The Baker Institute Awarded $5 Million Gift

The entrepreneurial spark that ignites Lehigh will now glow even brighter thanks to a $5 million gift from the Dexter F. and Dorothy H. Baker Foundation for the Baker Institute for Entrepreneurship, Creativity and Innovation.

The Baker Institute was founded in 2010 by a gift from engineer, entrepreneur and business executive, Dexter Baker ’50 ’57G ’81H, and his wife, Dorothy, with a vision that every Lehigh student be “vaccinated with the creative mindset and entrepreneurial skills to make a positive difference in their lives and their communities.” Dexter passed away in 2012, yet his legacy continues with the Baker Institute, which today provides and participates in a network of entrepreneurship-related programs and activities open to students of all disciplines.

The Baker Foundation’s most generous commitment, Dexter F. and Dorothy H. Baker Legacy Fund, establishes a fund to provide a base of support for Institute initiatives in perpetuity.

Chairperson and trustee of the Baker Foundation, Dorothy Baker, comments, “This gift shows our great confidence in what Lehigh has built, its palpable momentum, and its future possibilities.  Now, Lehigh will be able to broaden and deepen the student experience in entrepreneurship.”

Carol Baker, a trustee of the Baker Foundation, daughter of the founders and a member of the Baker Institute Advisory Council, explains, “We think the idea of instilling creativity, driving innovation and providing the entrepreneurial tools to bring new ideas forward is a timeless endeavor. We are making a long-term commitment to Lehigh to assure that students both today and tomorrow have access to exciting programs that will spur their creative spirit to positively shape the future.”

The programs of the Baker Institute, which is directed by Todd A. Watkins, the Arthur F. Searing Professor of Economics, are open to everyone within the Lehigh University community. Since the Institute was founded, student enrollment in entrepreneurial courses has quadrupled, to more than 500 enrollments per year. There has been a 17-fold increase in participants in extracurricular programs and a five-fold increase in the number of entrepreneurs active in the mentorship network. The number of ventures launched by students and faculty has more than doubled, to about 60 per year.

Among the Institute’s signature programs garnering national attention for students are the EUREKA! Ventures Competition Series, the immersive entrepreneurial experiences of LehighSiliconValley and LehighNYStartup, campus-wide iDeX idea exchanges, and the new LaunchBayC accelerator for early-phase startups founded by Lehigh students. Last year, Lisa Glover ’13 ’14G leveraged the institute to create and launch Kit-Rex, an origami dinosaur. Pierson Krass ’14 founded a high-end athletics clothing line in 2011, while Matthew Sheffield ’17 designed Shady Eyedeas – sunglasses with interchangeable frames. Shannon Varcoe ’15 is working now on Abuildity Toys, a line of toys designed for children with cognitive problems often experienced by children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

“Dexter challenged and inspired the Lehigh community with his vision to create an entrepreneurial culture,” explains Dale F. Falcinelli '70 '72G, chair of the Baker Institute’s Advisory Council. “This most recent gift from the Baker Foundation reminds us that it is through the support of those who share our mission that Lehigh remains at the forefront in entrepreneurship. It is our hope that the Baker Foundation’s $5 million commitment will inspire others to invest with the Institute and advance its mission of educating the entrepreneurs for the 21st century.”