The University of Vermont (UVM) Grossman School of Business (GSB) invested Associate Professor Felipe Massa, Ph.D. as the inaugural Steven Grossman Chair of Entrepreneurship and Professor Dror Etzion, Ph.D. as the Steven Grossman Chair of Sustainable Business in a ceremony hosted by the Grossman School of Business on October 11, 2023. The double investiture was led by Grossman School of Business Dean Sanjay Sharma with remarks by UVM Provost and Senior Vice President Patricia Prelock.
The two endowed faculty positions are part of the latest expression of the generosity and commitment of Steven Grossman ’61 and the Grossman Family Foundation. As part of Grossman’s growing legacy at the university, this commitment further solidifies GSB’s reputation as one of the nation's preeminent business schools by expanding its top-ranked Sustainable Innovation MBA (SI-MBA) and Master of Accountancy (MAcc) graduate programs, as well as areas of excellence in entrepreneurship, sustainable business and family business.
Appointment to an endowed position is among the highest academic honors the University of Vermont can bestow on a faculty member. Endowed chairs and professorships allow the university to recognize and celebrate academic achievement and further encourage scholarly and service excellence. Endowed faculty positions are a tribute to the holder and permanent legacies for the donors who establish them.
Dr. Felipe Massa, Associate Professor and Steven Grossman Chair of Entrepreneurship
Felipe G. Massa joined the University of Vermont’s Grossman School of Business in 2023. He teaches experiential entrepreneurship and consulting classes and conducts research on decentralized, non-hierarchical organizations (e.g., hacker collectives, cultural industries, decentralized finance movements) that break with conventional ways of structuring innovation and supporting social change.
Dr. Massa joined UVM after receiving his M.S. and Ph.D. in Organization Studies from Boston College and serving as a faculty member at the Loyola New Orleans College of Business (2012-2023) where he founded the Center for Entrepreneurship and Community Development, led undergraduate and graduate programs in Entrepreneurship (ranked 14th by U.S. News and World Report, 2022), and published a bestselling book called “Entrepreneurship in the Wild: A Startup Field Guide” (MIT Press, 2021). For his efforts, he has been named one of the Top 50 undergraduate business professors by Poets and Quants (2021) and one of the most influential people in technology in Louisiana (Silicon Bayou News, 2013-2019).
“Dr. Massa is a quintessential teacher-scholar, whose research and scholarship inform and enrich his teaching and mentorship. His work brings great distinction to the Grossman School of Business at the University of Vermont,” said Sharma in his remarks.
Dr. Dror Etzion, Professor and Grossman Chair of Sustainable Business
Dror Etzion joined the UVM Grossman School of Business in 2023 and is being invested as the Steven Grossman Chair of Sustainable Business. Dror's research program focuses on “grand challenges”: the unyielding, intractable problems that characterize the Anthropocene. His work suggests that managing sustainability through local, open, emergent initiatives increases the recruitment of diverse stakeholders, fosters creativity, and yields impactful outcomes. From 2008 – 2023 Dror worked at the Desautels Faculty of Management, at McGill University. He received his Ph.D. from IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. Previously, Dror worked for 5 years in the Israeli software industry, and spent a year at The Natural Step, an international non-profit research and consultancy organization focused on sustainable development.
"Dr. Etzion embodies the Grossman School of Business’s passion to help build better organizations and a better society, and we are so proud to count him among our faculty. His work along with Dr. Massa’s allow the school to expand these graduate programs significantly in the years to come," said Sharma.
A Legacy of Giving
University of Vermont alumnus Steven Grossman ’61 made an extraordinary gift in 2021 that established three new endowed faculty chair positions, starting a new era of excellence at the UVM business school that bears his name. Mr. Grossman’s personal philanthropic investment builds upon the success of the Grossman Family Foundation’s historic 2013 gift that transformed business education at the university. At the time, the Grossman Family Foundation’s support created new endowed chairs in sustainable business, entrepreneurship, and finance; helped the school revise and strengthen its undergraduate curriculum; and launched the SI-MBA program, which has since risen precipitously in national and international rankings.
The UVM School of Business Administration was named in 2015 in tribute to Grossman’s visionary philanthropy. In addition to the philanthropic support mentioned above, Mr. Grossman has also provided significant contributions to the SI-MBA Investment Fund and to the establishment of the Schlesinger-Grossman Endowed Chair of Family Business. To date, Steven Grossman and the Grossman Family Foundation have contributed over $72 million to the Grossman School of Business.
“Thanks to Steven Grossman and the Grossman Family Foundation, UVM students will always be able to learn from truly outstanding scholars whose teaching and research will enhance the Grossman School’s academic credentials in the fields of Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Business and Family Business. Over the years, the holders of these positions will influence hundreds of lives through their teaching, mentoring, research, and community outreach,” added Sharma.
Steven Grossman graduated from the UVM School of Business in 1961 and was the CEO of Southern Container Corporation until the sale of the company in 2008. He has served the university as a member of both the Foundation Board of Directors and the Foundation Leadership Council, and as a member of the business school’s Board of Advisors.
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Fundraising for the Grossman School of Business is a major focus for the University of Vermont Foundation, a nonprofit corporation established to secure and manage private support for the benefit of the University of Vermont. To inquire about making a gift to the Grossman School of Business, please contact Alex Brady at (770) 842-1510 or alex.brady@uvm.edu. More information about the impact of donors like Steven Grossman and the work of the UVM Foundation can be found at www.uvmfoundation.org.