Reed named Huber Chair in entrepreneurship

PULLMAN — Professor Richard Reed, chair of the Department of Management and Operations at Washington State University, has been named the new holder of the Huber Chair in Entrepreneurial Studies. The endowed position is one of 15 such chairs and distinguished professorships filled by eminent scholars and teachers from throughout the College of Business and Economics.

Reed joined the WSU faculty in 1986 and currently conducts research into topics that involve entrepreneurship, such as misleading financial disclosures related to firms’ founders and the commercialization of intellectual property as an innovative process in large organizations.

“Richard is an outstanding professor to hold the Huber Chair because of his passion for research and his commitment to the College and WSU’s Initiative for Entrepreneurship and Innovation,” says Len Jessup, dean of the CBE. “As the Huber Chair, he will be the leading researcher in entrepreneurship working with both undergraduate and graduate students across many departments.”

“I am very pleased to serve as the Huber Chair,” says Reed. “It will allow me to honor the Hubers by helping to enhance the reputation of the College and WSU as a leader in entrepreneurial studies.”

The Huber Chair was established in spring 1993 with funds from the estate of alumnus James Huber and his family. He and his wife, Dianna, sons Ryan and Jason, and friends Jerry and Chris Shei, were killed in an airplane crash in December 1992. Huber was piloting the plane en route from Seattle to Pullman for an Apple Cup football game. Gifts from the Huber estate were also made to the WSU athletics program and to the WSU Foundation.

Huber was president and owner of ATCON Services, Inc., in the Seattle area and was owner and co-owner of a number of diverse businesses throughout the Northwest. He earned two bachelor’s degrees at WSU, one in geography in 1966 and a second in business administration in 1970. He was on the WSU Foundation Board of Trustees as well as the CBE advisory board.

Duties of the chair created in his name include conducting and promoting research and teaching in topics related to entrepreneurship and innovation. Reed says he would like to also participate in efforts to raise scholarship funds.

Reed joined WSU as an assistant professor in 1986. He was promoted to associate professor in 1991, and to full professor in 1998. He became department chair in 2003. Born and raised in Sproxton, North Yorkshire, England, he earned his MBA and Ph.D. in strategy from the University of Bradford. In addition to his research on entrepreneurship, he has published extensively on topics in strategic management and related areas, received numerous research grants including ones for work on the cleanup process at the nation’s nuclear weapons complex, and he has presented his work at national and international conferences. He is scheduled to present research at the annual meetings of the Strategic Management Society and the Academy of Management. His service to the profession has included serving on the editorial board of the Academy of Management Review, and currently he is on the board of the Journal of Management.

Reed and his wife, Maggie, live in Pullman. She is an instructor for the College of Business and Economics, and for the Department of Women’s Studies in the College of Liberal Arts.