William E. Wetzel, Jr.
Director Emeritus, Center for Venture Research

William E. Wetzel, Jr. is Professor of Management Emeritus at the Whittemore School of Business and Economics, University of New Hampshire and Director Emeritus of the Center for Venture Research where he remains active. Prior to his retirement in 1993, he held the Forbes Professor of Management Chair at the Whittemore School. During the 1987-88 academic year he served as the Paul T. Babson Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at Babson College.

Professor Wetzel’s professional and research interests include the role of the entrepreneur in economic development, the financial management of high-growth private companies and the informal venture capital markets. He has testified on these subjects before Congressional committees and served as keynote speaker at domestic and international conferences, including conferences held in Australia, the Netherlands, France, Great Britain, Venezuela, Sweden and Canada.

Professor Wetzel authored articles published in Business Horizons, Sloan Management Review, New England Journal of Business And Economics, Black Enterprise, Journal of Business Venturing, Technovation, Pratt’s Guide to Venture Capital Sources, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, The Financier, Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Economics, Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurship, the Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship and the Art and Science of Entrepreneurship. Prior to retirement, he served on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Business Venturing, In Business, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research and the Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurial Finance.

Professor Wetzel was a founding member of the New Hampshire High Technology Council and is a past President of the Council. In 1993 he received the Council’s Lifetime Creative Vision Award. He founded the Center for Venture Research in 1983 and the Venture Capital Network, Inc. (VCN) in 1984. VCN is now the Technology Capital Network at MIT. Professor Wetzel was a member of the Smaller Business Association of New England (SBANE) where he served as Chairman of the Academic Liaison Committee and as member of the Board of Directors from 1983 through 1986. In 1998 Professor Wetzel was named Ernst & Young New England Entrepreneur of the Year for his work as a Supporter of Entrepreneurship.

Professor Wetzel currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Yankee Equipment Systems, Inc., CIM Industries, Inc., New Hampshire Venture Partners, Venture Resources, Inc., MerchantBanc.com, Powerspan Corp. (formerly Zero Emissions Technology, Inc.), Bell Center for Music and the Arts, Shared Abundance, Centre for Community Change International and on the Advisory Board of AllVertical.com..