Meet the Faculty
Dr. Jeffrey R. Cornwall
The Jack C. Massey Chair in Entrepreneurship
Dr. Jeff Cornwall, veteran business professor, author, and co-founder and former CEO of a fast-growing health care company in Raleigh, N.C., is the inaugural Jack C. Massey Chair in Entrepreneurship and Director for the Center for Entrepreneurship in the College of Business Administration at Belmont University. Before joining the business faculty at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, he was the Sandra Schulze Chair in Entrepreneurship at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, and a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and the University of Kentucky.
His current research and teaching interests include entrepreneurial finance and entrepreneurial ethics. Dr. Cornwall has authored or co-authored six books: Bringing Your Business to Life, Bootstrapping, Organizational Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial Financial Management, The Entrepreneurial Educator, and From the Group Up: Entrepreneurial School Leadership.
His blog, the Entrepreneurial Mind, is one of the most popular small business blogs on the web. It was named by Forbes as "Best of the Web" and is part of the Forbes blog network. The Entrepreneurial Mind is also linked to by Entrepreneur, Inc., the New York Times, and US News and World Report.
Dr. Cornwall developed his interest in entrepreneurship at a young age. He explains:
I grew up with entrepreneurship and small business as topics around the dinner table at night. My family was involved in many ventures. My father left a career in corporate America to pursue an entrepreneurial career in the mid-1970s. Today, my father is an active, octogenarian entrepreneur. I was fortunate to be able to be involved in many of my father's entrepreneurial endeavors from an early age. That is where I caught the entrepreneurial bug that I carried forward in my own career as an entrepreneur.
Dr. Mark T. Schenkel
Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship
Dr. Mark Schenkel developed his entrepreneurial experience by serving in a variety of general management roles in small, closely held, family firms, including: The Habegger Corporation, David E. Estes Engineering, Inc., The Hennegan Company, and Wright Brothers Inc. In those environments, he was charged with developing and implementing strategies for achieving business growth and profitability objectives. He has continued his efforts to foster entrepreneurship through direct consulting and advising and by serving on the Boards of local ventures in the Nashville area.
Dr. Schenkel’s research and teaching interests focus on the roles that entrepreneurial cognition (e.g., opportunity recognition and assessment) and strategic decision-making play in new venture creation, and corporate venturing activities. His scholarly work has been published (or is forthcoming) in professional journals including the Academy of Management Review, British Journal of Management, New England Journal of Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, and Management Research News.
Mr. Jose Gonzalez
Instructor of Entrepreneurship and Management
Mr. Jose Gonzalez worked in financial management for Organization BAMA and Proctor and Gamble in Mexico City before moving to Nashville, Tennessee. Since coming to Nashville, he has been business manager for Total Management Services and President of CIMA Financial Management, LLC, where he consulted for diverse entrepreneurial ventures.
He co-founded Conexion Americas, and served as Executive Director until joining the faculty of the College of Business Administration at Belmont University on a full-time basis. While at Conexion Americas, he was instrumental in conceptualizing and implementing programs that generated over $25 million of mortgage loans for Latino homeowners and trained over 500 Latino entrepreneurs. Under his leadership, Conexion Americas received notable distinctions: Entrepreneurial Venture of the Year, Innovation in Action Award, and Strengthening Families Best Practices Award.
Actively involved in Nashville's civic and business communities, his roles have included mentoring for the Hispanic Achievers Youth Program, service on the Nashville Alliance for Public Education Board of Directors, and membership in the Board of Commissioners of Nashville's Metro Social Services Agency. A graduate of The Jack C. Massey Graduate School of Business at Belmont University, he served on the boards of The Massey School Alumni Association and The Center for Business Ethics.
