ASU Center for Entrepreneurship

Email: toneybc@appstate.edu
Room Number: Raley 1016
Phone Number: 828-262-6196
Biography: Bryan Toney has more than 20 years experience as an entrepreneur and entrepreneurship educator. Since 1997, he has been a lecturer in the Department of Management at Appalachian State University. In addition to teaching, he helps lead a number of entrepreneurship activities including serving as faculty advisor for the Association of Student Entrepreneurs (ASE).

Prior to joining Appalachian State, Mr. Toney was the Entrepreneur-in-Residence for the DuPree School of Management at the Georgia Institute of Technology from 1994 to 1997. There he taught courses in entrepreneurship, management consulting, international business and business policy. He also developed two educational and networking programs for high growth businesses and led a venture capital roundtable group focused on emerging technologies.

Mr. Toney is also the former founder and CEO of Information Management Inc., a software development and systems integration company based in Atlanta. He began the company in 1985 and grew it to 25 employees before selling it to private investors in 1994. He has a master's degree in management from Georgia Tech and a bachelor's in mathematics from the University of Tennessee.

Email: rowlandja@appstate.edu
Room Number: Raley 1016
Phone Number: 828-262-8325
Biography: Julia Rowland has more than 12 years of non-profit and workforce development experience. She joins the Center for Entrepreneurship as Assistant Director in August, 2007 and brings extensive experience working with a wide variety of constituents in recruiting, program development and communications.

Prior to joining the Center, Julia was the JobLink System Liaison for the High Country Council of Governments Workforce Development Program. There she built collaborative relationships with regional businesses, educators, government agencies and non-profit organizations and was responsible for educating these diverse constituencies about workforce trends, legislation and the JobLink system. She successfully spearheaded efforts to receive $50,000 awards from the NC Commission on Workforce Development for two regional centers.

Julia has also held other positions in the private and public sectors. Prior to joining the High Country Council of Governments, she served as interim Executive Director and Director of Member Services for the American Camp Association Southeastern, working with more than 650 members on public policy, youth development trends and education opportunities. Prior to that, she worked with the Montana Conservation Corps, a non-profit Americorps program where she was managed student recruitment activities, produced communication materials and coordinated an at-risk youth program.

Julia received her bachelor of arts degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from Appalachian State with a concentration in Environmental Policy and Planning and a minor in Biology.

Email: pruettmw@appstate.edu
Room Number: Raley 4066
Phone Number: 828-262-7341
Biography: Mark Pruett previously worked at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. In addition to teaching entrepreneurship and strategy classes, he has taught courses on organization theory, managing organizational change, and the management of technology. He has a bachelor's and MBA degrees from the University of North Carolina, and a PhD in strategic management from the University of Illinois.

Dr. Pruett's research is centered on competitive strategy. His current work is on commercialization strategies for new technologies and on franchising and other types of share-contracted organizations. Prior to his academic career, he was vice-president of a land development firm with responsibilities in all functional areas, with primary focus on planning and on managing joint venture, banking, and government relationships. Earlier, he had worked in a small international consulting company, where he managed business development programs with foreign firm clients. He also authored 30 feasibility studies for overseas firms in diverse industries.

Email: powellbc@appstate.edu
Room Number: Raley 4091
Phone Number: 828-262-8332
Biography: Ben Powell was hired in 2007 to teach entrepreneurship at Appalachian State University. From 2001 to 2007, he taught entrepreneurship at the University of Alabama, first as an instructor and then as an assistant professor.

Dr. Powell's academic training began at Princeton University, where he was awarded the William Frost Memorial Prize in Chemistry, graduated magna cum laude, and was inducted in to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. After Princeton, Dr. Powell studied regional planning at the Universitaet Dortmund for one year. His studies in Germany were funded by a full fellowship from the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) for non-degree graduate study at a German university. After returning to the U.S., Dr. Powell joined Millken & Company, where he worked as a shift supervisor in a textile mill, a plant chemist, and as a program engineer who helped to launch the company's composite fabrics (air bag) division and coordinated the company's alliance with TRW. Dr. Powell left Milliken to enter the MBA program at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. He graduated in 1994 and was inducted into the Beta Gamma Sigma business honor society. He then became the founding general manager of the Environmental Business Group (EBG) in Bangkok, Thailand and later worked for Heiniburg Corporation in Thailand as a joint venture consultant in the automotive sector. In 1997, Dr. Powell entered the Management Ph.D. program at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, earned a M.A. in business in 2000, and completed his Ph.D. in strategy in 2003.

Dr. Powell's current research includes a study of the use of spin-outs to commercialize new technologies, an evolutionary framework for entrepreneurship, and a collaborative study of R&D joint ventures funded by the Advanced Technology program (NIST, U.S. Department of Commerce). Dr. Powell has also participated in research projects that have examined the escalation of commitment in acquisitions, the impact of firm scope on performance (conducted for McKinsey & Company), knowledge sharing among Toyota suppliers, Hewlett-Packard's management of its alliances with Microsoft, and a hotel construction project in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He is a member of the Academy of Management (BPS, ENT, OMT, and TIM divisions), EGOS, INFORMS (Organization Science division), the Southern Management Association, the Strategic Management Society, and USASBE.

Email: gm77725@appstate.edu
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Biography: Ged Moody brings 20 years of business and post-undergraduate educational experiences to our team. His educational background started with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of South Carolina where he studied Economics and Computer Science. Following that, he studied Management at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. While at UAH he worked for the Johnson Research Center, where his research aided NASA engineers applying Artificial Intelligence techniques for the Hubble Space Telescope. Recently, he completed a Masters of Industrial Arts degree from Appalachian State University, compiling a 4.0 GPA while concentrating on Appropriate Technology. While at ASU, his research and teaching interests included: implementation and acceptance of renewable energy technologies, corporate social responsibility, entrepreneurship and community-owned renewable energy models.

Mr. Moody’s corporate background included stops with Andersen Consulting, First Data Corporation and Premier, Inc. In these years he held many leadership positions and helped to build multi-million dollar consulting and group purchasing businesses for the healthcare industry. His recent business pursuits have had a more entrepreneurial flair, helping many businesses through his own consulting practice, producing a feature-length film, and co-creating and running a healthcare management and investment company.

Ged promises to bring a focus on sustainability and green practices to our team. As an activist at Appalachian and in the Boone community he was the Chair of the campus Renewable Energy Initiative, participating in many alternative energy projects. He is a member of ASU’s Sustainability Council and a member of UNC’s system-wide UNC-Tomorrow Sustainability Committee. Locally, he works with the Appalachian Institute for Renewable Energy (AIRE), focusing on community-owned energy models and is a member of the Greening Watauga community group.

Appalachian State University

Center for Entrepreneurship

Personnel

Bryan Toney - Director, Center for Entrepreneurship

Julia Rowland - Assistant Director

Dr. Mark Pruett - Assistant Professor in Management

Dr. Ben Powell - Assistant Professor in Management

Ged Moody - Entrepreneur-in-Residence

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