Will Drover

Biography

Will Drover is Professor and Chair of Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Founding Director of Neeley AI Forward, and Advisor to the Dean for AI and Digital Innovation. His career has largely centered on emerging technologies before the evidence is in, through research, teaching, program building, and early-stage tech investing.

As Chair, he works alongside a team of faculty and staff whose efforts have earned national recognition, including the USASBE Model Program Award and consistent top-25 rankings in entrepreneurship. As Founding Director of Neeley AI Forward, he built and leads a team and five-pillar strategy for integrating artificial intelligence across Neeley's curriculum, faculty and staff development, research, operations, and external partnerships.

In the classroom, he teaches Venture Capital and Foundations of Entrepreneurial AI. His teaching has earned multiple awards, along with invited talks, including a keynote at Microsoft in Silicon Valley. In partnership with Neeley Executive Education, he designs and delivers AI programs for C-suites and leadership teams, pairing a grounded view of the AI landscape with hands-on work in live systems, from agents to custom models built in session.

His research has been published in leading journals and cited over 3,000 times. His recent work on AI adoption has been published in MIT Sloan Management Review and Fortune, and covered by The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and Forbes. He previously served as a Field Editor at the Journal of Business Venturing.

Beyond academia, Drover has been a part of, or early-stage investor in ventures spanning software and AI, robotics, real estate, and biomedical sectors, including a NASDAQ exit and a robotics company whose systems are now deployed by the Air Force, Navy, FBI, and allied forces. He has led four consulting projects for the U.S. government and teaches innovation courses for the Department of Defense on U.S. and NATO military bases overseas.

Prior to joining TCU, he spent eight years on the faculty at the University of Oklahoma, where he held the Price Professorship of Entrepreneurship.

Outside of work, Drover is a lifelong sports enthusiast who has completed 10 triathlons, kiteboards and wakeboards, and competed as a collegiate pole vaulter at the University of Missouri.