UT hosts dedication ceremony for Harkey Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies

The University of Texas held a dedication ceremony Friday for the Harkey Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies to recognize a gift from alumnus John Harkey and his wife, Peni Barfield.

President Jay Hartzell officially dedicated the institute during a ceremony at Rowling Hall, just before the Startup City Limits, a showcase of student entrepreneurial innovations.

Harkey was inducted into the McCombs School of Business Hall of Fame in 2022. He founded JDH Investment Management LLC and has served on the school's advisory council. He is currently on the board of directors of the University of Texas System Chancellor’s Council Executive Committee.

“We want to create the foundation to allow students to have the freedom to create and to think. It is a time when students can dream giant dreams,” Harkey said at the ceremony. “And there are no small plans when you are a student.”

The institute opened in 2018, with 80 entrepreneurship minors that year. Dean Lillian Mills said it's now the fastest-growing minor on campus, with about 800 students and representation from every major on campus. Now the institute's goal is for UT to be ranked first nationally for entrepreneurship.

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"We have always had entrepreneurs here on campus, but we've never had the support, the mentorship and community that the Harkey Institute provides," Mills said. "I believe when the next big idea comes out of UT, it will come through the Harkey Institute."

Hartzell said Harkey’s career, which spans 25 years and multiple different fields, “illustrates the sweeping impact that an entrepreneur can have.”

Melissa Murphy, the director of undergraduate entrepreneurship, said the institute and the new funding will help signal to students that anyone can start their own business, and UT can help, she said.

“That’s what this institute is really all about,” Murphy said. “And this gift allows us to provide more seed funding, more rooms in a Living Learning Community, more mentor programs.”

Adrian Storey, a student who is graduating this year, wanted to create medical technology in the cardiology field after encountering difficulties as a patient. When he heard about the entrepreneurship program, he said, it sounded "like the perfect thing for me."

“It’s a unique way to start your career,” Storey said.

Now, he is developing the software behind a device he hopes will be able to read an athlete’s cardiology while they’re working out, not in a hospital setting. He hopes the device will help save lives.

Grayson Cloutier, a junior at UT, started a hot sauce company called “Fired Up!” after experimenting in the kitchen with his dad during the pandemic. At the institute, he's making it into a business. His hot sauce is now at a several restaurants at Houston.

“There’s not a better place to start a business than in Texas in the Harkey Institute,” Cloutier said.

Murphy said the institute is only for undergraduates. She hopes the gift can help the institute match the amount of seed funding for undergraduate students.

“That's one of the biggest barriers to students also starting their own businesses,” she said.