Mark Rider recently returned to academia after a distinguished 30-year career in Executive roles in the healthcare, building products, aviation, and training industries. He currently serves as the VanArsdale Chair of Entrepreneurship at SUNY Geneseo, where he develops and delivers entrepreneurship curricula, including social entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial leadership. He also manages the student incubator and advises the Adopt a Business program.
Mark’s professional journey includes a wide range of experiences, from startups to the top 30 multinational medical device companies. Currently, as the Founder and CEO of Accent Growth, he helps small businesses and social enterprises integrate AI into their organizations.
Previously, Mark was President and COO of Modern Marketing & Commerce (MMC), a high-tech outsourced marketing and sales organization serving major clients such as Lowes, Goodman, Ferguson, Bausch Health, 3M, and Bayer. Mark also served as a principal at SalesMark Ventures, an MMC investment arm that engaged in multiple startup investments.
Mark also held global Executive positions, including VP of Commercial Operations for the Americas and Director of Global Sales Operations for Swedish-based Med Device company Getinge. He oversaw commercial operations, marketing, and sales enablement for the multi-billion-dollar business.
Mark is currently completing his doctorate in business administration at the University of Rhode Island. His research focuses on employee perceptions of authenticity in dual-purpose organizations or social enterprises.
Classes
-
ENTR 100: Intro to Entrepreneurship
This course is designed to provide students with a basic understanding of the practical skills needed to start a new business as well as innovative thinking that can be applied to any field students ultimately find themselves working in. Included is a basic understanding of business and its component parts. Study topics will include: What is Entrepreneurship?, Understanding the Basics of Business, How to Determine a Good Idea and Opportunity?, How to Write a Marketing Plan?, How to Write a Management Plan?, How to Manage Change?, Handling Human Resources, How to Grow a Business.
-
ENTR 325: Entrepreneurship-Comm Ideation
This course teaches students how to think and act like entrepreneurs by applying critical entrepreneurial processes and tools to generate new business ideas and sort out the more promising opportunities in a very time efficient manner. Students will analyze business ideas in teams, evaluate the ideas based upon technical merit, business challenges, early market indicators, and input from industry experts. The most promising ideas move forward into the follow-up course, ENTR 425, to be further developed into a business plan and investor presentation.