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Rich Gentry

Chair and Professor of Management, FNC Founders Chair of Entrepreneurship, and Co-Director of Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Rich Gentry

Rich Gentry is the FNC Founder's Chair in Entrepreneurship, Professor of Management, and Chair of the Management Department at the University of Mississippi.

Biography

A scholar of entrepreneurship and CEO succession, his research has been published in the Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, and the Journal of Management amongst others. Both the Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review have featured his research, and, in collaboration with colleagues at Georgia, TCU & Texas A&M, he maintains the world's largest open-sourced database of CEO turnover and dismissal. That database has been downloaded by researchers and professionals over 12,000 times. He has been active in service to the Academy of Management and Strategic Management Society, in various roles, since 2003 and was the 2019 conference chair for the United States Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

At Ole Miss, Rich has been the architect of several of the school's signature programs, including the General Business program, whose online portion is nationally ranked by U.S. News & World Report, the entrepreneurship major and minor, and the business school's study abroad programs. With Dr. Clay Dibrell, he built the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), where he serves as co-director. He has taught thousands of students entrepreneurship, economics and corporate strategy in Mississippi as well as in Finland, Denmark, and Nigeria. Ole Miss has recognized him for his teaching and research 12 times.

In addition to his MBA and bachelor's degree in industrial engineering (with honors), Rich earned his Ph.D. from the University of Florida as a Kauffman Fellow, focusing on corporate strategy and entrepreneurship. Before leaving industry, he worked in manufacturing roles at the Ford Motor Corporation and Asea Brown Boveri. Rich teaches entrepreneurship, strategy, and entrepreneurial finance topics for undergraduate and MBA students.

Courses Taught

Education

B.S. Industrial Engineering, University of Florida (2001)

M.B.A. Finance, University of Florida (2001)

Ph.D. Business Administration, University of Florida (2006)