Haslam College of Business - Networking

The Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation is a university-based resource dedicated to building strong entrepreneurial ecosystems across Tennessee and the region. We coordinate across the University of Tennessee’s multiple campuses and partner with local and regional governments as well as corporate and non-profit organizations all over the state.

Our mission is to foster an entrepreneurial culture by developing student skills, providing experiential learning opportunities, conducting meaningful entrepreneurial research, and connecting students with mentors and resources that enable them to successfully start and grow new businesses.

Our Goals

• Attract the best and brightest students and educate them in entrepreneurship
• Help newly developed talent to create new businesses
• Develop an entrepreneurial spirit at the University of Tennessee and in the community

We achieve these goals by engaging students in real-life entrepreneurial settings, recruiting experienced mentors that are willing to help budding entrepreneurs and facilitating connections to resources that are essential for a business’s long-term success.

Our Benefactors

In 2010 – only a year after it was founded – the Haslam College of Business’ Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation received a generous contribution from the Anderson family. This gift allowed the center to substantially expand its resources, connecting MBA and undergraduate students with local businesses, offering competitions and funding to student entrepreneurs and creating mentoring opportunities and an entrepreneurship minor for aspiring entrepreneurs. At that time, the center became the Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Read the full story in the college’s magazine.