Mark S. Long, a faculty member at IU’s Kelley School of Business, won the National Business Incubation Association’s 2014 President’s Award for Lifetime Achievement.
According to the website, the NBIA is the world’s leading organization for advancing business incubation and entrepreneurship with 930 organizations and 2,200 professional members in the United States and around the globe. Since 1985, the association has provided industry professionals with information, education, advocacy and networking resources to bring excellence to the process of assisting early-stage companies.
Long, a member of the association since 2002 and a current member of its board of directors, is a senior lecturer at the Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the business school.
He also is president of Long Performance Advisors LLC, a global business consulting firm specializing in business incubation, entrepreneurial client management, education and marketing.
“Mark is an outstanding contributor to the incubation industry and has a long-standing reputation as a mentor to entrepreneurs and innovators in assisting and helping them build technology-based businesses,” Chairman Karl R. LaPan said. “Everywhere I travel it is quite typical to hear from people, ‘Mark Long helped me with that.’”
Dr. Donald Kuratko, executive and academic director of the Johnson Center , said he was very proud to see Long receive this award. He said since Long joined the faculty several years ago, he has won numerous teaching awards, including the Trustees Teaching Award twice.
“Not only does he bring excellent practical experience to the classroom, but he is also a motivational teacher who cares deeply about his students,” Kuratko said. “He is indeed a tremendous asset for our top ranked entrepreneurship program.”
Long said that when he started working at IU in 2002, he was the president of the IU Research and Technology Corporation, handling the University’s patents, trademarks and copyrights. He said he joined the Kelley faculty in 2008, primarily teaching courses in entrepreneurship and teaching students how to write business plans.
“My favorite class to teach is Business Management for Non-Business Majors, because I have students from every school in that class — Journalism, Music, SPEA, HPER, Arts and Sciences,” Long said. “The students are always terrific in that class, and many of them write to me after leaving school to update me on their careers and how the class was indeed applicable to what they are doing.”
At IU, Long said he helps with the IU Dance Marathon and various groups at Kelley and works at Hoosier Hatchery, the student incubator. He said he believes it helps him relate better to what students want and need by spending time directly with them, listening to them and understanding the issues they face. He said this helps him adjust his methods of teaching, the content of his courses and the approach he takes to teaching each semester.
Long said the award means a great deal to him, and he is very humbled the Association chose him for the award.
“It’s not every day you receive a lifetime achievement award for anything,” Long said. “So, to me, this means the work I’ve done is recognized as being beneficial to others, being worth something, and my contributions have been of value. It means people I’ve worked with and for feel I have contributed enough of value that it was worthwhile to take time out to acknowledge those contributions.”
