Maija Renko

Maija Renko is a Professor and Coleman Chair of Entrepreneurship at DePaul University, Driehaus College of Business, in Chicago. She holds a D. Sc. in Business Administration degree from Turku School of Economics (Finland), and a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Florida International University (USA). Between 2007 and 2019 she worked at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), first as an assistant professor of entrepreneurship, then as a tenured associate professor (2013-2019), and finally promoted to full professor in 2019.

Maija teaches entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship classes in the undergraduate business and graduate programs of DePaul University’s Driehaus College of Business. Her research and teaching interests are focused on the early stages of the entrepreneurial process (entrepreneurial motivation, opportunities and nascent entrepreneurship), social entrepreneurship, and technology entrepreneurship. Her research has been published in leading management and entrepreneurship journals, and she serves on the editorial and review boards for six of the top journals in entrepreneurship and management.

Maija has received a number of grants to support her research activities, and students at UIC voted her to be their Favorite MBA Professor. Her teaching and research contribute to a better understanding of how entrepreneurs build successful businesses that not only generate financial rewards for those involved, but also contribute to positive social change, a sense of achievement for those—often disenfranchised members of the society—involved, and the advancement of society through the introduction of innovations. Her interdisciplinary, collaborative work on the topic entrepreneurship among people with disabilities is pioneering in its focus. Recently, she co-built and co-taught the first UIC-SEA Social Enterprise Certificate Program, offered simultaneously to current business students as well as social enterprise leaders in the community.