G. Richard Patton
Clinical Associate Professor Emeritus of Business Administration

Contact

328 Mervis Hall
grpatton@katz.pitt.edu
412-648-1568

Profile

Richard Patton has been a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate School of Business since 1976. He teaches courses in entrepreneurship, innovation and strategic management in graduate and executive programs. He has also taught at Carnegie Mellon University’s Graduate School of Industrial Administration and Chulalongkorn University’s Graduate School of Management in Bangkok, Thailand as well as MBA programs in Europe and South America.

From 1978 to 1981 Dr. Patton was Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer of the Mellon Institute in Pittsburgh and a senior staff member of the Energy Productivity Center in Washington, D.C. He is currently an active consultant and advisor whose clients include Fortune 500 firms, closely held firms and new ventures. His activities include executive development programs in entrepreneurship, innovation, and strategy in the United States, Europe and South America, strategy development and planning systems, competitive analysis, acquisitions, restructuring and turnaround management, management of closely-held and family businesses and new venture analysis and start-ups.

Dr. Patton was President, CEO, and Director of the Western Pennsylvania Adventure Capital Fund from 1997-2013, an investment fund that specialized in early stage venture capital investments in the Western Pennsylvania area. In addition to the fund’s portfolio companies, he is active in private equity investing and has been involved in the start-up and financing of numerous companies. He has served on the Board of Directors of several companies including Banker Steel Corporation, Bear Metallurgical Corporation, Montague Betts Company, Seven Springs Ski Resort, True Commerce Corporation, World Dealer Inc. and several other closely-held corporations.

Patton was honored as the first recipient of the General Electric Corporation Award for Outstanding Research in the field of Strategic Planning. He has also been recognized multiple times by the Inc. Magazine/Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award program for his support of entrepreneurship in the Southwestern Pennsylvania region. He has been repeatedly elected the Distinguished Professor by University of Pittsburgh Full and Part-time MBA classes, Executive MBA classes and International MBA classes in Prague and São Paulo. He has also received numerous Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Awards.

Dr. Patton holds a Ph.D. in Strategic Management and a Master of Science in Industrial Administration from the Krannert Graduate School of Industrial Administration, Purdue University, and a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from the University of Michigan.

Courses Recently Taught

  • BIND 2401 Competing in a Global Environment
  • BSEO 2405 Managing Strategic Performance
  • BSEO 2531 Entrepreneurship & New Venture Initiation

Degrees

  • PhD, Purdue University
  • MS, Purdue University
  • BS, University of Michigan

Academic Area

Organizations and Entrepreneurship