The University of Wisconsin-Madison plans to create a new administrative unit to collaborate with the business community amid campus-wide budget cuts, led by a new Associate Vice Chancellor for Entrepreneurship who will drive business growth at the university “beyond patents.”
The new Wisconsin Entrepreneurship Hub (WEH) comes as a result of a working group recommendation and will focus on uniting and galvanizing entrepreneurs across and outside of campus, according to a job description for the chancellor. It comes in the wake of budget cuts, but proponents say its dividends will pay off.
The entrepreneurship chancellor’s principal duties will be identifying “innovative opportunities,” creating and maintaining external governmental, non-profit and industry partnerships, managing employees and directing the Entrepreneurship Hub’s vision and funding strategies. The salary is not posted, but a job posting in 2024 for an associate vice chancellor-level position listed a minimum salary of $225,000.
Unlike most associate vice chancellor positions, who report to a vice chancellor, the entrepreneurship chancellor will report directly to Jon Eckhardt, a professor in the Wisconsin School of Business, who will also serve as special advisor to the entrepreneurship chancellor. Eckhardt will report progress on entrepreneurship initiatives to Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin.
Eckhardt is also the co-chair of the entrepreneurship-focused working group that recommended the school implement a university-wide entrepreneurial culture, including building an entrepreneurship hub and creating the entrepreneurship chancellor position. He also chairs the search committee for the new chancellor.
Hiring continues amid funding uncertainty
The entrepreneurship chancellor position opened three days before UW-Madison announced 5% budget reductions for all schools and colleges and 7% reductions for administrative units on June 23.
In a letter to faculty and staff, UW-Madison leadership said the decision was motivated by state and national budgeting, financial aid and tariff uncertainty. They estimated future changes to federal reimbursement laws could cost the university between $65 and $130 million.
“In challenging times, we want to do all that is possible to protect our core missions of teaching, research, and service,” the FAQ page reads. “We are therefore expecting administrative units to bear a larger burden of these cuts, including the vice chancellor units.”
Though Mnookin suggested “leaving some vacancies unfilled,” Eckhardt said UW-Madison is continuing the search for an entrepreneurship chancellor.
“We are moving forward with this search despite the challenges facing higher education due to the centrality of entrepreneurship to the Wisconsin Idea and the potential long-term benefits to the university and the communities we serve in the State of Wisconsin, and beyond, of improving our approach towards entrepreneurship,” Eckhardt said in an email statement to The Daily Cardinal.
The Legislature’s Audit Committee recently released data indicating the number of limited-appointee administratives in the University of Wisconsin System rose by 39% — and their payroll expenses rose by 78.3% — from 2014 to 2024, while student enrollment decreased by 16,000.
In 2023, the Board of Regents passed a resolution freezing the total number of staff positions across the UW System funded by either general purpose or program revenue, but the current number of active staff is low enough that the addition of an entrepreneurship chancellor does not require any other position eliminations.
“The university will continue to make staffing decisions that align with the terms of the agreement set forth in 2023, which does not require eliminating positions,” UW-Madison spokesperson Kelly Tyrrell said in an email to the Cardinal.
Calls for more entrepreneurship on campus
Wisconsin currently faces a decline in its workforce and a ‘brain drain’ of young professionals leaving the state. The state had an average of 93,099 vacant job openings monthly between January 2021 and February 2025, according to a report by UW-Madison Extension.
Eckhardt said the Entrepreneurship Initiative will make UW-Madison a more attractive location for future business leaders, creating interest in the state.
The Wisconsin Entrepreneurship Hub will also have a board of directors made up of deans, faculty entrepreneurs, students and local entrepreneurs, Eckhardt said.
“[The board] will basically have people from the entire campus… to help build this new world of entrepreneurship that fully embraces all forms of entrepreneurship that happen on our campus, including nonprofits,” Eckhardt told the Cardinal.
UW-Madison currently offers an entrepreneurship certificate and works in close partnership with the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), which offers patent and commercialization services for student and faculty inventions.
Discovery to Product (D2P) is the result of a partnership between UW-Madison and WARF that offers free consulting services to student and faculty entrepreneurs. It has contributed to 142 startups, according to a 2024 impact report.
But gaps exist in UW-Madison’s entrepreneurship infrastructure, Eckhardt said. WARF primarily focuses on patented inventions, which favors discoveries from STEM disciplines. The Entrepreneurship Hub plans to provide services for an interdisciplinary range of entrepreneurs who may not already have patents on their products.
