Entrepreneurship center honors professor and benefactor

Jim Weinert, a prominent entrepreneur and philanthropist, and Bob Pricer, a longtime teacher of entrepreneurship, were honored at the eighth annual celebration of the Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship at the UW–Madison School of Business.

Both were inducted into the school’s Entrepreneur Hall of Fame.

Pricer retired in 2002 after a successful career teaching entrepreneurship. Popular with students and alumni, he was selected by Business Week in 1996 as one of the nation’s top entrepreneurship professors and received numerous honors for his teaching and public service.

Before coming to UW–Madison in 1977, he worked in the area of small business for UW-Extension. He also served as director of the statewide network of Small Business Development Centers.

Jim Weinert, who received his MBA from UW–Madison in 1969, became a successful entrepreneur in the Minneapolis area. He encouraged the idea of teaching entrepreneurship at UW–Madison before it became a national phenomenon.

He gave the School of Business $700,000 to enable students in the WAVE (Weinert Applied Ventures in Entrepreneurship) program to invest in promising business ventures. He has since provided funds to endow the school’s entrepreneurship center, the Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship.

Weinert remains active in the program by mentoring student entrepreneurs and serving on the board of several businesses run by former Weinert students. He is also chairman of Tri Pro in Minneapolis.

Established in 1986, the Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship center provides programs and services relating to entrepreneurial management and development.

In addition to coordinating the career specialization in entrepreneurial management, the center supports the school’s undergraduate and Ph.D programs, conducts research in the field of entrepreneurship, assists local business ventures and contributes to public policy debate on issues related to entrepreneurship.

Weinert and Pricer are the third and fourth inductees into the UW–Madison Entrepreneur Hall of Fame. Past inductees include Aaron Kennedy, chairman, founder, and CEO of Noodles and Company; and Carol Bartz, CEO of Autodesk.