For the fourth year in a row, DePaul University's graduate entrepreneurship program has been chosen as one of the top 25 business school programs for entrepreneurs in the country by SUCCESS Magazine. The 1997 rankings were published in the magazine's September issue.

Two DePaul graduates who have become successful Chicago-area entrepreneurs also were featured in the magazine's profiles of "Campus Millionaires." David Gamperl, president of America's Finest Pasta Sauces, a mail order gourmet sauce business, and Nat Rosasco, head of Pro Select, a line of high-end graphite golf clubs, both developed their business plans in DePaul's part-time MBA program.

"The rankings show that DePaul's continuous program innovations have paid-off," said Gerhard Plaschka, chairman of the management department and co-founder of the program.

Plaschka said the program focused on start-up ventures when it began but expanded to include courses on spin-off firms, management of fast-growing firms and corporate venturing during the corporate reengineering period. Over the last year, new courses on managing creativity, negotiations, and management of innovation and technology were added.

Plaschka said another area of uniqueness is that all courses are based on real-life case studies "where management teams of emerging firms, students and professors work together in a class setting and solve business issues under compressed time frames."

Founded in 1982 and taught by a team of eight management department professors, DePaul's Entrepreneurship program maintains the largest number of graduate entrepreneurship classes in the country.

The program includes traditional courses focusing on new venture management, growth strategies for emerging firms, as well as family business, urban economic development, and arts entrepreneurship courses.

Approximately 150 MBA students are enrolled, an increase of 50 percent during the last three years. DePaul's College of Commerce also offers undergraduate entrepreneurship coursework.

The program has launched several innovative centers and entrepreneur outreach efforts. The Center for Creativity and Innovation opened in April to foster and research creativity and innovation in emerging firms. Directed by management associate professor Lisa Gundry, the center conducts education sessions with corporate leaders and research and development teams to help them overcome barriers to creative and innovative success in their work.

Another new offering is the Fast Track Management Program, a certificate program that combines all the academic knowledge of an MBA with the insight gained by starting a business. As entrepreneurs of fictitious companies, students develop their businesses from initial concepts to mature companies.

"The field of entrepreneurship education has gotten more intensely competitive," said DePaul management professor Harold P. Welsch, Coleman Foundation Chair in Entrepreneurship and a co-founder of the program. "DePaul is always improving the quality to keep ahead of the pack, and that's why we continue to be ranked among the top programs."

Note to reporters: Plaschka can be reached at (312) 362-5451. Gundry is available at (312) 362-8075.