Rebecca White

Rebecca J. White is the Walter Distinguished Chair of Entrepreneurship, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Director of the John P Lowth Entrepreneurship Center at the University of Tampa. She received an MBA and a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech University. Dr. White is considered a thought leader in entrepreneurship education where her research is based at the intersection of entrepreneurial mindset and competency-based education and training in entrepreneurship. Her most recent book, See, Do Repeat: The Practice of Entrepreneurship offers a success framework for aspiring and practicing entrepreneurs. Through her podcast, The En Factor, Dr. White shares inspirational stories of successful entrepreneurs to help others build their own entrepreneurial mindset and practice.

Under her leadership, the entrepreneurship program at the University of Tampa is ranked in the top 20 in the US by Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine and in the top 35 by US News and World Report and Bloomberg Business. Additional program and center accolades include receiving the 2017 NASDAQ National Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence award, the 2016 Model Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Education Program by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE), the 2015 Excellence in Teaching and Pedagogical Innovation Award from the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers (GCEC) and the 2014 Outstanding Emerging Entrepreneurship program. Dr. White received the 2017 Karl Vesper Pioneer in Entrepreneurship Education award, the 2017 Max S Wortman, Jr. Lifetime Achievement in Entrepreneurship Award and was named the Professor of the Year by the Women and Minority Group of USASBE. In 2015, she was named a Justin G. Longenecker Fellow of USASBE. Dr. White was also awarded the Tampa Bay Business Journal Business Woman of the Year 2010 in the Education Category and the Angie Johnson Excellence in Mentorship Award in 2023 and was a 2006 Athena® Award finalist, a 2005 recipient of the Freedoms Foundation Leavey Award for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education and was named Ernst and Young Entrepreneur Supporter of Entrepreneurship in 2003.

In 2018, Rebecca served as a Kohane Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and Duke University where her primary focus was on advancing the discipline’s understanding of entrepreneurial mindset and dealmaker impacts in entrepreneurial ecosystems. In addition to holding faculty positions at four US based universities, she has also been a lecturer at People’s Friendship University in Moscow, Russia and at the University of Salerno, in Fisciano, Italy. Dr. White also has been a leader in preparing entrepreneurship educators on the faculty of the Experiential Classroom for 12 years and has served as a guide for educators around the world through a wide variety of entrepreneurship programs. She has also served as a consultant on the development of entrepreneurship programs to a wide variety of schools from large state schools such as West Virginia University and smaller private universities such as Trinity University.
Prior to her work at the University of Tampa she built a top 25 nationally ranked entrepreneurship program at Northern Kentucky University. She was also founder and director of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Institute, an educational program for female entrepreneurs offered jointly with the New York Times. She grew up in a family business and later started several companies including RiskAware, LLC, (www.riskaware.com) a risk mitigation company for higher education and more recently, RAS Learning, LLC, an edtech learning company. She was the 2012 President of the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship and is on the Executive Council of the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers.

Dr. White is currently Chairwoman of the board of Marine Max (HZO), the nation’s largest recreational yacht and boat retailer, and is chair nominating and governance committee and is a member of the compensation committee. From 2011- 2017, she served as a Director at NorthStar Bank, Tampa FL. During her tenure on this board, she served on various committees including serving as chair of the assets and loans committee and M&A committee that secured the 2017 purchase of the bank by SeaCoast Bank. She has served on numerous small company and non-profit boards over the past 20 years and is an active member of the National Association of Corporate Directors and was named one of the 2019 Most Influential Board Members by WomenInc.
Through her current consulting company, WhiteBoard Advising, Dr. White is translating her research on innovation and talent acquisition and retention into valuable tools that help founders, business owners and top management teams build value. Her model helps owners and top management teams recognize and take advantage of opportunities at each stage of the business life cycle.