PAUL BROWN

Since 2015, Paul F. Brown has been a full-time Entrepreneurship and Strategy Department professor. Paul also co-founded and is the Director of the award-winning MBC program, which combines elements of a startup accelerator with a highly ranked master's program in business creation. He teaches courses in entrepreneurship, venture capital, startup governance, entrepreneurial finance, and entrepreneurial negotiation.

Previously, Paul served as the managing director of the Fenton Founders Fund, a $5M student-run venture fund, a senior director of the Sorenson Impact Center, and on the investment committee of the UV2, a student-run impact venture capital fund. He was an entrepreneur in residence with the University of Utah's Center for Medical Innovation. 

Before teaching, Paul was a managing director at Sandbox Industries in Chicago, where he founded and co-managed a $300M healthcare venture capital fund. Before that, Paul was a senior executive with the national Blue Cross and Blue Shield organization for ten years, both as vice president & deputy general counsel and as vice president of venturing. Before those positions he was an attorney in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis, LLP for ten years, where he was a partner. 

Paul has been a volunteer mentor with the Village Capital and Healthbox startup accelerator programs and has judged and mentored for Games4Health, Bench2Bedside, the American Dream Ideas Challenge, OpportunityQuest, the Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge, and the Business Scholar Innovation Showcase programs. He was also the trustee of the Paul Kimball Scholarship Fund for many years.

Outside of teaching, Paul is a co-founder and manager of Upstream VC, an early-stage venture fund, an advisory partner with Granite Growth Health Partners, and a board member for CleanSlate Centers, amplifi.io, Central Logic, QualDerm Partners, and SwellCX.