Pat Dickson named President-elect of United States Association for Small Business & Entrepreneurship

Wake Forest Schools of Business Professor Pat Dickson named President-elect of United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — The United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) has elected its Board Officers for 2012. Pat Dickson, associate professor and director of the Business and Enterprise Management program at Wake Forest University Schools of Business was named President-elect. He will become President of USASBE in January of 2013.

Dickson joined Wake Forest University in 2006. He has also served as a professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at Georgia Tech and the University of Louisville. Prior to earning his PhD in 1997 from the University of Alabama, Dickson spent fifteen years as an entrepreneur, co-founding companies in the automotive parts and service industry and as a corporate executive serving as Director of Franchising for a super-regional retail and manufacturing company in the same industry.

“I am excited about the opportunity to serve in a leadership role with USASBE for the next two years. Our current economic conditions have caused local and national policy makers, recently laid off middle managers, newly graduated university students as well as many others to turn to entrepreneurial activity as a critical means to both personal and national recovery and growth,” said Dickson. As the leading organization in the U.S. focused on entrepreneurship education, research, outreach and policy, USASBE can and is playing an important role.”

In addition to Dickson, other newly elected officers include:
Mindy Walls, West Virginia University as Senior Vice President, Programming-elect
Matthew Marvel, Western Kentucky University as Senior Vice President, Marketing and Membership
William T. Jackson, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg as Senior Vice President, Finance
Ethné Swartz, Fairleigh Dickinson University as Vice President, Publications
Raymond Smilor, Texas Christian University as Director-at-Large
Harold Welsch, DePaul University as Director-at-Large

About USASBE
The United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship® (USASBE®) is the largest independent, professional, academic organization in the world dedicated to advancing the discipline of entrepreneurship. With nearly 1,000 members which include universities and colleges, researchers, practitioners, entrepreneurship center directors, organizations who support entrepreneurship education, and public policy influencers, USASBE is a diverse mix of professionals that share a common commitment to fostering entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviors. USASBE is built around four pillars that guide the ongoing development of our organization. The pillars include: entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurship research, entrepreneurship outreach and public policy. By fostering advances in each of these areas, we support the development of entrepreneurship educators who in turn will create next generation of entrepreneurs. USASBE is the Network Advancing the Art of Entrepreneurship Education.