John Sibley Butler

John Sibley Butler

John Sibley Butler is the J. Marion West Chair in Constructive Capitalism at The University of Texas at Austin. He is faculty of the McCombs School of Business (Management) and the College of Liberal Arts (Sociology) and is a Fellow at the IC2 Institute. He is founding director of the Herb Kelleher Center, McCombs School of Business and a former director of the IC2 Institute. He has also chaired the Management and Sociology Departments. His research areas are organizational science, with special emphasis on military and entrepreneurial organizations.


His articles appear in interdisciplinary journals, including the American Sociological Review, Social Science Quarterly, Sociological Perspectives, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, and the Journal of Computer Mediated Communication. His books include Global Perspectives on Technology Transfer and Commercialization (with David Gibson), The Development of University-Based Entrepreneurship Eco-Systems (with Fetters, Greene and Rice), All That We Can Be (with Charles C. Moskos and winner of the Washington Monthly Book Award), Immigrant and Minority Entrepreneurship (with George Kozmetsky), Entrepreneurship and Self-Help Among Black-Americans, and An American Story: Entrepreneurship and Wealth Creation among Mexican Americans.


His recent awards include The LSU Alumnus of the Year Award (2012), The Heman Marion Sweatt Legacy Award (UT Austin), The Technology Innovation Special Achievement Award (Austin Business Journal), The 2010 Champions of Small Business Award (NCFC), Booker T. Washington Award for his efforts in the area of new venture creation and business start-ups, and The Ph.D. Project Award. He was appointed to the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board by President George W. Bush. Butler is a Vietnam veteran and received a Bronze Star for his service.


He received his undergraduate degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.