Faculty

Ted Graef

Ted Graef worked for several small companies and ran his own traffic equipment company for 20 years. As an expert in rapid product development and the business of startups, Graef knows that the entrepreneurial mindset will help everyone in life, no matter their chosen path. Graef enjoys backpacking and believes it has a similar mindset—resilient, tenacious, making do with what one has, and trusting fellow hikers. Graef believes this is parallel to running a startup. He encourages students to ask themselves these questions:

What are you passionate about, and how can you apply the entrepreneurial mindset to it?
How can you apply the entrepreneurial mindset to your lifelong goals?
How can engineering entrepreneurship faculty help you achieve these?

Bob Beaury

Bob Beaury began teaching entrepreneurship-related classes at Penn State in 2001, after a 20+ year career in the electronics industry that included serving as the CEO of a tech startup. In addition to his work at Penn State, Beaury is the owner of a web marketing business and serves on several Pennsylvania-based company boards. Beaury was honored with the George W. Atherton Excellence in Teaching award in 2016, recognizing his substantial efforts and excellence in undergraduate education. His current passion is spending time with his new Corgi puppy, Skipper.

Frank Koe

According to Frank Koe, entrepreneurship is like life itself—embodying many of the same characteristics that include problem-solving, adapting to change, thinking creatively, and accepting failure as part of the growth process. Teaching entrepreneurship allows Koe to share his business experiences and the academic side of entrepreneurship. He views the excitement of engaging students to become leaders while helping them determine when an idea becomes an opportunity is personally motivating and fulfilling. Koe believes entrepreneurship has the potential of changing student lives while adding value to the world.

Brad Groznik

Brad Groznik owns Groznik PR, a strategic public relations firm based in State College. In 2016, he and his wife and co-founded Pop Up Ave, an urban-style flea market in downtown State College that routinely draws thousands of attendees. As an adjunct instructor for ENGR 310 and 407, he keeps my classes current based on the world he inhabits as an entrepreneur. His class projects focus on honing entrepreneurial skillsets and offering challenging, real-life experiences.

Heather McWhorter

Heather McWhorter is passionate about empowering individuals and communities to succeed through entrepreneurship, innovation, and sustainability. Having worked in entrepreneurship-oriented roles at Penn State for 17 years, McWhorter is now the Regional Center Director of the University of North Carolina Wilmington Small Business and Technology Development Center (SBTDC), which serves a large multi-county region in southeast North Carolina with free and confidential assistance to help businesses start, grow, and prosper. Her most recent accomplishment was creating a new statewide SBTDC Business Launch Initiative in 2019, which is a six-member team that helps people to create new businesses while spurring the North Carolina tech economy.

Jeff Wendle

Jeff Wendle likes teaching in the engineering entrepreneurship program because of the opportunity to share with students things learned from years of business experience that he would have really liked to have learned as a student, and for the chance to continue learning from the exchange of ideas with them.

Greg Woodman

Greg Woodman got his start as a student entrepreneur at Penn State by creating many Penn State products including the cardboard Joe Paterno, posters, t-shirts, and Penn State football publications. He was named Pennslyvania's Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 1984. Woodman was named Footwear Industries Marketer of Year in 1996 as AIRWALK grew from $16 million to more than $200 million in a span of five years. As a frequent guest to Penn State classes and a Bishoff Entrepreneur-in-Residence, he was invited to teach ENGR 310: Entrepreneurial Leadership in 2006. Woodman has a variety of experience in startups, from founding Pennsylvania Business Central newspaper, HappyValley.com, HappyValleyIndustry.com, and was the first shareholder in SalvageDirect.com. Currently, he owns Affinity Connection, a direct marketing firm that serves 150 clients around the country by using one-to-one data plus storytelling to drive a deeper engagement between his clients and their stakeholders.