Chapman University said today Matthew Hanson will replace Shan Steinmark as director of its entrepreneurship center, the Ralph W. Leatherby Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics. Hanson will start Sept. 1. The center is part of the Argyros School of Business and Economics.
Hanson is a Chapman alum, earning his MBA from the university in the mid 1980’s and then getting a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from USC in the late 1990’s. He has served as an adjunct professor of finance at Chapman since 2012.
The center, established in 1995, houses more than 10 teams at its Launch Labs incubator facility, with approximately 25 teams overall in the Launch Labs program. The center provides resources for start-ups, such as mentors and workshops, and also supports the entrepreneurship minor and emphasis.
Hanson is senior program manager at Brea-based Beckman Coulter Inc., where he led international teams in the development of an automation system and development of the company’s first cloud-based customer application. He’ll be giving up this position when he becomes director of the entrepreneurship center, said a University official. Hanson retired as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S Air Force; his last position was in the science and technology office of the Secretary of the Air Force in Washington, D.C.
Steinmark has run the Leatherby Center since late 2014. Prior to that, he was a lead mentor with the center for two years. He co-founded several companies in Hawaii and California, including Strategic Transitions Research and EyeOnBusiness Institute.
