Executive Director, Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship

Dartmouth seeks a visionary and action-oriented Executive Director to shape and lead the next phase of the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship. Reporting to the Vice Provost for Research, this leader will oversee a materially expanded university-wide platform that brings together student entrepreneurship, faculty research translation, alumni engagement, industry engagement, and the Technology Transfer Office. Backed by substantial philanthropic and institutional investments, this next phase of Magnuson is intended to position Dartmouth as a distinctive model for entrepreneurship and research translation across The School of Arts and Sciences, the Geisel School of Medicine, the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, the Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business.

Dartmouth’s profile is distinctive in higher education, combining the energy, activity, and resources of a major research university with a deep commitment to the undergraduate education and to the value of the liberal arts. It enters this next phase with considerable strengths: strong student and faculty interest in entrepreneurship, an unusually engaged alumni network, a consequential research enterprise, and a meaningful record of technology commercialization and translational activity. With stable leadership and the strategic guidance of a committed Board of Advisors, since its founding Magnuson has developed exceptional programs for experiential learning, alumni engagement, and start-up support; its annual Entrepreneurs Forum is a national event. The university’s Technology Transfer Office has deep expertise in intellectual property, business development, and licensing. University leadership is united in its support for converting academic discoveries into societal impact and is prepared to invest $60 million of additional institutional and philanthropic funding.

However, our outstanding teams are not yet operating as a unified ecosystem that engages students, faculty, alumni, and commercial partners across all of our Schools. The Executive Director is being recruited to build that future state: to integrate functions, strengthen organizational capacity, and reinforce Magnuson's identity. As external innovation cycles in areas such as artificial intelligence, healthcare, and climate demand faster pathways from discovery to deployment, the new Magnuson Center will leverage Dartmouth’s strong alumni network, deep portfolio of interdisciplinary research, and strategic and targeted investment to maximize the societal benefit of Dartmouth’s research enterprise. The Executive Director will lead the co-design and implementation of this collaborative entrepreneurial landscape, including its organization, programmatic portfolio, and performance metrics.

The successful candidate will be a strategic builder with the judgment to operate effectively in a complex academic setting, the credibility to partner with faculty and external stakeholders, and the executional discipline to align people, programs, and capital around a coherent institutional strategy. This is a rare opportunity to shape the future of entrepreneurship and research translation at one of America's leading research universities.

Dartmouth has retained Isaacson, Miller to assist in this search. All inquiries, nominations, and applications should be directed in strict confidence to the website below:

https://www.imsearch.com/open-searches/dartmouth-college-magnuson-center-entrepreneurship/executive-director