Economic Development Through Entrepreneurship
The Lyles Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Tim Stearns, current president of CVBI’s Board of Directors, is the holder of the Coleman Foundation Chair in Entrepreneurial Studies and director of the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at California State University, Fresno.
Stearns has co-authored a textbook on management and is the author of more than 75 research articles and presentations. He has taught and lectured about entrepreneurship and innovation to students and executives in Thailand, Poland, Japan, Kazakhstan, Macau and the People’s Republic of China. He is a founder of the National Network for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization, a nonprofit in Rapid City, S.D.
Stearns serves as chair of the entrepreneurship division of the Academy of Management and is also vice president of research of the United States Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
Stearns is currently leading an effort to bring Fortune 50 patents to firms in the Central Valley that will lead to job and business growth. He writes a monthly column for Fresno’s Business Journal called “Venture Ink.” He is a member of the Regional Jobs Initiative Implementation Task Force and the Fresno Mayor’s Creative Economy Council. He can be heard on Fresno State’s radio station KFSR on the weekly Business Roundtable program “The Pulse.”