Millikin University's Center for Entrepreneurship within the Tabor School of Business has welcomed a new visiting professor of entrepreneurship for the academic year, Dr. Omaima Hatem.
Dr. Hatem comes to Millikin University from the University of Edinburgh where she received her Ph.D. in International Business and Strategic Entrepreneurship. Even with stops at the American University in Cairo, MIT, Harvard and the aforementioned University of Edinburgh, Dr. Hatem has spent most of her life as an entrepreneur.
In an editorial for the Business Journal of Midcentral Illinois, Julie Shields, director of Millikin's Center for Entrepreneurship said, "She started an engineering consulting company in Egypt with a family loan of $5,000, and within six months she had an engineering consultation contract for $250,000."
Shields added, "The nature of her engineering work was quality testing on building materials and sites prior to construction – something that was not being done in Egypt and emerging markets back then. She has also had a number of other businesses in manufacturing, consulting and international trade."
Prior to her academic career, she established a diversified group of companies as well as a number of manufacturing and international trading firms that extended services to cover African, Europeanb and South American countries. She completed an executive education at Harvard and MIT in Leadership and Strategic Management.
While at the University of Edinburgh Business School, Dr. Hatem lectured in the fields of entrepreneurship, strategy, and international business with specific interest in emerging markets. Her research interests include: International, Strategic and Portfolio Entrepreneurship in Emerging Markets; High Growth and Rapid Internationalization of Multinationals from the Emerging Market of the MENA region.
"She has worked on projects in 28 countries on major endeavors such as the Library of Alexandria in Egypt, Doha Airport in Qatar, Oslo Opera House in Norway, and the Ground Zero Museum in New York," Shields said. "She has also published three books on entrepreneurship and strategy in emerging markets."
Currently, Dr. Hatem lectures at the University of Edinburgh Business School in the areas of entrepreneurial challenge, including new venture creation, international entrepreneurship, family business, and entrepreneurial opportunities in Africa.
"When a team of Millikin students, which submitted a proposal to the Lemelson-MIT competition last month, received an e-mail challenging their innovation as not 'new and unique', Dr. Hatem quickly helped them craft a reply to highlight that the 'recombination of existing resources in a new way' is a specific hallmark of innovation," Shields said.
Dr. Hatem will be co-teaching Millikin's food innovation and entrepreneurship course, which will be available for Millikin students and community members to take next semester at National Foodworks Services starting January 24, 2017.