About the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative
The Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative aims to align and optimize resources across the University of Colorado Boulder campus that support innovation and entrepreneurship—in an inclusive, multidisciplinary understanding—to reach across traditional silos, facilitate collaboration, fuel achievement and build the university’s reputation.
Innovation and entrepreneurship are pivotal to CU Boulder's success and growth. As a leading academic institution, the university significantly emphasizes a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship among its students, faculty and staff. CU Boulder encourages the development of groundbreaking ideas and entrepreneurial ventures by cultivating creative thinking, risk-taking and problem-solving. This drives academic excellence and equips the university to tackle societal challenges and contribute to economic development.
CU Boulder actively promotes innovation through research, technology transfer and entrepreneurial initiatives, transforming visionary concepts into practical solutions with a positive impact locally and globally. Embracing innovation and entrepreneurship enhances the university's reputation, attracts top talent and fosters collaborations with industry partners, furthering its mission of advancing knowledge and making a meaningful difference in the world.
Campus Hubs for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Explore all of CU Boulder's innovation and entrepreneurship programming in the Programs and Resources Guide.
Initiative Awards
The Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative recognizes outstanding students, faculty, staff and entrepreneurial mentors through a variety of awards and honors. Awardees are nominated annually by staff in our CU Boulder innovation ecosystem.
The Frank Moyes Award recognizes an outstanding faculty or staff member who have demonstrated exceptional interest and accomplishments in innovation and entrepreneurship during their time at CU Boulder.
2024 Recipient: Chunmei Ban
- 2020: Brad Bernthal
- 2019: Kyle Judah (pictured)
- 2018: Doug Smith
- 2017: Erick Mueller
- 2016: Rick Han
- 2015: Ashley Tillman
- 2014: Seth Murray
- 2013: Zach Nies
The award is named after Frank Moyes, a former tech executive and Entrepreneurship Scholar-in-Residence with the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship at the Leeds School of Business.
Frank created three amazing chapters in his career. He first served as an executive and leader in multinational corporations from GE to Owens-Illinois. He then founded a successful company that sold to a Fortune 50 company. His last chapter was as an inspiring and influential entrepreneurship teacher where he taught students how to think and act like entrepreneurs. In this last chapter, he created significant impact throughout CU Boulder and the entrepreneurship community, creating new classes, founding new programs and being one of the founding members of the New Venture Challenge.
The Fletcher Richman Award recognizes an outstanding student who has demonstrated exceptional interest and accomplishments in innovation and entrepreneurship during their time at CU Boulder.
2024 Recipient: Harris Cunningham
- 2020: Rachael Sharpe
- 2019: Andrew Morton (pictured center)
- 2018: Danielle Dannenberg
- 2017: Kaly Trupp
- 2016: Jeff Hopfenbeck
- 2015: Jamie Finney
- 2014: Fletcher Richman
The award is named after Fletcher Richman, a CU Boulder alum (ElCompEngr'14) and current Sr. Manager, Product of Halp at Atlassian. He originally founded and served as CEO of Halp, was acquired by Atlassian in 2020.
As a student, Fletcher participated in several innovation and entrepreneurial-related programs while at CU Boulder, such as competing in New Venture Challenge (NVC); landing a spot in the first-ever Startup Summer internship class; co-founding a student coworking space called Spark Boulder (now closed); and co-founding and participating in the university's summer startup accelerator, Catalyze CU.
The Entrepreneurial Mentor Award recognizes an outstanding entrepreneurial mentor who demonstrates the ability to go above and beyond in mentoring CU Boulder entrepreneurial students, faculty, staff and startup teams.
2024 Recipient: Ivan Portilla
- 2020: Rich Kopcho
- 2019: Scott Fox (pictured left)
- 2018: Tim Hill
- 2017: Rich Piech
- 2016: Peter Kovari
- 2015: Keith Mountain
- 2014: Rich Boyan
- 2013: Gary Moskoff
Initiative Staff