BSBA in Entrepreneurial Studies

Entrepreneurial Studies Faculty

Ron Morris
Director, Entrepreneurial Studies Program

For nearly forty years, Ron Morris has been an entrepreneur and a pioneer in Pittsburgh's high-tech community. Describing himself as 'a prospector, not a rancher,' Morris founded and then sold eight separate technology companies between 1973 and 1999. His strategy is to: 1) build the 'biggest, smallest' niche possible; 2) build deep infrastructure first, before initiating sales and marketing activities; this ensures long-term profitability and growth; 3) develop market leadership, and then; 4) hand the reins to seasoned professional managers.

As COO for Mastech Systems, Inc. (1989-1993) and co-founder and CEO for Rapidigm (1994-1995), Morris helped build two of the brightest lights in the Pittsburgh tech community. After creating and selling JDWarren, Inc., to a publicly traded company in 1999, he married, had two children, and began a new career as a 'knowledge philanthropist.'

Morris now seeks to share the wisdom he gained in the entrepreneurial trenches as the Director of the Entrepreneurial Studies Program at Duquesne University, which he founded in 2003. He sits on the Board of seven companies, including the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), a non-profit organization that teaches entrepreneurship to young people from low-income communities to enhance their economic productivity by improving their business, academic, and life skills.