DePaul University’s Coleman Entrepreneurship Center will launch Business Owner Academy, an executive education program designed exclusively for business owners and taught by current or former entrepreneurs in April at DePaul’s Loop Campus.

The non-credit courses are designed for owners of companies generating $500,000 to $25 million in annual revenue and meet once a week for six to eight weeks. Courses offered this spring include Modern Marketing: Engaging New Customers with New Media & New Technologies; Finance for the Non-Financial Business Owner: Becoming as Smart as Your Banker & CFO; Advisory Boards: Build Accountability, Leverage Connections and Benefit from Experience; and Harvesting, Transitioning and Moving On: The Five Steps to Life After Your Business.

"We are excited to offer business owners this hands-on education program that provides practical knowledge they can immediately apply to their businesses," said Raman Chadha, executive director of the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center and a clinical professor at DePaul’s business school. "We heard from many owners who said they lacked such opportunities, and our research indicated there was no other executive education program of this kind, by owners for owners, in the Chicago area, so we created one."

"Students will benefit from the real-world experiences of the instructors as well as their peers," Chadha said. "Furthermore, we believe if business owners engage in practical continuous learning, it helps contribute to the economic vitality of Chicago."

Spring 2010 registration is open, and courses are limited to 12 students per class. For additional information or to register for the upcoming Business Owner Academy courses, e-mail Stephanie Furlan at sfurlan@depaul.edu or call the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center at (312) 362-8676.

About the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center

The Coleman Center is an extension of DePaul University’s entrepreneurship program, consistently ranked among the nation’s top 10 programs for entrepreneurship education. Business Owner Academy is presented in partnership with the Chicago chapter of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization and the Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce. The Coleman Center also delivers Peer Roundtables for business owners. For more information about the center and its programs, visit the Web site http://cec.depaul.edu/.