Liguori named state coordinator for Global Entrepreneurship Week 2022

The Global Entrepreneurship Network, which supports and encourages business ownership programs in more than 170 countries, this week named Rowan University’s Dr. Eric Liguori the New Jersey coordinator of the network’s Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) Nov. 14-20.

Liguori, a professor of entrepreneurship and founding head of the School of Innovation & Entrepreneurship in the Rohrer College of Business (RCB), will lead Garden State programming for GEW, which will feature some 35,000 activities worldwide.

The weeklong event will follow four themes – ecosystems, education, inclusion and policy – with programming built around them.

“Small businesses continue to be the lead driver of employment and the clearest pathway to upward mobility,” Liguori said. “To achieve the greatest results, innovators need a supportive, inclusive ecosystem in which highly motivated entrepreneurs can thrive and that’s what GEW is about.”

The RCB’s entrepreneurship program and a University-wide embrace of entrepreneurship, led by President Ali A. Houshmand, continues to get noticed.

The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine for 2022 named Rowan’s entrepreneurship program a Top 50 in the U.S. out of some 300 considered and a Top 12 in the Northeast.

Liguori noted that over the past six years more than 6,000 Rowan students have taken an entrepreneurship course and that hundreds of high school students have enrolled in the RCB’s popular “Think Like an Entrepreneur” summer academy, which this year awarded its 1000^th free college credit.

Student-focused and research-driven, Rowan’s enrollment jumped from 11,300 students to 19,678 between 2010 and 2020 – a 74.1% increase – leading the Chronicle of Higher Education’s 2022-23 Almanac in August to name the institution “the third fastest-growing public research university in the nation.” In fact, during the 2021-22 academic year, Rowan had nearly 23,000 students.

Dr. Tabbetha Dobbins, vice president for Research and Dean of the Graduate School at Rowan, said leadership and research from the RCB has been key to the University’s on-going success and she said Liguori’s role in the upcoming GEW reflects it.

“Rowan University produces cutting edge research, brings impactful technologies to market and serves as an economic catalyst for the region,” Dobbins said. “Dr. Liguori’s leadership in coordinating this statewide effort in support of entrepreneurship is yet another strong indicator of the relevance and impact of the work happening in Rowan's research labs and classrooms.”

The Global Entrepreneurship Network operates a platform of projects and programs in 170 countries aimed at making it easier to start and scale a business. By fostering collaboration between entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, policymakers and support organizations, GEN fuels healthier entrepreneurship ecosystems that create jobs, educate individuals, accelerate innovation and strengthen economic growth.

Liguori is recruiting statewide community organizers to host events during GEW such as Cesar Bandera of the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Susan Scherreik-Hynes of Seton Hall University. The state coordinators tapped by GEN will encourage hundreds of organizations throughout the state to plan and conduct activities. They will also play a role in connecting organizations and key stakeholders to expand awareness and enable the participation of communities not traditionally engaged in entrepreneurial activity.

Individuals or organizations interested in collaborating with Rowan on GEW programming may contact Liguori at sie@rowan.edu.