Professor Andrew B. Hargadon

Founding Director of the Mike and Renée Child Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at UC Davis

Professor Emeritus of Technology Management, Graduate School of Management

Professor Andrew B. Hargadon’s research has focused on innovation and entrepreneurship, particularly the commercialization of science and technology and the management of research and development. He has published numerous articles and chapters in leading scholarly and applied publications, advised venture capital investment funds, and served on the boards of numerous startups.

Prof. Hargadon is at the forefront of teaching, research and practice in cross-disciplinary entrepreneurship, and is founding director of the Mike and Renee Child Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Energy Efficiency Institute, both at UC Davis. These institutes are dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship and innovation through educational and experiential programs bridging science, engineering, business, and the humanities and social sciences. The curriculum, developed over 20 years provides a proven framework for university scientists and engineers to move their ideas out of the lab and into the world.

Prof. Hargadon received the 2009 Olympus Emerging Educational Leader Award in recognition for his strong entrepreneurship curriculum and success with the two institutes. He has served as a senior fellow at the Kauffman Foundation. He is the author of How Breakthroughs Happen: The Surprising Truth About How Companies Innovate (Harvard Business School Press, 2003)and Sustainable Innovation: Build Your Company’s Capacity to Change the World (Stanford University Press, 2015).

Prior to his academic appointment, Prof. Hargadon worked as a product design engineer at Apple Computer and taught in the Product Design program at Stanford University. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University’s School of Engineering, where he was named Boeing Fellow and Sloan Foundation Future Professor of Manufacturing. He received his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering and B.S. in Engineering from Stanford University’s Product Design Program.