Mukesh M. Patel

Professor Mukesh M. Patel is a serial entrepreneur and executive board advisor with experience in private equity, venture capital, angel investments, innovation, technology, business law, and education. As an award-winning Professor and recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence and Innovation in Teaching and Service, he designs and teaches inter-disciplinary and experiential courses at Rutgers Business School, Law School, Engineering School, Arts & Science, and Honors College, across levels and disciplines.

Prof. Patel has presented keynotes on entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial insights as well as innovation, creativity, disruption, design-thinking, and executive leadership. He is a three times TEDx speaker, and has presented keynotes and/or been featured at prestigious conferences including the Google Campus in Seoul, Korea, a US Embassy Conference, a United Nations Conference, Association for Corporate Growth, TIE, The Harvard Club, and Future Business Leaders of America. He has guest lectured at numerous universities nationally and globally. He is a Charter Member of TIE-NJ, Co-Chair of its Entrepreneurship Innovation & Commercialization Committee, active in the national Conference for Innovation in Business Education, and on the Executive Board and former VP of NJ Business Innovation Network and Co-Chair of its Innovation Committee. Prof. Patel also serves on Advisory Boards of startups and emerging growth ventures.

Directorships:

• Director, Collaborative for Technology, Entrepreneurship & Commercialization (CTEC)
• Founding Director, Road to Silicon V/Alley Program (RSVP)
• Founding Director of Innovation, The Innovation Lab (Social Innovation), The Honors College
• Founding Director of Development and Co-Ad Professor, Entrepreneurship Law Clinic at Rutgers Law School
• Director of Training, Black & LatinX Tech Accelerator, Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development (CUEED)

Areas of Expertise:

• CTEC
• Innovation Lab
• Entrepreneurship Law Clinic
• Tech Accelerator

COURSES:

 

MBA & Executive MBA Courses

• Strategic Transformation & Change Management
• Tech Entrepreneurship & Commercialization
  • Ideas to Business Models
  • Business Models to Launch
• Opportunity Identification & Evaluation (Entrepreneurship)
• D^3 (Digital Transformation, Disruptive Innovation & Design-Thinking)
• Business / Entrepreneurial Law (Law School Clinic)

Executive Education Courses

• Business Essentials (Intrapreneurship)
• Innovation for Corporate Enterprises (ICE)
• Idea to Execution Accelerator (IDEA)
• Innovation: Models & Frameworks

Undergraduate Courses

• Innovation, Creativity & Entrepreneurship
• Strategy & Business Policy
• Management

Prof. Patel was the founder and CEO of JuiceTank, NJ’s largest co-working space, innovation lab and incubator for tech-startups and VX Partners, an innovative venture xcelerator and advisory firm that provides advisory-consulting to corporations, non-profits, academic institutions, startups and emerging growth ventures in the areas of innovation, scale, ideation, creativity, corporate culture, employee engagement, new product development, business models, capital raising, entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship, strategic / power networking, and executive leadership.

Prof. Patel has helped develop and leads the following unique initiatives:

Road to Silicon V/Alley Program (RSVP):

RSVP is a unique, interdisciplinary leadership program focused on innovation, technology, design, entrepreneurship, and intrapreneurship.  We provide experiential learning, training, career advancement, mentorship, and opportunities for collaboration for students and faculty across schools and majors and in partnership with the most innovative companies nationally and internationally. The program offers workshops and courses in leadership, technical skills, business acumen, and soft / success skills. Topics include Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Internet of Things (IOTs), Blockchain, Innovation Models, Startup Bootcamp, Intrapreneurial Leadership, Public Speaking, and Strategic Networking.

Collaborative for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (CTEC):

CTEC is a new initiative at Rutgers Business School, in collaboration with the School of Engineering and other STEM Schools (Pharmacy, Medicine, Law, etc.). CTEC’s focus is on translating cutting-edge technology and scientific discoveries into new business opportunities as startup ventures or new lines of business. It is a place where students, faculty, inventors and business people come together to build the future through innovation grounded in a foundation of sound business practices. We offer educational and outreach services through RBS and seek to establish partnerships with other institutions that will enable access to our classes and initiatives to an even broader pool of potential participants. Our vision is to become a world leader and exemplar for building technology-based solutions through collaboration. Our mission is to build a hub of excellence where scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, researchers, students, and tech transfer professionals collaborative in a supportive environment to develop solutions to meet the world's challenges.

Innovation Lab @ Honors College (Social Innovation & Impact)

The Innovation Lab provides students opportunities to develop and launch their startup initiatives based on the sustainable development goals (SDGs) designated by the United Nations. With the support of faculty and public/private partnerships, Innovation Fellows form interdisciplinary teams from throughout the university to test and launch their social innovation ventures, build advisory boards, create strategic partnerships, raise capital, create prototypes, and design pilot programs. Our teams have competed in case and pitch competitions and won national and global accolades including Hult Prize (considered the Nobel Peace Prize for Students), Clinton Global Initiative, Technology Council Challenge, Harvard/MIT Challenges, Wharton Case Competition, Baylor University's New Venture Competition, Entrepreneur Organization's Global Student Entrepreneurship Competition at Google's Global Startup Grind Conference, etc.  Our students have even filed for patents on proprietary innovations while undergraduate students.

Entrepreneurship Law Clinic @ Rutgers Law School

This Clinic headquartered at Rutgers Law School in Newark and Camden, NJ provides startups and small businesses select legal services and support (complimentary / pro-bono). This Clinic also provides law students with hands-on transactional law experience in representing for-profit and social entrepreneurs. It will also develop projects in partnership with the Rutgers Business School, Engineering School, School of Arts & Science, and the School for Public Affairs and Administration. The Clinic also creates linkages with the Greater Newark, New Brunswick, and broader New Jersey entrepreneurial community that will provide further opportunities to promote economic development and job creation. The Clinic provides counseling and representation on such matters as: pre-venture activities; business planning; entity selection, incorporation, negotiating, drafting and reviewing agreements; management and transparency in governance issues; capital structure, valuation and finance; intellectual property; employee management issues; community relations issues; and ongoing entrepreneurial and business activities. This Clinic will function as a virtual law firm, working with teams under the supervision of law school faculty, mentors, and a supervising practicing attorney and clinic director.

The Black and LatinX Tech Initiative, The Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development at RBS

This is a pre-accelerator initiative in collaboration with strategic partners of the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem. The mission is to provide Black, Latino and women led startups with education training, coaching, mentorship, networking, potential funding, and connections to resources and experts.The program focuses on mentoring startups in order to increase the probability of securing admission into an accelerator and/or obtain seed funding.

Academic Advisor / Mentor to Student Organizations:

• Delta Sigma Pi (DSP) - Advisor and first faculty member inducted into this professional business fraternity at RBS.
• Google Global Startup Grind Conference (Silicon Valley) - Mentored students / teams who won 1st place in the NJ Regionals and 3rd place nationally at the EO - Student Global Entrepreneurship Challenge, presenting at the global Google conference.
• Google Community Leaders Program at Rutgers - Advisor and mentor for new initiatives and expansion of programs and impact.
• HULT Prize Competition / Clinton Global Initiative - Mentored and advised students who have placed in the top in regionals in Boston, LA and China, Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, and London. Some students even received the opportunity to meet with legendary icons such as Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin Group and former President Bill Clinton at the Clinton Global Initiative; Rutgers was the only university globally with two teams placing in the top 50 global teams (out of 80,000+ competitors) at the London Accelerator; Both teams were selected as part of the Winners Circle (top 15 teams); Teams participated at the United Nations. 
• Venture Capital Club
• TEDx @ Rutgers - Mentor / Advisor
• Management Consulting Club - Mentor / Advisor for the Consulting Analytics Program
• MBA CeO Forum (Chief Entrepreneur Officer) -  an initiative of RSVP - Faculty Advisor
• LaunchR - Conducted workshop on Business Models; Students placed in the top of green energy competition. 
• Little Investment Bankers of Rutgers (LIBOR) - Support and participate in annual finance summit in NYC; Delivered talks and workshops on business networking.
• Rutgers Entrepreneurship Society - Mentor; Delivered keynotes on success skills. 
• Dining With the Distinguished - Mentorship dinners with alumni, students and faculty/admin
• Y-Combinator Accelerator (CA) - Mentored a students who progressed to the final rounds for admission into the this prestigious global accelerator.
• Real Estate Club - Judge for case study and pitch competition.
• First Year Interest Group Seminar (FIGS) - Advisor / Mentor to Peer Advisor assigned to first year business students.
• Masters of Business Science @ Rutgers University - Industry Advisory Board; Mentor graduate students via internships, capstone projects, and apprenticeships; Judge pitch competitions.
• Rutgers Summer Business Camp - Presenter; business workshop
• Business Forum Courses - Guest Speaker and Mentor
• eLab @ Princeton University - Mentor to technology team - computer vision for autonomous vehicles industry.
• TIE Youth Entrepreneurs - Mentor and instructor for a global non-profit in entrepreneurship education.

Grants:

• NSF i-Corp

Faculty Advisor / Mentor to seven student teams accepted in the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) i-Corp. Program at Rutgers for innovation and entrepreneurship; Participated as their Principal Investigator or Faculty Mentor/Advisor. Each team has been awarded a NSF grant. 

• Farris Foundation Grant 

New Jersey Core Innovation Hub initiative (NJCIH) – Rutgers Business School-RAISED