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Graziadio School Welcomes Technologist John Shearer as First Entrepreneur-in-Residence

John G. Shearer

Award-winning inventor John G. Shearer, founder of Powercast Inc., a pioneer in wireless power transfer, has been appointed Entrepreneur-in-Residence, joining the faculty at Pepperdine University's Graziadio School of Business and Management. In the new academic position, Shearer will lead the school's goal to develop MBA student-founded, innovation-based businesses by identifying and locating cutting-edge technologies from other universities, national research laboratories, and within the private sector. 

“John Shearer inaugurates the Pepperdine Entrepreneur-in-Residence having held executive management positions with several start-up and venture-backed companies,” says Linda A. Livingstone, dean of the Graziadio School.

“He has successfully commercialized early-stage research and development projects ranging from innovative image conversion systems and output devices to large-scale data collection and network optimization systems for companies in the electric power, gas, and telecommunications industries,” Livingstone says.

The appointment furthers the Graziadio School's entrepreneurship curriculum redesign announced in May. Launching this fall, the new program emphasizes creativity to help Pepperdine MBAs translate a personally compelling vision into a high market-value business and requires that students complete seminars exploring new venture opportunities in various tech industries or fields of study.

“Technology-based innovation simply cannot occur without the participation of a scientifically minded content expert,” says Larry Cox, director and chief architect of the entrepreneurship program. "John Shearer understands the science in a wide range of domains, and as our Entrepreneur-in-Residence is able to locate and evaluate technologies with significant commercial value in university and private sector locations.”

Shearer, a primary inventor of the Powercast Wireless Power Platform and associated transmission algorithms, founded Powercast Inc. in 2003 and currently serves on the company’s board of directors. He received the 2008 Carnegie Science Award for Start-up Entrepreneur. The company holds more than 100 wire-free power technology patents and patent applications. The emerging technology has won widespread recognition, including CNET’s CES 2007 Best Emerging Technology Award, Laptop Magazine's 2007 Mobile Maverick Award and, most recently, the 2009 “Best of Sensors Expo” Gold Award for its energy harvesting module.

Previously, Shearer founded Information and Graphic Systems, Inc., and grew revenues to more than $10 million in the company's first two years. He has managed and coordinated multi-site, multi-disciplinary product development/distribution projects and was responsible for the design and launch of the innovative data conversion software suite that became the anchor product for a division of Hitachi Software America.

Shearer holds a bachelor's degree in physics and an MBA from the University of Colorado, where he was accepted into Sigma Pi Sigma (Physics Honor Society) and was also named Entrepreneur of the Year by the Graduate School of Business. He currently holds multiple patents, granted and pending, in the wireless power and RF power-harvesting fields.

The Entrepreneur-in-Residence appointment was made possible by a generous grant from the George & Reva Graziadio Family Trust.

Find out more about John Shearer here. Learn more about entrepreneurship at Pepperdine’s Graziadio School.