The Dartmouth Board of Trustees received wide-ranging reports on Dartmouth’s mission and future plans for all areas of the institution, including the Tuck School of Business, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Geisel School of Medicine. The broad discussions provided Board members with opportunities to reflect on the ambitions of Dartmouth’s academic enterprise and consider the next steps in the implementation of President Phil Hanlon’s vision of excellence and impact...

...The meeting began with the inauguration of the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network (DEN) Innovation Center and New Venture Incubator, where the Board met and discussed how the new center will support President Hanlon’s goal of increasing Dartmouth’s global impact while expanding the College’s commitment to innovation and experiential learning.

“Dartmouth is a place that thinks boldly,” said Hanlon ’77. “We want our students to be audacious and take risks. It is my hope that the new center will be a destination on campus, a hotbed of ideas, and a place that is alive and electric and crowded with students.”

The center officially opens on October 1, and is student-designed and managed. Guidance and oversight will be provided by Office of Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer, led by experienced technology entrepreneurs Tillman Gerngross, associate provost for entrepreneurship and technology transfer and professor of bioengineering, and Trip Davis ’90.

“Our students, faculty, and alumni are people who have a passion for starting things, founding things, and creating things,” said Board Chair Bill Helman ’80. “The center is going to facilitate a constant stream of entrepreneurial activities, from start-up companies to academic endeavors. It’s going to give innovation at Dartmouth a home.”