DENTON (UNT), Texas —  Dr. Tony Mendes, director of the University of North Texas Murphy Center for Entrepreneurship, has been named president-elect of the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE), the nation’s largest faculty organization for professors teaching and researching entrepreneurship.

Mendes is an acclaimed entrepreneurial educator who formerly served as executive director of the Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership (AEL) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has been a member of the USASBE since 2004, where he has held several positions: director of development, senior vice president for programming and director at large.

Many of the programs that Mendes initiated have received national prominence including: The Kauffman Campuses program — the nation’s largest foundation to sponsor entrepreneurship, the National Consortium for Life Science Entrepreneurship, the National Consortium for Entrepreneurship in the Liberal Arts, the National Association of Community College Entrepreneurship and the Kauffman Faculty Scholars program.

Dr. Mendes holds a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and an MBA from Rockhurst University.

Mendes will begin serving a one-year term as president-elect when his presidency begins in January. He will serve one year as immediate past-president. In his year of presidency, his main responsibility will be to draft the strategic plan for the organization for 2014 and recruit the slate of candidates for officer positions in the organization. Members vote on board positions every October.