Michigan Ross Professor Recognized as Favorite Professor by Poets&Quants

Thornhill was recognized by 2023 MBA Best and Brightest Honoree George Okpamen, MBA ’23. Outside of teaching the Building Healthy Business, Entrepreneurial Ventures, and Business Innovation Residency courses and researching entrepreneurial strategy, Thornhill also serves as the Executive Director of the Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies. 

 “My favorite Professor is Stewart Thornhill,” said Okpamen. “I met him initially as the faculty lead for Ross’ inaugural Silicon Valley Experience (SVE) last summer. I was impressed by how he knew the backgrounds of all ~15 students who came from a selective group of innovators across our various MBA, BBA, Engineering, Creative Arts, and PhD programs. During the week-long experience, he alluded to a course he was teaching in the winter semester called Quality as a Strategy, which would focus on multinational generational businesses vs. the typical high-growth startup business models we were used to studying. I signed up for the class and was further blown away by the content and his ability to make each session engaging and enlightening (with one guest lecturer). His mastery of multiple cultures outside of the United States, novel and traditional business strategies, and ability to connect the dots of theory versus real-world actions through tangible tactics was empowering. It did not hurt that he was terrific with people, wore amazing suits, and flew planes on the weekends. Stewart’s ability to garner and grow someone’s interest among a crowd of distractions was and is simply one-of-a-kind.”