Andy Wu
Andy Wu’s Personal Statement for SFFA Board
Andy Wu is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Business Economics and Public Policy Department at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, on track to begin as a tenure-track professor in fall 2016. He is a researcher, teacher, and practitioner in the subject of technology entrepreneurship. Andy has long been passionate about improving transparency and fairness in the university admissions process. If elected to the board, Andy will bring his years of board experience in the non-profit and for-profit sectors to assist in fundraising and recruiting for SFFA and use his knowledge as an economist to inform the SFFA team of ongoing academic research to guide the policy positions of the organization.
Andy’s research focuses on organizational structure as a capability for the acquisition and utilization of human and financial capital in technology-focused entrepreneurial ventures. His current research looks at organizational decision-making in venture capital, diversity in R&D production team composition, incumbent-entrepreneur alliances in the biotechnology industry, corporate board committee determinants, and skilled immigration caps and domestic innovation.
Andy was recognized as one of the top 10 graduate teachers at the University of Pennsylvania; he is part of the teaching staff for Entrepreneurship, Management of Emerging Enterprise, Formation and Implementation of Entrepreneurial Ventures, and Healthcare Entrepreneurship across the MBA, Executive MBA, and undergraduate programs.
He is passionate about linking theory with the practice of technology commercialization entrepreneurship. He advises high technology companies in both an informal capacity and as a board member on topics ranging from closing financing rounds to IP strategy. He is a founding director and investor in Identified Technologies Corp., a Pittsburgh-based firm that delivers cloud-hosted aerial data collected via proprietary UAVs and dock stations to the upstream energy industry. He has 11 patents granted or pending across rapid prototyping, medical imaging, robotics, and e-commerce. Previously, Andy worked on business development at MassChallenge Inc., the world’s largest global startup competition, and advised on M&A transactions in life sciences, retail, and defense industries and general restructuring practice at the Peter J. Solomon Company.
He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a Burchard Scholar with an S.B. in Economics and in Mathematics, where he served as President of the Everett Moore Baker House and the Undergraduate Economics Association. He also holds a master’s degree from the Wharton School. In graduate school, Andy serves as a liaison to the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania and the Graduate Council of the Faculties.