Steven Gal

Biography

Steven Gal is a career technology entrepreneur, an entrepreneurship professor, and an investor in and advisor to early stage companies. Over his 15 years of teaching, his research and practice has focused on entrepreneurship and innovation, which he teaches as a senior lecturer at the Johnson Graduate School of Management at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University. Over more than 25 years as an entrepreneur, Steven has participated in the founding, funding, building, operating, or turnaround of companies resulting in over $100 million in venture financings and over $1.5 billion in exits across multiple successful sales and an IPO. Steven has also been an active angel and VC investor and advisor to entrepreneurs and their companies.

Prof. Gal currently teaches students across programs, schools, and campuses at Cornell, both in Ithaca and at Cornell Tech, including undergraduates, MBAs and Executive MBAs, and PhDs. He is a member of the teaching team at eLab, Cornell''s student business accelerator, where he also serves on the board. He has also served Cornell''s entrepreneurial community as chair of the advisory council at Entrepreneurship at Cornell, the gateway to everything entrepreneurial at Cornell University, which recently completed the build-out of the eHub in Collegetown, the first dedicated space for Cornell entrepreneurs to start businesses and the new home of eLab. In addition, he teaches innovation at universities and companies and to executives globally through Cornell Executive Business Education.

Earlier in his teaching career, Prof. Gal was an associate professor of clinical entrepreneurship in the entrepreneurship program at University of Southern California Marshall School of Business, which was consistently ranked in the top 5 in entrepreneurship by US News during his tenure. He also has served as visiting professor at the Rady School at the University of California at San Diego and at KAUST in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Before his careers in teaching and technology, Steven spent several years on Wall Street in risk arbitrage and on the floor of the New York Futures Exchange. He is an attorney and a member of the California Bar. He holds a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from University of Southern California School of Law and a Bachelor of Science from the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University.

Recent Courses

• Designing New Ventures
• Designing New Ventures
• Innovation and New Venture Creation
• Sales and Business Development

Academic Degrees

• JD University of Southern California, 1993
• BS Cornell University, 1990