Cosier named director of entrepreneurship center

March 4, 2010

Richard Cosier is trading his role as dean of Krannert School of Management to become the Avrum and Joyce Gray Director of the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, University officials are announcing today (March 4).

Richard Cosier

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Cosier will take the helm of the Discovery Park center, effective Jan. 1, 2011, following a sabbatical leave in the fall.

During the interim, he will continue as acting co-director of the Burton D. Morgan Center with Alan Rebar, executive director of Discovery Park and senior associate vice president of research for Purdue. Cosier and Rebar have been co-leading the center since Dec. 1.

Cosier previously announced plans to step down as Krannert's dean, effective June 30, 2010. He will continue to serve as Krannert's Leeds Professor of Management.

Cosier, who was the Burton D. Morgan Center's first director when it was launched in Discovery Park in 2004, is replacing Kenneth Kahn, who left Purdue last fall to direct Virginia Commonwealth University's da Vinci Center for Innovation in Product Design and Development.

During Cosier's tenure as dean, The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek and U.S. News & World Report have consistently ranked Krannert among the world's top business programs.

Cosier also shepherded the creation and completion of Rawls Hall in 2003, including a $10 million gift from alumnus Jerry S. Rawls, and helped to secure funding for a multimillion-dollar renovation of the Krannert Building.

The Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship is Purdue's interdisciplinary hub for entrepreneurship, playing a key role in facilitating business development for emerging concepts and technologies stemming from University research.

Opened in 2004, the 31,000-square-foot, two-story center was the first building completed in Discovery Park, Purdue's $500 million interdisciplinary research complex for large-scale projects. The Burton D. Morgan Foundation provided funding for the $7 million building.