I’ve been the entrepreneur in residence at Marquette University for ten years, as well as having been the director of the Kohler Center for Entrepreneurship through last December. Going forward, I’m continuing to direct the Golden Angels, teach an MBA class, and coach in the tech transfer program. I’m also starting a new business to assist growth stage ventures in the Midwest.
One of the interesting questions I’ve been asked lately is why a Jesuit Institution ought to sponsor an angel network.
About one in four students of Jesuit institutions are business majors. In addition, most graduates of all of the University’s colleges will work in a business for some or all of their working lives.1
Specifically in the practice of venture creation, where most jobs in America are created, we have an opportunity to help our students gain expertise that augments and makes more real and apparent their ability to transform for good the organizations in which they work. That work of transformation by them reflects and makes real a call to greatness for us at the University.
I’ve tried to think about how a mandate for a transformative educational experience for justice and a preference for the poor manifests itself for me in the teaching of entrepreneurship and the venture process, as well as in the administration of the Golden Angels Network.
At first glance, the creation of wealth for individuals through angel investing seems tangential. It is true that many of these individuals will both return some of these gifts to the work of transformational education. Many will use these gifts of wealth to transform communities and “leaven (the social order) effectively for good,” in the words of St. Ignatius.
However, these investments also strengthen our ability to demonstrate these principles for our students, and thus to multiply their effect many times over – beyond the good done for the company, its employees, customers, and investors.
The University calls for a “comprehensive and interdisciplinary learning environment” that prepares students for the world they are entering and for a transformative life with a commitment to social justice. Justice in the world, the love of our fellowman manifest in “works of justice,” according to Father Arrupe, is the manifestation of the love of God. “Love of God that does not issue in justice for men is a farce,” he says.
"The more universal the good is, the more it is divine. Therefore preference ought to be given to those persons and places which, through their own improvement, become a cause which can spread the good accomplished to many others who are under their influence or take guidance from them...For the same reason, too, preference ought to be shown to the aid which is given to...universities, which are generally attended by numerous persons who by being aided themselves can become laborers for the help of others."
St. Ignatius to Fr. Aaroz
So, then, it seems to me that placing tools capable of creating great good in the hands of those participants in a transformative educational process is central to our mission as Marquette, and the College of Business Administration. For the whole work of the University, to provide a transformational experience, is strengthened by the specific ability to impart knowledge of the tools of the administrative experience to our students.
1 “Business Schools in Jesuit Education, Four Reflections,” Dean Andre Delbecq, Leavy School of Business, Santa Clara University, 1983.
