UI JPEC enters new phase, plans to honor John Pappajohn

After nearly 30 years of weathering the constantly changing entrepreneurial landscape, the University of Iowa John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (UI JPEC) is entering a new, transitional phase. 

The center lost its namesake, Iowa entrepreneur and philanthropist John Pappajohn, in April 2023. His wife, Mary Pappajohn, died in March 2022, only a month after UI Tippie College of Business namesake Henry B. Tippie passed. 

The three tragedies, Tippie College of Business Dean Amy Kristof-Brown said, hit the Tippie community hard, but also showed the immense impact the three of them had on the university and business communities.

“What these people did was create legacies that outlived their physical presence,” she said. “They create things that outlive them and will continue to have a tremendous impact … I don’t have any concerns about the continuity of the center. Both of those men made really indelible marks on what we do in the College of Business and the University of Iowa that will continue for a very long periods of time.”

Alongside the deaths of a few Tippie greats, UI JPEC Executive Director David Hensley is stepping back from his center responsibilities to focus on his professorship in the college. 

Mr. Hensley has been the executive director for more than two decades, a career spanning nearly the entire time the center has existed.

“We’ve designed a lifelong learning approach to entrepreneurship education at Iowa JPEC,” he said. “We believe that helping people develop an entrepreneurial mindset or approach to solve problems and develop innovative and creative solutions, is a skill set and approach that is applicable to every organization … That will continue into the center’s next phase.”

As the center and its staff prepare for the next few years, Mr. Hensley and Ms. Kristof-Brown said new and exciting developments are on the horizon. 

Currently looking for an executive director

Following Memorial Day weekend, the college closed the job listing for a new executive director. 

Ms. Kristof-Brown said she is thankful for everything Mr. Hensley has accomplished in his time leading the center and for making it notable. He, now, will shift to focusing more on teaching entrepreneurship coursework within the college and lend his expertise to students in a new way. 

The search committee is beginning to look through applications to select the best candidates for the job, she said, as summer is a good time for searching for people to come into an academic role and have a committee regroup.

“We’re looking for people who have experience in an entrepreneurial center; that would be ideal,” she said. “Most of those individuals, if they’re working in a center at another university and also have an entrepreneurial background. Most of them have run their own businesses and then decided to run an entrepreneurial center.”

The change in leadership comes at a good time, Ms. Kristof-Brown said, as entrepreneurship continues to grow around the world.

“The entrepreneurship movement is something that’s been happening since we first started 25 years ago,” she said.

“We were kind of one of the first programs and now entrepreneurship programs are kind of a staple across universities and they provide really valuable guidance for students and community members.”

UI JPEC’s growth over time

Mr. Pappajohn donated funds to five Iowa colleges and universities in 1996 to create entrepreneurial centers and opportunities for students and community members. 

Drake University, Iowa State University, North Iowa Area Community College, the University of Northern Iowa and the UI all received additional funding over the years from Mr. Pappajohn to support the center’s upkeep and work. The donations now total $35 million. 

Since the UI opened the center’s doors nearly 30 years ago, offerings for high school students, college students and community members have grown significantly, Mr. Hensley said.

UI JPEC programs have even assisted international businesspeople. Mr. Hensley pointed to the role the center has in the U.S. State Department’s Mandela Fellowship program, which brings young African leaders to U.S. colleges and universities to learn about leadership, business, civic engagement or public management.

The UI has hosted 24 African fellows per year since 2015. The fellows learn about business and entrepreneurship while they attend the university for a few weeks.

The program is one of many that helps the center achieve one of its goals and demystifies entrepreneurship. That goal is partially accomplished long before students step foot on campus for college coursework, Ms. Kristof-Brown said.

“The youth entrepreneurship side has grown and shifted over the years,” she said. “We used to offer a lot of entrepreneurship camps, and there are great stories about people who launched a business from those camps. Those stopped during COVID because it became harder to do. We shifted to doing more curriculum in high schools and elementary schools. We’ve actually taken it a step further and given people opportunities with a number of starter pitch competitions that keep accelerating every year.”

Mr. Hensley said another benefit of the center is that it pulls college students who are enrolled in a variety of majors. This allows diverse, thought-provoking ideas to flow regardless of the entrepreneurial coursework being taught.

“In our classes, I could be teaching a dance major who’s sitting next to a journalism major, sitting next to a finance major,” he said. “We’ve taken interdisciplinary education to an extreme level, and I think that’s one thing that separates us. When you step back and look at the entrepreneurial center, we have this very broad program that touches many areas. I’m not familiar with any other programs that have that breadth and depth.”

The future of UI JPEC

Moving forward, Ms. Kristof-Brown said the center will continue to be a resource for whomever wants to participate, just the way Mr. Pappajohn wanted.

“The UI JPEC is a terrific resource for anyone who wants to think differently about opportunity,” she said. “It’s a great way to learn to identify opportunities and then to build businesses and structures around them in a way that you can successfully accomplish meeting that opportunity. That entrepreneurial mindset is valuable no matter what you do.”

New leadership will allow for new ideas to flow, Mr. Hensley said, because of the strong team that has been built over the past nearly 30 years.

“We have built a strong foundation to take the center to the next level,” he said. “We’ve got great personnel in place. I see huge things on the horizon for the center, and I will be there to help cheer them on. I think the sky’s the limit for what our program can achieve and we are very well positioned to continue to grow and have amazing success in the next five, 10 or 15 years.”

Mr. Hensley will remain involved in the center for a few months after the new executive director is hired to ensure a smooth transition. As he begins to watch from afar, focusing on his professorship within the Tippie College of Business, Mr. Hensely knows the impact of the UI JPEC will continue for years to come.

“Iowa JPEC has transformed the University of Iowa campus in its way of thinking about entrepreneurship and innovation, interdisciplinary education and community outreach and engagement,” he said. “We’ve tried to model how you can be a comprehensive center, not only across the state, but the country and internationally. We’ve stayed focused on our mission to educate and support the next generation of entrepreneur leaders and innovators. I am a believer, because I’ve seen it so many times, that being an entrepreneur-minded thinker, person and leader transforms organizations and transforms people’s lives.”