Dan Goodman

Senior Fellow for Renewable Energy, Smith School of Business

Dan Goodman is a serial entrepreneur with over thirty years of experience in starting and running product, service and consulting businesses. He has served as the founding Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Maryland’s Office of Technology Commercialization, where he promoted the licensing of University-owned inventions to business and industry. Dan has also served as the CEO of Zernike USA, Inc., the U.S. arm of the Zernike Group, a science park and venture fund management firm based in The Netherlands with offices in 12 countries. Dan is currently the Technology Commercialization Fellow at The University of Maryland’s R.H. Smith School of Business and an Entrepreneur in Residence at the nationally recognized Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, where he focuses on social venturing and assisting startups. He is the faculty advisor for the Smith School’s NetImpact Board Fellows program, which places MBA candidates on the boards of nonprofit organizations in mutually beneficial pro-bono engagements.

Dan served as Acting Chairman of the Board of Advisors of the U.S.-China Science Park, the People’s Republic of China’s first science park outside of mainland China, and served on the Advisory Committee of the Chesapeake Innovation Center, the nation’s first Homeland Security incubator. Dan is a member of the Board of Directors of HandsOn Toys (a specialty toy company), Eneractive Solutions (an energy services firm), and Volante (an automotive-focused TV production company), as well as a member of the Board of Advisors of Hook and Ladder Brewing Company, Goozex (a leading video game trading company) and several other companies and venture funds. He is a frequent moderator, panelist, and lecturer on the topics of new venture creation, entrepreneurship, and renewable energy.

Dan has been interested in renewable energy since he built his first methane digester in 1977 using canine waste feedstock. He is the Founder and Executive Director of Biodiesel University, a not-for-profit renewable energy education organization which teaches environmental stewardship and renewable energy topics to middle school through college students, teachers and the public.

Dan holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland and has studied Technology Transfer at the National Institutes of Health’s Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences.