Finding additional income streams can seem daunting for liberal arts institutions like Guilford. Pushing administrators and faculty beyond their traditional academic comfort zones and into the worlds of research, real estate, and commerce can prove anxious. Even some alumni wring their hands at the idea of their college losing the focus of its mission.

Stop right there. Lou Anne Flanders-Stec has heard those worries before. “Guilford has always been working in an innovative and entrepreneurial spirit,” says Lou Anne, Guilford’s new Senior Executive Director of Innovation and Engagement. “That’s played out for years at Guilford in social innovation, and how to really engage, educate and address social issues with creativity and innovative thinking. What we want to do now is see how we can enhance those areas and maybe turn them into revenue for the College.”

That way of thinking should not be a significant leap for the College, says Lou Anne. She points to established partnerships that Guilford’s Astronomy and Physics departments have with NASA. She talks about the artificial intelligence research taking place with Analytics faculty and students. “How do we leverage those partnerships already in place? How do we grow them?” she asks. “There are (faculty) books that have been written that are sitting on shelves that haven't been published. What can we do to get them published?”

In her new role, Lou Anne is responsible for facilitating and strengthening connections between Guilford faculty, students, staff, alumni, industry leaders and investors, and the community.

That entrepreneurial world is one Lou Anne has thrived in. After receiving her MBA in Finance from the University of North Texas in 1991, she worked for a private equity group, focusing on mergers and acquisitions and became steeped in the process of entrepreneurship exits — building a business that is viable to be purchased.

Lou Anne moved from New York to Greensboro in 2002 to work for the Piedmont Angel Network where she helped fund 11 local companies. Before coming to Guilford this summer, she was the executive vice president of entrepreneurship at the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce for seven years.

“Lou Anne brings a skill set and leadership experience that will immediately help to further advance our efforts in innovation, entrepreneurship, and business engagement,” says President Kyle Farmbry.

Lou Anne says the College has identified three so-called pillars of revenue the College can explore: Real estate, innovation and investor funding. That’s already begun.

The College earns revenue from the Eastern Music Festival, which has been a strong partner for 62 years. This summer the College rented its athletic facilities to various sports camps. Leaders are exploring other properties on campus to leverage, too.

The second pillar is finding or creating research at Guilford that, as Lou Anne says, “can be used changing lives beyond the campus.”

Those types of ventures need funding and Lou Anne says the College is interested in setting up an angel-investment system to help faculty members and other people tied to the school launch start-up businesses.

The idea, says Lou Anne, is to generate start-up capital to help get those businesses off the ground. It would fill, at least partly, the gap between a would-be Guilfordian entrepreneur’s out-of-pocket spending and more traditional venture-capital and private-equity investments.

Lou Anne says this seed money would not be philanthropic but rather real investment money. “We’re looking at whatever efforts we can to help researchers, alumni, students turn their work into commercial enterprises,” she says. “When the project or program succeeds, so will the investors.”