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Isabella Bank Institute for Entrepreneurship

We are a dedicated institute for student entrepreneurs across campus and beyond. We aim to maximize your success by fostering your entrepreneurial mindset, promote inter-disciplinary collaboration and provide support for the creation and development of your new ventures. Jumpstart your ideas and get involved today!

Tune in for excitement!

Passion. Potential. Pitches. Don't miss any of the 2025 New Venture Challenge excitement.

Tune in Friday, April 11 at 1 p.m. for great ideas and fierce competition. Then, join the judges, mentors, spectators and teams as they see who is going home with thousands of dollars in venture financing. The awards broadcast begins at 6:30 p.m. and one team will walk away as the overall best venture. 

Start your entrepreneurial journey

Central Michigan University’s College of Business Administration is the home of the Isabella Bank Institute for Entrepreneurship and the first Department of Entrepreneurship in the state of Michigan. We are a student-centric hub where experiential, curricular, and external entrepreneurial opportunities intersect.

Our mission is to maximize student success by fostering a campus-wide entrepreneurial mindset that promotes inter-disciplinary collaboration and the creation of new ventures.

We aim to create innovative programming, boost cross-campus and ecosystem collaboration and provide a comprehensive mentoring program.

Our institute provides extracurricular opportunities and is open to all undergraduate and graduate CMU students.

Student opportunities

  • Meet experienced alumni, faculty, entrepreneurs, investors, and other business and political leaders.
  • Learn practical skills, innovative thinking, and connect with mentors and entrepreneurial resources.
  • Attend skill-building workshops and compete in pitch competitions and Hackathons.
  • Take part in special scholarship programs and travel experiences.
  • Pitch your venture at our signature New Venture Challenge event and compete for up to $20,000 in cash awards.

      Find your path

      Are you interested in becoming an entrepreneur?

      Every journey is unique. Explore the opportunities that interest you.

      Investiture ceremony set for President Davies

      by Sanjna Jassi
      CMU community and the public are invited to the investiture ceremony for President Davies.

      Central Michigan University will formally install Robert O. Davies as its 15th president at 2 p.m. March 19 in Warriner Hall's Plachta Auditorium.

      The investiture of a university president is a long-held academic tradition that calls on a board of trustees to formally invest the authority of the office in the new leader and turn over possession of the presidential medallion and regalia.

      The public is invited to the investiture ceremony and the reception that follows it, from 3:30-5 p.m. in the Grawn Hall Atrium.

      All CMU deans and faculty members are invited to participate in the ceremony, either in the procession or in the audience. Full details, from participation to sending a congratulatory note, are available online. The ceremony also will be streamed live.

      The advisory committee that was charged with finding a successor to President George E. Ross, who stepped down last July, was guided by a leadership profile developed with input from the university community. Faculty, staff and students who read the profile said the committee had "nailed it" in describing the president they hoped to find.

      "But I believe it is President Davies who has nailed it," said Board Chair Tricia Keith, who led the search advisory committee. "He has charted for us a course of rigor, relevance and excellence. This path will grow CMU's reputation and its enrollment. It will expand our impact on students, as well as on Michigan residents, communities and businesses."

      Davies' path to CMU

      Central's Board of Trustees appointed Davies on Aug. 3, 2018. He started his tenure on Sept. 1.

      Before coming to CMU, Davies had been president of Murray State University in Kentucky since 2014. He also had served as president of Eastern Oregon University and vice president for university relations at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and had held alumni relations and development positions at The State University of New York at Buffalo, Boise State University, and the University of Nevada, Reno.

      Davies earned his Ph.D. in higher education administration from The State University of New York at Buffalo, his MBA in finance and marketing from the University of Oregon, and a Bachelor of Science in management from the University of Nevada, Reno. He also has completed two seminars for university presidents at Harvard University.

      Davies and his wife, Cindy, have one daughter, Katie, who will attend CMU in the fall.

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