Professor Jerome S. Engel is an internationally recognized expert on innovation, entrepreneurship, and venture capital, lecturing and advising business and government leaders around the world. His research and publications explore innovation ecosystems, technology commercialization, venture capital, and lean innovation management practices in established and emerging enterprises. Professor Engel joined the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley in 1991, after a successful business career, to found the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, where he currently serves as Senior Fellow and Founding Executive Director Emeritus. He is a leader in the Lean Innovation movement, founding National Faculty Director of the National Science Foundations’ I-Corps, a US government program that develops entrepreneurial technology commercialization teams at leading universities across the United States. He has been the founding General Partner of two successful venture capital funds, is an active Angel investor, and a member of the Investment Advisory Boards to several international venture funds. 

Professor Engel is an Adjunct Professor Emeritus at the Haas School of Business and instructs in both the School's MBA and Executive Education programs, specializing in Entrepreneurship, Corporate Innovation, New Venture Finance, and Venture Capital. He serves on the Boards of Directors and Advisory Boards of several entrepreneurial ventures, venture capital firms, universities and innovation centers around the world. An author and frequent speaker, he has been cited in the Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio and other global media. 

Professor Engel’s awards and recognitions include the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance Lifetime Educational Achievement Award, the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers Award for Outstanding Contributions to Advance the Discipline of Entrepreneurship, among others. His most recent research and publications focus on the nature of innovation processes in entrepreneurial ventures, major corporations, and venture capital in regional ecosystems and global networks. Professor Engel’s publications, including two books, Clusters of Innovation: Entrepreneurial engines of economic growth around the world [2014] and Clusters of Innovation in the Age of Disruption [2022] explore these topics in depth.

Most recently in Europe and elsewhere, he has been an active advisor to leaders of emerging innovation ecosystems including in Barcelona, Munich, Oslo, Brussels, Madrid, Melbourne, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and London. His focus is on building communities where naturally collaborative relationships emerge among major corporations, entrepreneurs and new venture investors. This work engages local universities, government and service organizations in creating and sustaining an entrepreneurial ecosystem that fosters the well-being of the entire community.