Baron, Robert: - Robert A. Baron is Spears Chair of Entrepreneurship at Oklahoma State University. He has held faculty appointments at RPI, Purdue, the Universities of Minnesota, Texas, South Carolina, Washington, Princeton University, and Oxford University. He served as a Program Director at NSF (1979-1981), and was appointed as a Visiting Senior Research Fellow by the French Ministry of Research (2001-2002; Toulouse). Baron is a Fellow of APA, SIOP, and a Charter Fellow of APS. He has published more than one hundred and twenty articles and forty-five chapters, and is the author of 49 books in management and psychology. Prof. Baron serves on the Editorial Boards of several journals (e.g. AMJ, SEJ) . He holds three U.S. patents and was founder and CEO of IEP, Inc. (1993-2000).

Shane, Scott: - Scott is the A. Malachi Mixon III Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at Case Western Reserve University. His previous faculty appointments include University of Maryland, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Georgia Institute of Technology. The author of over 60 scholarly articles on entrepreneurship and innovation management, Dr. Shane's work has appeared in Management Science, Organization Science, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Strategic Management Journal, Decision Sciences, and Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, and International Journal of Industrial Organization, among other journals. He has written or edited ten books, Illusions of Entrepreneurship: The Costly Myths that Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live By, Technology Strategy for Managers and Entrepreneurs, Finding Fertile Ground: Identifying Extraordinary Opportunities for New Ventures; From Ice Cream to the Internet: Using Franchising to Unlock the Potential of Your Business; Academic Entrepreneurship: University Spinoffs and Wealth Creation, A General Theory of Entrepreneurship: The Individual-Opportunity Nexus, Foundations of Entrepreneurship, Handbook of Technology and Innovation Management, Economic Development Through Entrepreneurship: Government, University and Business Linkages and Entrepreneurship: A Process Perspective (with Robert Baron). Dr. Shane has served as editor of special issues of Research Policy on "Technology Entrepreneurship" and Management Science on "University Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer". He currently serves as editor of the R&D, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Division of Management Science. Dr. Shane's Ph.D. is from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His current research examines: 1.how entrepreneurs discover and evaluate opportunities, assemble resources, and design organizations; 2.university spin-offs and technology transfer; 3.business format franchising; and 4.angel investing Dr. Shane has consulted to numerous large and small organizations, and has taught in executive education programs around the world. He is also an angel investor and member of the North Coast Angel Fund