I have been looking for a place – a real physical space on campus – where the Vanderbilt community could turn their ideas into businesses, and so have an impact on the larger world. I also wanted an easy way for our incredibly dynamic Middle TN tech community to break through and tap into all the talent at Vanderbilt. The Wond’ry is the fulfillment of my dreams. I am so fortunate to be here just as the Wond’ry has gotten off the ground.

-Thinking through business strategy for new technologies

-Connecting with customers and their real needs (marketing)

-Figuring out how to execute strategies (usually a lot tougher can coming up with them in the first place!)

-Figuring out how to create value – for customers and investors.

Seeing the lights go on when a student project team figures out how to turn their project into a success (has happened many times over my years at Vanderbilt).

How smart my students are (and they just keep getting smarter!) Everything that I know of value I’ve learned through mentoring over 400 student teams engaging with project clients in industry.

I think I made two smart career choices. First, to experience the world of business development for 23 years (in two exploding industries – telecommunications and energy), and second, to get a chance to make what I learned available to my students over the past 25 years at Vanderbilt.

That’s an easy one – it’s persistence. So many people give up too quickly. Believe in yourself.

I’ve always wanted to understand how things worked. That’s what scientists do for a living, so I thought I wanted to be a scientist. What I didn’t know is that you don’t have to be a scientist to ask what makes things tick (and after all, there aren’t that many jobs out there for scientists). There are so many other interesting mysteries out there to solve. My favorite one is – what makes a business work? And if you can figure it out, you have this great feeling of mastery and accomplishment, and you’ve maybe done something for someone else.