Lehigh Launches Ventures Lab to Drive Entrepreneurship

Lehigh signaled a new era of entrepreneurial resources—one that extends to alumni for the first time—with the launch of the Lehigh Ventures Lab, a startup accelerator for founders in the early stages of launching their ventures.

A joint initiative between the Baker Institute for Entrepreneurship, Creativity & Innovation and the College of Business, the lab aims to drive entrepreneurship at the university by supporting founders working full-time to take their products to market.

The lab also aims to generate a pipeline of founders through resources tailored to support students and faculty with earlier stage ideas. The lab will be housed in the new Lehigh Business Innovation Building, set to open in late 2022.

“Innovation is the foundation of entrepreneurship and this undertaking will drive entrepreneurship at the university to a new level,” said Georgette Chapman Phillips, the Kevin L. and Lisa A. Clayton Dean of the College of Business.

Andrew Hill, former chair of strategic leadership and professor at the U. S. Army War College, has been named the lab’s inaugural director. Hill holds a doctorate from Harvard Business School, a master’s in public policy from the University of California, Berkeley, and a bachelor’s degree in Latin from Brigham Young University.

“Andrew’s scholarship and deep expertise in strategy for innovation combined with his experience as a startup founder made him uniquely qualified to take on the role,” said Lisa Getzler, executive director of the Baker Institute.

The program will offer physical space, coaching and other resources in go-to-market strategy, as well as access to knowledge networks and seed-stage investors, and other guidance.

Initial funding for the lab is through the newly established Thalheimer Enterprise Alliance, an expansion of the Baker Institute’s resources under benefactor Joan F. Thalheimer and her late husband, John M. Thalheimer ’55.