The mission of the Francoise O. Lepage Center of Global Innovation is to serve as a global innovation gateway, partner, collaborator and resource for the Dominican University community, businesses, government and non-profit organizations. Made possible by the generous gift of Albert Lepage, the Lepage Center is unique among collegiate programs of innovation and entrepreneurship, serving as a global innovation hub, delivering the potential of innovative and entrepreneurial solutions that contribute to a sustainable world.
We believe that we do well only when we do good.
The Lepage Center offers academic programming, immersive educational opportunities, student-based entrepreneurial challenges, University-wide entrepreneurial activities, and non-degree programs for companies, organizations and educational institutions both locally and internationally. It provides regionally and globally-focused business development by offering Executive Education serving the entrepreneur sector.
The Lepage Center combines classroom learning with hands-on practice, ensuring graduating students acquire the skills and experience to be successful in their own startups or in contributing to the entrepreneurial environment in other settings, including corporate and not-for-profit.
The Lepage Center for Global Innovation connects entrepreneurs throughout the Bay Area ecosystem to Dominican’s campus and resources through interactive student events, such as the Lepage Entrepreneurship Forum, and networking opportunities with like-minded industry experts through the Lepage Center’s Venture Cafe and Technology Mixers.
With multilevel partnerships, the Lepage Center brings together the strengths of different centers of excellence to bear on innovative, educational programming driving economic and personal growth in the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the Bay Area and beyond.
The Lepage Center partners with the following stakeholders:
- Barowsky School of Business (BSB)
- Chambers of Commerce
- Institute for Leadership Studies
- Marin Small Business Development Center (SBDC)
- Marin-Sonoma Impact Ventures
- North Bay Leadership Council
- Opportunity Fund (Microloans)
- U.S. Commercial Service of the U.S. Department of Commerce
Research at the Lepage Center
UC Berkeley’s Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative to be Housed at Dominican’s Lepage Center for Global Innovation
Human connection is at the heart of any entrepreneurial endeavor. Technology is a driver of innovation. Pioneering research on the use of new technologies to map connections among people and the places they inhabit has taken place under the auspices of a UC Berkeley research unit known as the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative (ECAI) since 1997 when it was established by Professor Lewis Lancaster, a scholar of Buddhism, and Michael Buckland, a former Dean of the School of Information and Professor of Information Science.
This pioneering research will now be undertaken at Dominican through the Francoise O. Lepage Center for Global Innovation. Housing ECAI at the Lepage Center for Global Innovation promises to invigorate Marin’s local entrepreneurial ecosystem by providing access to a global network of pioneering humanists using the most advanced technologies to understand how people connect with one other and the places they live. ECAI at Dominican also promises to provide Dominican students with opportunities to make use of the latest theories and tools for understanding human connection, as well as opportunities for exchange between the world’s most innovative humanists and the Marin business community.
Please check back for more information about this new Lepage Center program. If you would like to become involved, please don’t hesitate to contact us at: wayne.defremery@dominican.edu.
The Lepage Center Podcasts
- Amelia Ceja, President and CEO, Ceja Vineyards. April 14, 2022
- Kara Goldin, CEO of Hint Inc.
- Kathy Tierney, former CEO Sur la Table and entrepreneur Michael Volpatt
- Kevin Compton, partner at Kleiner Perkins
- Kevin Johnson, Vice President and Portfolio Manager, Dodge & Cox
- Nooshin Behroyan, Founder/ CEO of Paxon Energy & Infrastructure
- Zachary Kushel, Founder and Managing Partner, Marin Sonoma Impact Ventures
Guiding Principles
The Francoise O. Lepage Center for Global Innovation follows the University ethos of a student-centered and problem-based learning approach for students in the Barowsky School of Business pursuing a Bachelor of Business Administration and who choose to emphasize entrepreneurship.
The Francoise O. Lepage Center for Global Innovation commits to the future by:
- Preparing Dominican University of California students, faculty and other stakeholders for significant roles in a globalized society to create a sustainable and significant impact in society through entrepreneurial ventures.
- Unleashing passionate creativity and disciplined design thinking through the cutting-edge curriculum, academic and non-academic programs, and dynamic activities, leading to innovative entrepreneurship that serves the greater good and needs of the many.
