Dr. Sanford Ehrlich
Professor Emeritus/Leadership coach/Startup advisor and investor
Sanford B. Ehrlich, Ph.D. is Emeritus Professor of Management at San Diego State University's Fowler College of Business Administration. At SDSU, he was also the QUALCOMM Executive Director for the college’s Lavin Entrepreneurship Center from 1997-2011. His consulting, teaching, and research is focused on leadership, entrepreneurship, organization design, technology commercialization, corporate entrepreneurship, and innovation.
His publications have appeared in the Journal of Business Venturing, Organization Studies, Administrative Science Quarterly, Leadership Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Technology Transfer, Family Business Review, and the International Management Journal. Over the course of his career, Dr. Ehrlich has been the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of a digital media company, the Chief Operating Officer of Procopio, and is involved as an investor in the startup of several companies in the software, healthcare, and ecommerce space. His publications have appeared in the Family Business Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Technology Transfer, Organization Studies, Leadership Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of High Technology Management Research, and the International Management Journal.
He has formerly served on the Board of Directors of Haws Corporation (Sparks, Nevada), Nichols Corporation (Muskegon, Michigan), Deep Sky Software, Inc. (San Diego), CONNECT San Diego, and the San Diego MIT Enterprise Forum. He is also on the Board of Advisors for Creatable and Waveon, both San Diego venture backed companies. His consulting clients include Qualcomm Inc., Waxie Corporation, DHL Worldwide Express, Mitchell International, NEC Electronics Inc., Shell Technology Ventures, Katun Corporation, and Stanford University. In September 2007, Fortune Small Business recognized him among the “Top Professors of Entrepreneurship”. While at SDSU, he received the Outstanding Professor award in the Executive MBA program in 2000, 2004, and 2006. He is also a recipient of the 2000 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award and the 2001 Edwin M. and Gloria W. Appel Award from the Price-Babson Foundation.
He has been married to his college sweetheart, Cynthia Evans Ehrlich, for 45 years and has two married daughters, Lindsay Ehrlich McCallister (San Diego), and Danielle Gombos (Fairfeld, CT). He is also blessed with four grandchildren, Braedon (19), Makenzie (17), Riley (2), and Asher (9 months). He is an avid mountain biker, swimmer, and enjoys photography and travel.
