ECE alumnus receives Chancellor’s Entrepreneurial Achievement Award

Winslow Sargeant, (PhDECE ’95), an alumnus of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is one of four outstanding innovators honored with a 2023 Chancellor’s Entrepreneurial Achievement Award.

The awards recognize individuals with ties to the University of Wisconsin–Madison who further the Wisconsin Idea through outstanding accomplishments in entrepreneurship. Honorees have achieved entrepreneurial success that contributes to economic growth and social good, offers models for the UW community and inspires the campus culture of entrepreneurship.

Sargeant, an electrical engineer, has built an exceptional career with global reach, bridging entrepreneurship, technology, venture investing, small business advocacy, education, and service. Sargeant is on the board of trustees for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the Morgridge Institute for Research and Northeastern University. He’s also on the advisory council of Madison’s Center for Black Excellence and Culture. He is a Kauffman Fellow (Class 11) and visiting scholar with George Washington University.

As Senior Advisor for Globalization and Head of Capital Markets for Genaesis, Sargeant syndicates opportunities with unaffiliated third-party capital partners. As Board Chair of the International Council for Small Business, he educates government and nonprofit leaders on sustainable ecosystems for small businesses. He provides leadership to startups as Chief Executive Officer of Purple Team Technologies, an early-stage supply chain informatics company, and as board chair for several other companies. He was previously a managing director for Madison-based Venture Investors, before serving as Senate-confirmed Chief Counsel for Advocacy with the U.S. Small Business Administration.

“[Winslow]’s easily seen as a black role model, but he’s a role model to engineers, period. To thought leaders, period. To PhD recipients, period. Because of his level of integrity and his commitment to his scholarship,” says Alex Gee, CEO of the Center for Black Excellence and Culture.

Sargeant, along with fellow award recipients Wesley Schroll and Tyler Kennedy, founders of the digital loyalty and marketing platform Fetch, and Anne Smith, co-founder of the Law & Entrepreneurship Clinic at the University of Wisconsin Law School, were honored at an awards event on April 27, 2023.

“Entrepreneurship has a pivotal place in UW–Madison’s culture and our execution of the Wisconsin Idea,” says Chancellor Jennifer L. Mnookin. “This year, we celebrate how UW alumni, students and faculty shape the entrepreneurial ecosystem and drive the economy in our state and beyond…these exceptional individuals are models for our campus, alumni, and community.”

University Communications published a previous version of this release.

Featured image caption: Winslow Sargeant receives a 2023 Chancellor’s Entrepreneurial Achievement Award. Credit: Andy Manis.

2023 Entrepreneurial Awards Winner: Winslow Sargeant

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