Dingman Center History

Facilitator of Enterprise in the Mid-Atlantic Region

“Our mission is to make entrepreneurship accessible by offering resources that take a person through the whole life cycle of starting a business. We want students to experience business success, and we do this by actively supporting student-run enterprises, offering events that bring regional entrepreneurs and students together, and becoming a focal point for developing campus-wide entrepreneurial activities.” —Asher Epstein, Dingman Center Director

One of the earliest entrepreneurship centers in the country, the Dingman Center has dedicated itself to facilitating, supporting, and encouraging entrepreneurial growth in the Mid-Atlantic region. Many graduates have gone on to start companies in the United States and abroad.

“It takes entrepreneurs to instill an entrepreneurial culture,” says entrepreneur and Dingman Center Founder Rudy Lamone. So, in 1986, when Lamone set out to establish an entrepreneurial support center for the business school, he found a willing partner in Michael D. Dingman, founder of the Signal Corporation, now part of Honeywell International. With a generous grant from Mr. Dingman, the Dingman Center emerged as a top-ranked entrepreneurship center due to the efforts of Mr. Lamone and future directors Charles Heller (1990-1999), and Don Spero (2000-2004). Both Heller and Lamone were recipients of the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur-of-the-Year award for their work in support of entrepreneurship, the first time in the history of the awards that two individuals from the same organization were honored. Under the current leadership of Managing Director Asher Epstein (Smith MBA), the Dingman Center has continued as a national catalyst in the evolving arena of entrepreneurial practice.

The Dingman Center Has a History of 'Firsts'

• The Center's Capital Access Program was the first to bring real investors together with real student and non-student companies.
• The Dingman Center was among the first to create and teach undergraduate and graduate courses in the field of entrepreneurship.
• The Dingman Center developed some of the first courses in business biotechnology and technology entrepreneurship.
• The Dingman Center was the first to organize a national meeting of leading entrepreneurship centers in the U.S., thus creating the National Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers, a 180 member organization.
• The Dingman Center was the first to provide workshops, seminars, and training programs for the regional entrepreneurial community.
• The Dingman Center was among the first recipients of Kaufman and Coleman Foundation grants to support the Center's programs.
• The Dingman Center was the first center on campus to establish faculty summer research awards.
• It is the only Center where two of its leaders have received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
• The Dingman Center was the first of 5 Centers chosen to receive the NASDAQ award for Center of Excellence in Entrepreneurship.