Growing a Community Culture of Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Posted by Pauline Hechler on Jul 22, 2016

Justin Williams

As founder and CEO of Startup Tucson, Justin Williams has been a leader of regional efforts to develop a vibrant startup community in Tucson, AZ through programs that support entrepreneurs and innovators alike. Programs like Startup Tucson’s Idea to Impact Pipeline have set a national standard for strategic integration of programs like Co-Founder Speed Dating, Startup Weekend, Hackathons, Thryve Startup Incubator Growth Accelerators, and Startup Job Crawl. Williams has mentored hundreds of entrepreneurs to help them take their ideas and bring them to impact.

Justin is also co-founder and Executive Director of InnovateUA, a program to foster a campus-wide culture of entrepreneurship and innovation at the University of Arizona. He also teaches entrepreneurship in both the Eller College of Management and the College of Engineering.

Prior to his tenure with Startup Tucson, Justin served as Director of the Arizona Technology Council. There he established the Tucson office as part of its 2008 merger with AMIT – Tucson’s Aerospace, Manufacturing and Information Technology Cluster, where he served as founder and Executive Director.

Justin worked for over 10 years with high-tech firms in Southern Arizona including Electronic Data Systems, Intuit, and Ventana Medical Systems. He has worked with numerous small technology companies helping to commercialize university research.

Justin has a B.S. in Systems Engineering, an M.B.A. in Marketing and Finance and is an alumnus of the McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship. In 2011, Justin was named as one of Tucson’s “40-Under-40” by the Arizona Daily Star.