UIC Business Professor Receives Entrepreneurial Advocacy Award

Newswise — Gerald Hills, professor of entrepreneurship and marketing at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is the recipient of the 2005 John E. Hughes/United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship Award for Entrepreneurial Advocacy.

He will receive the award at the association's annual conference Jan. 12-15 in Tucson, Ariz.

Hills was recognized for his "exemplary leadership, selfless sacrifice and sustained contribution to the support and advocacy of small, entrepreneurial and family businesses." This is only the third time the award has been given.

Hills holds the Coleman Foundation Chair in Entrepreneurship at UIC and is executive director of UIC's Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies. He is co-founder and chair of CEO, the Collegiate Entrepreneurs' Organization, which has clubs on 128 university campuses.

He is past-president of the International Council for Small Business and was co-founder and first president of USASBE more than 20 years ago. He was co-founder and first president of the American Marketing Association Academic Council, co-founded the AMA's Entrepreneurship Special Interest Group and founded the annual UIC Research Symposium on Marketing and Entrepreneurship.

Before joining UIC, Hills was employed in the entrepreneurial growth stage at Xerox Corporation, and has served on the boards and as a consultant to many entrepreneurial firms. He has co-authored and edited 17 books and more than 75 articles, his most recent article in the Journal of Applied Psychology. He also serves on the editorial boards of three journals, including the Journal of Business Venturing.

Hills received his MBA and doctorate degrees from Indiana University.

One of the highest honors the association bestows, the John E. Hughes/USASBE Award for Entrepreneurial Advocacy recognizes individuals or organizations who have consistently contributed encouragement and resources to further the cause of entrepreneurship.

The award is named for John E. Hughes, the inaugural recipient and board chairman of The Coleman Foundation.