UT Entrepreneurship Director to Help Guide Startup Companies in Florida

Rebecca J. White, professor of management and the James W. Walter Distinguished Chair of Entrepreneurship at The University of Tampa, has been selected for the founding board of Startup Florida. This program, initiated by the Obama administration, was developed to boost innovation and entrepreneurship by encouraging private investment in startups.

Startup Florida is part of a national network of state and regional efforts coordinated by the Startup America Partnership, a national organization working to help young companies grow in order to create jobs in America. White and the board will offer strategic guidance on bringing the private sector together to provide startups with the resources they need to start and scale their organizations.

Startup Florida will connect entrepreneurs with a statewide network of resources, mentors and capital sources and in doing so will showcase Florida as an ideal location for high-growth, innovative companies that will drive job creation in our state.

“Entrepreneurship will fuel Florida’s business growth and provide a foundation for its economic stability,” White said. “I’m pleased to help young companies create jobs, just as UT is focused on helping its students think creatively and entrepreneurially.”

White joined UT in August 2009. Since then she has revised the entrepreneurship curriculum, started a speaker series that brings successful entrepreneurs to campus, created a business pitch competition sponsored by BNY Mellon and has partnered with the Moffitt Cancer Center to help physicians develop business plans for new cancer treatments.

Prior to coming to UT, White served as professor of management and director of the Fifth Third Bank Entrepreneurship Institute at Northern Kentucky University, where she built a program that was rated among the nation’s top 50 by the Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine. She also began an entrepreneurial business in 2006 that focuses on risk mitigation in higher education.

White was recently awarded the President’s Distinguished Service Award by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE), and was named 2010 Business Woman of the Year in the education category by the Tampa Bay Business Journal. She currently serves on several boards including NorthStar Bank of Tampa, Musimé LLC, USASBE and the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers.

For more information on Startup Florida, visit http://fl.startupamericapartnership.org/.