Prior to earning a Ph.D. in management and marketing for entrepreneurial firms at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Bret spent fourteen years managing service and manufacturing operations and sales – mostly in technology businesses including IBM and small companies. Bret was also a product manager with responsibilities for market analysis, product development and sales for a small entrepreneurial company that developed optical quality assurance instruments for food processing, medical and industrial applications.
As a professor Bret developed and taught the technology commercialization, managing growth and entrepreneurship curriculums at the University of Vermont School of Business and the University of Maine Business School. In nineteen years of teaching experience he has also taught technology marketing and sales, quality assurance and operations management courses.
Bret was the founding president of the Vermont Biosciences Alliance, a non-profit technology business development organization. He was the founder of the Family Business Initiative at UVM and currently serves on several business and non-profit boards including the Vermont Investor Forum, The Maine Investment
Exchange and Cochran’s Ski Area Inc.