ILR Mentors
Mike Gausling
Originate Ventures, Managing Partner
Mike Gausling is a co-founder and managing partner of Originate Ventures LLC, a venture capital investment firm which targets early stage and emerging growth product companies in eastern Pennsylvania. Prior to co-founding Originate Ventures in 2006, Gausling was a co-founder and former CEO of OraSure Technologies (NASDAQ: OSUR) which was named to the list of 50 fastest growing companies in the Greater Philadelphia region for seven consecutive years. Gausling has also held a variety of financial management positions at Proctor & Gamble. Gausling graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering and received an MBA in Finance from Miami University of Ohio. Mike Gausling serves as visiting lecturer in the Leadership Development Course offered by the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Lehigh University for both undergraduate and graduate sections.
Robert "Gus" Gustafson
Enterprise Systems Center, Managing Director
Lehigh University, Adjunct Professor
Gus is the Senior Fellow for Leadership Development at the Enterprise Systems Center (ESC). He is currently serving as both an Adjunct Professor and managing director of the ESC at Lehigh University. He earned a BS in Chemical Engineering from Lehigh University and an MS in Dynamics of Organization from the University of Pennsylvania. He co-teaches the Industrial and Systems Engineering department’s “Leadership Development” and “Senior Project” courses to undergraduate students and created the course “Executing the Business Plan”, which he teaches in the MBA VENTURESeries entrepreneurial concentration. Gustafson also co-created the interdisciplinary Innovation and Leadership Residency program and is an advisor to the National Society for Leadership and Success at Lehigh University. He is currently developing ESC initiatives for improving U.S. sustainable manufacturing and global manufacturing leadership. Gustafson worked ten years for Proctor & Gamble and PepsiCo as a plant manager and then twenty years as an entrepreneur, founding and leading companies involved in U.S. housing exporting, software development and contract manufacturing. His software company won the 2000 Ben Franklin Technology Partners Incubator Graduate of the Year Award. Throughout his entrepreneurial career, Gustafson has mentored over a hundred students as interns in the various companies that he founded and/or managed. He is President of the Lehigh Class of 1974.
Dr. Emory Zimmers
Lehigh University Industrial & Systems Engineering Department, Professor
Enterprise Systems Center, Director
Dr. Emory W. Zimmers, Jr., is Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering. He teaches the Senior Capstone Project Course as well as courses in Leadership Development, Computer Graphics, and the Engineering Minor Curriculum. He is Director of the Enterprise Systems Center in Lehigh's P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science where he has served as principal investigator on more than 200 research and technology transfer projects with more than 400 industry partners. He is a Fellow on both the Institute of Industrial Engineers and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Dr. Zimmers co-authored the book titled “CAD/CAM: Computer-Aided Design and Manufacturing”. Among his academic honors is the 2011 Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. This recognized his commitment to innovative teaching, helping his students to practice critical thinking, develop analytical skills, and become effective practitioners through experiential learning.