Jim Dever is an entrepreneur who retired at the age of 41, then at the age of 50 returned to college in order to obtain the bachelor's degree he never completed in the 1960s. In July of 2009, he completed the requirements for his Ph.D. in Entrepreneurship at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. His thesis was entitled An Analysis of the Antecedents and Consequences of Entrepreneurial Failure on the Portfolio Entrepreneur. He brings a wealth of practical entrepreneurial experience to The Jim Moran Institute having owned and operated many successful businesses during his 20 year entrepreneurial career. Those businesses included trucking companies, motels, restaurants, a construction company and other assorted ventures.

A Fulbright scholar, Jim Dever completed his BS in 2003 and MBA in 2004 at Florida State University. While a master’s student, he wrote a research proposal concerning entrepreneurship in the former Soviet Union and outlined a course plan for teaching entrepreneurship in Central Asia. For this effort, he was awarded the prestigious Fulbright Scholars Award, which allowed him to travel to Almaty, Kazakhstan, where he taught at the university and counseled local entrepreneurs. Upon his return, he became co-founder and director of the Summer Entrepreneurial Institute. This intensive two-week long course covered the fundamentals of small business management ranging from strategic business planning to operational management to human resources. In 2004, Dever was the recipient of the Academic Award for Business Administration, the Dempsey Barron Leadership Award and Who's Who Among Students in Universities and Colleges. In 2008, he received the McKeachie Award from the Improving University Teaching conference for his work concerning students working with instructors to make learning fun. Dever brings both a practical and academic approach to entrepreneurial learning.

Selected Publications:

Book Chapter: "Entrepreneurial Failure" - Enterprise and Small Business: Principles, Practice & Policy. Work was published by Pearson Education Limited under the editorship of Sara Carter, University of Strathclyde and Dylan Jones-Evans of University of Wales

Book Review: Sara McGaughey, Narratives of Internationalisation: Legitimacy, Standards And Portfolio Entrepreneurs. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. Published in International Small Business Journal v. 26 no. 6 (December 2008) p. 759-61

Improving University Teaching International Conference "College Student Metamorphosis: What Can Instructors Do To Keep Up?" Paper received the Bill and Ginny McKeachie Award - Glasgow, Scotland (July 25, 2008)

Improving University Teaching "Developing a Summer Institute in Entrepreneurship Connecting Community and Education" Jaen, Spain Co-author (July 2007)

Award-winning conference paper published in the selected papers from the Eighteenth International Conference on College Teaching and Learning - "Cheating: Managing the Classroom for Honest Results", Jacksonville, FL Co-author (April 2007)

Caspian Business News - Almaty, Kazakhstan - Branding, Values, and Business Growth (April 2006)

Paper published, "Cheating: Managing the Classroom for Honest Results," IUT Conference, Pittsburgh, PA (paper not presented or published due to Hurricane Dennis - airport closed) Co-author (July 2005)

Caspian Business News - Almaty, Kazakhstan - Entrepreneurship and Kazakhstan: Observations by a Fulbright Scholar (December 2005)

Caspian Business News - Almaty, Kazakhstan - Empowerment: The Key to Successful Business Development (December 2005)

Curriculum Vitae:

TCC Hosts Jim Dever with EDC Entrepreneurial Excellence Program