This year, the UD Alfred Lerner College welcomed several new faculty members into its community. Tomé Salgueiro is an assistant professor of social innovation and entrepreneurship; he spoke with Lerner about his research focus and why he chose to join the University of Delaware.
Lerner: What is your professional and academic background?
Salgueiro: I hold an bachelors and a master’s degree in environmental engineering (University of Lisbon), as well as an international management master’s degree (Nova School of Business and Economics & EM Strasbourg) and a Ph.D. in management (Nova School of Business and Economics & visiting student at INSEAD). As for my professional background, I have worked in the renewable energy sector, the Portuguese Central Bank (as a data analyst), and more recently as a social impact consultant for a number of nonprofit organizations. I have also had a number of roles in higher education since 2014 including as a teaching assistant, researcher, and assistant professor.
Lerner: What is your research focus?
Salgueiro: I focus broadly on topics relating to hybrid organizations, but I am particularly interested in understanding how organizations, their workers and collaborators learn to manage conflicting social and commercial institutional logics. Other work includes the study of stakeholder reactions to organizational change and policy and decision-making processes that facilitate the emergence of social enterprise ecosystems.
Lerner: What inspired you to work in your field/research/subject area?
Salgueiro: I was passionate about the environment and renewable energy since I was a teenager, hence my desire to pursue a career as an environmental engineer. I have since been “bitten by the teaching bug” and became interested in pedagogy and higher education. In following many of the hybrid organizations that I study and support, I also came to believe in the power of business as a potential tool for good. So, that is what I want to spend my time doing: hopefully inspiring great students to become better entrepreneurs, come up with sustainable ideas that address social problems or help preserve and regenerate our planet.
Lerner: What is it about UD that made you want to work/teach/research here?
Salgueiro: UD has the perfect environment for faculty that enjoys a balance between teaching and high-quality research, while being very connected to the local community. Horn Entrepreneurship is also quickly becoming THE place to be for anyone interested in creating a business and becoming an innovator! It is also a major plus that the people here are welcoming and warm!
Lerner: What course are you most excited to teach at Lerner?
Salgueiro: Eco-Entrepreneurship – I am excited to introduce topics such as circularity, biomimicry, and regeneration to a new group of entrepreneurial students.
Lerner: What is something unique about you that may surprise your peers/students? (hobby, talent, experience etc.)
Salgueiro: I spent a year living in a mountain, in the outskirts of the Sequoia National Park as a teaching intern at the Clemmie Gill School of Science & Conservation in California. As teaching interns, we taught kids from the Tulare County, many who had never been in nature, about topics such as birding, geology, aquatic life, astronomy, and we even helped run a natural history museum.