Will Drover

Bio

Professor Drover is an Associate Professor and Chair of Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Director of Neeley AI Forward, and the Dean’s Advisor on AI and Digital Innovation in the Neeley School of Business. As Chair, he works alongside a high-performing team of faculty and staff whose efforts have earned national recognition, including the 2025 USASBE Model Program Award and consistent top rankings in entrepreneurship.

His teaching focuses on venture capital and applied AI, and his work has been recognized with multiple teaching awards. He has delivered invited talks nationally, including a keynote at Microsoft in Silicon Valley. His research has been published in leading journals and featured in outlets such as Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, and the LA Times.

Drover is the founding Director of Neeley AI Forward, a college-level initiative focused on keeping Neeley students, faculty, and staff on the leading edge of values-centered AI. In this role, he leads a team and five-pillar framework that integrates artificial intelligence across curriculum, faculty development, staff operations, research, and external partnerships.

Beyond academia, Drover has been a part of, or early-stage investor in ventures spanning software and AI, robotics, real estate, and biomedical sectors—including a NASDAQ exit and a robotics company now deployed by the Air Force, Navy, FBI, and allied forces for reconnaissance and security. He has led four consulting projects for the U.S. government and teaches innovation courses for the Department of Defense on U.S. and NATO military bases overseas.

Outside of work, Drover is a lifelong sports enthusiast who has completed 10 triathlons, kiteboards and wakeboards, and competed as a collegiate pole vaulter at the University of Missouri. Prior to joining TCU, he spent eight years on faculty at the University of Oklahoma, where he held the Price Professorship of Entrepreneurship

Selected Publications

• Drover, W., Huang, L. (2026) "The Forces That Shape AI's Uneven Progress." MIT Sloan Management Review.
• Matthews, M. J., Anglin, A. H., Drover, W., & Wolfe, M. T. (2024). Just a number? Using artificial intelligence to explore perceived founder age in entrepreneurial fundraising. Journal of Business Venturing, 39(1), 106361.
• Clingingsmith, D., Drover, W., Shane, S. (2023) “Examining the Outcomes of Entrepreneur Pitch Training: An Exploratory Field Study” Small Business Economics. 60 (3), 947–974
• Drover, W., Busenitz, L., Matusik, S., Townsend, D., Anglin, A, Dushnitsky, G. (2017). “Venture Capital, Corporate Venture Capital, Angel Investment, Crowdfunding and Accelerators: A Review and Roadmap of Entrepreneurial Equity Financing Research” Journal of Management. 43(6), 1820-1853.

Honors and Awards

• TCU Favorite MBA Faculty - Student-driven selection as one of Neeley's favorite graduate instructors. 
• 2025 Model Program Award – Large Institutes, United States Assosication for Small Business & Entrepreneurship (USASBE). National team recognition for excellence in entrepreneurship at TCU.
• Field Editor, the Journal of Business Venturing (2020–2023)
• Roberson Award for Teaching Excellence
• Pullin Partners in Learning Program Award
• OU Entrepreneurship Research Excellence Award
• Academy of Management ‘Best Published Paper’ Award (NEU Division)
• Research featured in Forbes, and other media outlets  
• Instructor, SBA/Department of Defense's Boots to Business Military Training Program (international military bases)
• Consulting Project Lead (x4): U.S. Department of State
• Risser Innovative Teaching Fellow
• Invited Speaker on Venture Finance at Baylor, Virginia Tech, Veteran Edge Conference, Keiretsu Forum, among others.
• Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference Doctoral Consortium co-lead
• AOM Entrepreneurship Division Doctoral Consortium co-lead
• OU Innovator’s Prize Faculty Mentor
• Visiting Scholar, Babson College