Ozmen Center for Entrepreneurship

The Ozmen Center Entrepreneurship is an idea space that facilitates entrepreneurship moving ideas into action.

Director's Welcome Message

Mehmet TosunIt is my great pleasure and honor to serve as the new Director of the Ozmen Center for Entrepreneurship. Our Center’s vision is to “help develop entrepreneurial capacities and foster the creation of ideas and new enterprise among students and faculty of the University of Nevada, Reno and members of the Northern Nevada community.”

We are offering a variety of entrepreneurship classes as part of our academic programs. Entrepreneurship is the third most selected minor among business students. Our widely popular Sontag Entrepreneurship Competition adds significantly to the entrepreneurial ecosystem by helping student entrepreneurs develop their business ideas. This competition includes a single prize of $50,000 given to the winning team. In the most recent competition, we had 42 student applicants representing 21 majors in six different colleges of the university. We also started a new program called LaunchNevada to prepare students for the Sontag Entrepreneurship Competition.

We have organized a number of other events recently, including the International Women’s Entrepreneurship Symposium, which was a virtual event that brought together more than 40 speakers and close to 1,000 attendees from 50 countries around the world. We launched the Nevada Global Business and Economics Lab (NVGLOBE-L) in Fall 2020. As part of this new lab, we have students and faculty conduct policy related research on entrepreneurship through a Global Entrepreneurship and Public Policy Working Group. We are working with the International Division of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) and other international partners for our global entrepreneurship initiatives. We also disseminate research and other scholarly work in the Center through a Distinguished Lecture Series, two blog series on entrepreneurship and international business, and research symposia.

I look forward to working with stakeholders in our university, local community and international partner universities to facilitate a broad range of entrepreneurship activities and programs. Please contact us if you have any questions or suggestions about our programs. We would be delighted to hear from you.

With best regards,

Mehmet S. Tosun, PhD
Director of Ozmen Center for Entrepreneurship
and International Business Programs
Professor of Economics
The College of Business

About Us

The Center was founded in 2014 and was made possible by a gift from Eren and Fatih Ozmen who are exemplary entrepreneurs and alumni of the University of Nevada, Reno. Headquartered in Sparks, NV, Sierra Nevada Corporation is a privately held company under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer, Fatih Ozmen and President, Eren Ozmen.

The Ozmen Center serves as a point of inspiration and clearinghouse for information, an idea space that facilitates entrepreneurship, moving ideas into action. Our goals are to focus on the development of students' entrepreneurial skills, assist faculty in commercializing their research, and improve northern Nevada's entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Entrepreneurship Blog

Obtain valuable insights from individuals and entities within the entrepreneurship ecosystem in our area.

Distinguished Lecture Series

This series, brought to you by NVGLOBE-L and the Ozmen Center for Entrepreneurship, features speakers who have made significant contributions to policy research and practice in academia, government and the business world.

Academics

Learn about the undergraduate entrepreneurship minor and the MBA entrepreneurship emphasis.

Entrepreneurship Club

The Entrepreneurship Club is a learning-by-doing environment where students can cultivate their entrepreneurship skills.

Family Business Program

The Family Business Program at the University of Nevada, Reno is a unique effort that supports the entrepreneurial spirit and family values of University students, alumni, friends, and the broader community of Northern Nevada.

Contact the Ozmen Center

Email: ozmencenter@unr.edu
Location: Ansari Business 402
Office Hours: Monday - Friday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.