Theresa Welbourne is the new director of the Nebraska Center for Entrepreneurship at the College of Business Administration. An entrepreneur, author and professor, Welbourne is also the FirsTier Banks Distinguished Professor of Business.
“Theresa has done extensive research in the areas of entrepreneurship and human resources. Her strong background will provide the needed leadership for the Nebraska Center for Entrepreneurship as we expand this area at the UNL College of Business Administration,” said Donde Ashmos Plowman, James and Susan Stuart Endowed Dean of the College of Business Administration.
Welbourne received her doctorate in business from the University of Colorado-Boulder and has taught at the undergraduate, masters, doctoral and executive levels throughout the world. Her teaching area of expertise is human resource strategies and leadership in entrepreneurial firms. She is especially interested in human resource metrics, technology and strategy in high growth, high change organizations.
A faculty member in industrial labor relations at Cornell University for seven years, she started her own technology company, eePulse Inc., in 1996. Funded in part by the university technology transfer grants, the company started to commercialize work she did on predicting success of initial public offering and fast-growth, entrepreneurial firms.
Welbourne joined the faculty at the University of Michigan Business School in 1999 and is currently a research professor with the Center for Effective Organizations at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. In her work with USC she teaches in the executive development programs.
A large component of Welbourne’s research has been large-scale studies on the drivers of success in initial public offerings. She also focuses on the role of employee energy on long-term competitiveness and success of both individuals and organizations, and examines the link between employee energy and engagement.
Her research has been featured in publications such as Inc. Magazine, The Financial Times, Businessweek, Entrepreneur Magazine, and the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. She has also published in the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management, Human Resources Planning, Journal of Organization Behavior, Journal of Applied Psychology and Group and Organization Management.
Her most recent article, “Fast HR – Enhancing Service Excellence in the Publication,” will appear later this year in Organizational Dynamics. She is also editor-in-chief of the Human Resource Management Journal.