrepreneurship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.