Most professors teach from textbooks, but Chad Smith brings the boardroom directly into his classroom. As a professor of Management and Marketing at PennWest, he brings a wealth of hands-on knowledge from owning seven businesses over the past 20 years.

Before Chad ever stood in front of a PennWest classroom, he had already lived the highs, risks and hard lessons of entrepreneurship. He built businesses, invested in ideas and learned what it really takes to make something work.

“Out of those I bring this up in class, I did have one of those businesses fail. The rest have been successful,” he shared, highlighting the real-world transparency he offers his students. His philosophy centers on shifting students’ mindsets from merely seeking employment to actively creating it.

When Chad sold his first manufacturing company, he could have stepped away. Instead, he chose a different path.

“I could have retired, but I wanted to get into academia; I wanted to teach others,” he said. At PennWest, that choice turned into a career built around helping students see business as something they could do, not just something they could study.

In Chad’s world, entrepreneurship is not limited to textbook concepts. Students in Management and Marketing and Entrepreneurship courses do simulations, build business ideas and, in many cases, actually launch businesses of their own.

“They do have to actually start a business,” Chad said. He points to a shift he is seeing in the classroom.

“This semester, I have about 46 students in my current course, and I’d say about 12 of them have already started their own businesses or are in the process of starting them.” he said.

That kind of momentum is what makes his teaching so compelling. Students are not preparing for some distant future: They are learning how to think, adapt and solve problems right now.

That practical mindset connects directly to opportunities like Internships and the broader support available through PEAK at PennWest. Chad encourages students to pursue real-world experience through internships.. He sees those resources as a bridge between ambition and action, helping students turn a spark of an idea into something real and sustainable.

What drives him most is not just business growth, but student growth.

“I’m very passionate about entrepreneurship and honestly transforming the lives of students,” he said.

That transformation is the heart of his story. At PennWest, Chad helps students recognize opportunities around them, trust their ideas and move forward with the confidence that comes from being supported by people who have done it before.