For more than 25 years, the name John Elstrott has been synonymous with entrepreneurship education at the Freeman School. As a professor of practice, Elstrott has drawn on his extensive experience to teach the fundamentals of starting a business to thousands of students over the years, and as founder and executive director of the Levy-Rosenblum Institute for Entrepreneurship, Elstrott has put those skills to work in the community, creating innovative programs that use business concepts to address real-world social and economic problems.
Elstrott teaching a class in the 1980s. He first joined Tulane in 1982 and has taught entrepreneurship at the Freeman School since 1986.
Under Elstrott’s leadership, the Freeman School has earned a spot in the Princeton Review’s annual ranking of the nation’s top entrepreneurship programs for seven straight years, but even more significant than the program’s growing reputation under Elstrott has been its growing emphasis on the power of entrepreneurship to build a better world. Elstrott was an early advocate of the triple bottom line and social entrepreneurship, and along with his friend John Mackey, co-founder and co-CEO of Whole Foods Market, he’s become a champion of conscious capitalism, which argues for businesses to put purpose above profits.
“I’m a strong believer that the highest mission of business education is to prepare students to solve society’s problems,” says Freeman School Dean Ira Solomon. “I can’t think of anyone who represents that notion more completely than John Elstrott.”
At a time when many cast a jaundiced eye on business and business people, Elstrott embodies an idealistic, almost heroic vision of free-enterprise capitalism. Business, Elstrott argues, isn’t first and foremost about making money. It’s about solving problems and improving the world. From Celestial Seasonings to Whole Foods Market to Sambazon, Elstrott’s guiding investment principle is not potential profit but potential impact.
“I’m all about mission-oriented, purpose-based companies,” Elstrott says. “Certainly when I invested in them I thought they were going to work, but it was always because I believed in what they were doing and I thought they could make a difference in the world. That’s the real reason to start any business. If you take that approach and you impact the world in a favorable way, you’re going to make money.”
On June 30, after 21 years at the helm, Elstrott officially stepped down as executive director of the Levy-Rosenblum Institute, handing over the reins to his friend and colleague Ralph Maurer. Elstrott’s departure marks the end of an era at the Freeman School, but it’s not exactly a retirement. Elstrott plans to continue teaching entrepreneurship to MBA students each spring, he plans to work with Dean Ira Solomon to help raise funds for entrepreneurship-related initiatives, and he plans to remain involved with the Levy-Rosenblum Institute as an adviser and consultant. He just won’t be directing the institute anymore.
“I just didn’t have time to do it justice,” Elstrott says. “But I hope to continue working with students who are interested in entrepreneurship and conscious capitalism. I’ve really valued over the years the chance to work with idealistic students who want to make a difference in the world, and I still want to do that.”
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