About Us

The Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship in the College of Business at The Florida State University was established in 1995 through generous donations from automobile industry legend Jim Moran, his wife Jan, and JM Family Enterprises, Inc. and supplemented with a major grant from the State of Florida to create a fully-funded endowment and with additional funding from The Jim Moran Foundation, Inc.

Our Mission

The mission of The Jim Moran Institute is to cultivate, train and inspire entrepreneurial leaders through world-class education, leading-edge  research and applied training, consulting and mentorship, and public recognition.

Our faculty and staff provide students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and business owners the tools and expertise necessary to develop strategies that establish and sustain advantages for businesses in today’s competitive marketplace and to creatively pursue new opportunities and innovations involving the startup of new business ventures.

Our Services

As the challenge of operating a business becomes more and more complex, The Jim Moran Institute is a continual source of education and expertise for both current and aspiring entrepreneurs. Through degree and minor programs in entrepreneurship, outreach programs in Florida, and complementary activities such as speakers and workshops, we currently serve 2,000 business and non-business majors on campus and more than 200 businesses in the community each year.

On campus, our faculty and staff delivers introductory courses in entrepreneurship as well as specialized courses in technology commercialization, strategy formulation and organizational design, and venture financing. We provide experiential learning tools and business expertise to students and faculty through our student business incubator and offer every student—business and non-business majors—at Florida State University the option to earn a minor in entrepreneurship.

We also maintain one of the most extensive business development and outreach programs in the nation. Our faculty, staff, and students develop and serve aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners in the community through one-on-one consulting, monthly CEO roundtables and half-day development workshops at no charge. Since its inception, we have served more than 3,000 businesses across northwest Florida and south Georgia. And our commitment to advance entrepreneurship extends to several non-traditional communities as well. Working with Junior Achievement, we support an extensive youth development program aimed at developing future entrepreneurs that serves more than 1,600 youth in 16 high schools and elementary schools across Leon County annually. In addition, we are one of only eight programs in the nation to sponsor the widely acclaimed Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV), an intensive program designed to teach entrepreneurship and business planning to disabled veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Our Goals

The overarching goal of The Jim Moran Institute is to develop and serve tomorrow’s entrepreneurial leaders today. We believe we can accomplish this goal by leveraging three essential ingredients:

• Florida State University’s position (both geographic and intellectual).
• Strong student involvement and support.
• Critical mass of faculty and business leaders committed to building future entrepreneurial leaders.

Our Leadership

The Jim Moran Institute includes a dedicated team of entrepreneurship professionals, academic scholars, and staff that foster the entrepreneurship spirit by helping to organize, expand and promote the knowledge and practice of entrepreneurship in such a way as to facilitate new business and further the goals of established businesses.

The guiding vision of the center, and one which distinguishes it from entrepreneurship initiatives at most universities, consists of three core ideas: a commitment to serve the community, a focus on experiential learning in the classroom, and a strong, interdisciplinary research foundation. This vision is articulated in a set of more concrete objectives that will inform the center’s activities in the areas of outreach, education, and research.