Progress Magazine Annual Report 2011 - Eller College of ...

feature
drive.
energy.
enthusiasm.
leadership.
Len Jessup grew up in the San
Francisco Bay area, the descendent
of Italian immigrants on both his
mother’s and father’s sides of
the family.
“Like many immigrants, my family
came to America in search of
prosperity and a better life,” he
said. “My family is a long line of
small businessmen and women
dating all the way back to our
origins in ‘the old country,’ and
the conversations and stories
around our dinner table constantly
revolved around starting or
growing businesses.”
getting to know
Len Jessup
That entrepreneurial tradition
would go on to inform Jessup’s
research and his enthusiasm for
driving change within institutions
of higher education.
Jessup was the first in his family
to go to college — he earned his
undergraduate degree in information
and communication studies in
1983 and his MBA in 1985, both
from California State University,
Chico. “It was eye-opening for me
to even go to college,” he said.
After completing his MBA, he made
the decision to continue his studies
with a doctoral program. “My time
at the UA as a student in the late
1980s was transformational for me
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