Creighton University announced that the Omaha-based Diabetes Care Foundation has committed $4 million to establish the Greisch Center for Enterprise Value, a new initiative designed to advance entrepreneurship and venture development across the university. The center is housed within Creighton’s Heider College of Business and will collaborate with innovators throughout every school and college at the institution.
The center is named in honor of Jim Greisch, a Creighton alumnus and board member of the Diabetes Care Foundation. The investment will fund new staff positions, entrepreneurship-focused curriculum, programming and seed funding to help students and faculty launch new ventures.
Creighton said the Greisch Center for Enterprise Value will serve as a university-wide hub for entrepreneurial innovation. In addition to supporting startup formation among students and faculty, the center will expand entrepreneurship minors, create new academic tracks and develop courses focused on intrapreneurship, which applies entrepreneurial thinking to innovation within organizations.
The initiative will also support research and commercialization across the university, helping faculty members secure publishing opportunities and translate intellectual property into market-ready ventures. Programming will include speaker series, entrepreneurship competitions and practical venture-building opportunities for students.
Among the activities the center plans to support is JayTank, a student-led competition in which participants pitch business ideas for donor-funded awards. The center also plans to launch initiatives such as a role- and skills-based app to assemble entrepreneurial teams, a research-backed venture-building assessment tool and Flight School, a 12-month post-graduate accelerator focused on venture creation and research commercialization.
Creighton officials said the center will strengthen the university’s position as a hub for entrepreneurship in higher education while expanding hands-on innovation opportunities for students across disciplines. The initiative also builds on the university’s existing entrepreneurship ecosystem, including the Creighton Entrepreneurship Club, which was founded in 2024 and has grown to more than 150 members.
The Diabetes Care Foundation, based in Omaha, funds initiatives in healthcare, education and innovation across the United States. While diabetes care remains its primary focus, the organization also supports projects that advance patient care innovation and community well-being.
The foundation has previously supported Creighton initiatives, including the Cura Project, which focuses on improving the quality of life for diabetes patients by examining how financial literacy, disease management and patient education intersect with patient health outcomes.
KEY QUOTES
“We are deeply grateful for the Diabetes Care Foundation’s gift and the many opportunities their investment will create for our students, faculty and staff campus-wide. The Greisch Center for Enterprise Value will take a uniquely Jesuit approach to entrepreneurship and innovation that builds on our core strengths, exploring not only how ventures can be profitable but also beneficial to the communities we serve.”
Rev. Daniel S. Hendrickson, SJ, PhD — President, Creighton University
“The Greisch Center for Enterprise Value will put Creighton ‘on the map as the entrepreneurship hub of higher ed. We are building something that doesn’t exist at any other college in the country: a nationally renowned program with innovative curriculum, resources and opportunities for practical application that will attract the most out-of-the-box thinkers and doers to Creighton.”
Nathan Preheim — Director, Greisch Center for Enterprise Value
“We are proud to support the Center for Enterprise Value because it’s both a unique opportunity to create value and another exciting new way for Creighton to be Creighton. As a Jesuit university, Creighton is particularly good at translating mission into real-world application and creating value for the communities it serves. The Center for Enterprise Value is a perfect way for the University — through student, faculty and alumni innovation — to capture not only monetary value, but every variety of intrinsic value that makes communities, employers and individuals prosper.”
Jim Greisch — Board Member, Diabetes Care Foundation
