New director named for University of Notre Dame entrepreneurship center

Jeffrey A. Bernel has been named the new director for the
entrepreneurship center at the University of Notre Dame. Bernel, a longtime
entrepreneur who has taught at the Mendoza College of Business for more than 12
years, will take over the position at the Gigot Center for Entrepreneurial
Studies beginning Jan. 1, 2012.

“Notre Dame is at an exciting crossroads when you consider
the intersection of the Gigot Center’s mission, the foresight of establishing
the Innovation Park, the cross-curriculum ESTEEM master’s program, and the
support of the commercialization of the University’s research, among other
factors,” said Bernel.  “We share the
following mantra with our entrepreneurship students: Start small, think big,
and dream bigger. This will be the Gigot Center’s guiding polestar.”

In 2001, Bernel  established Bernel Investment Management LLC ,
an industrial real estate investment and management firm that specializes in
early stage venture investments.   He has
been actively involved in a number of industrial real estate ventures, new startups
and venture turnarounds in the United States and internationally.

Bernel has taught and designed courses in management,
strategy, entrepreneurship and executive education for Mendoza College. He,
along with former Gigot Center Director James Davis, created the IrishAngels
network that currently lists more than 200 members who support the Gigot
Center’s mission of education, launching new businesses and social
entrepreneurship.

He serves on the Mendoza Graduate Alumni Board and the Gigot
Center for Entrepreneurial Studies Advisory Board, and is a former board member
of numerous for profit and not-for-profit businesses. Bernel earned his Executive
MBA degree from Notre Dame in 1994. He was recognized as the 2002 Distinguished
EMBA Alumni Award recipient.

The Gigot Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Mendoza
College of Business was established in 1998 with the mission of providing an
academically rigorous business education for graduate and undergraduate
students interested in entrepreneurship. In keeping with the Notre Dame
mission, the Center offers a number of programs aimed at furthering social
entrepreneurship, including the microventuring certificate program that focuses
on wealth creation through small startup ventures. Gigot also conducts the
annual Notre Dame Business Plan Competitions, which awards more than $100,000
in prizes to top winning teams from among 100-plus entries.

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