Townsend and Hughes Are New Senior Editors

Mat Hughes (left) is now Senior Editor of familybusiness.org and David Townsend (right) is Senior Editor of EIX.

As readership continues to rise dramatically year after year, EIX.org and Familybusiness.org have added two experienced scholars, researchers and teachers as senior editors: David Townsend of Virginia Tech in the U.S., and Mat Hughes of Loughborough University in the U.K.

Both new editors will help attract and edit articles, interviews and other resources focused on important research findings, best practices and other useful advice for startups and family businesses. Townsend will work closely with EIX Senior Editor Daniel Forbes and Hughes will work closely with family business Editor-in-Chief Kimberly Eddleston.

"Professors Hughes and Townsend expand our expertise in innovation, entrepreneurship and family business. We are excited that both will be joining the editorial team at EIX and FamilyBusiness.org," said EIX Editor-in-Chief Jon Eckhardt.

Townsend (Ph.D.— Oklahoma) is the Union Junior Faculty Fellow in Entrepreneurship and Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship in the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech. Townsend is an award-winning researcher who studies entrepreneurial action, judgment, and decision-making and resource mobilization processes, focusing on the role of artificial intelligence in the future of technology-based venturing. His research has been published in dozens of studies in leading management and entrepreneurship journals, including the Academy of Management Annals, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Business Venturing and many others. He also serves on the editorial boards of The Academy of Management Review, Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, and the Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference Board of Reviewers. 

Throughout his academic career, Townsend has helped build three Top-25 entrepreneurship programs at the University of Oklahoma, North Carolina State and Virginia Tech. He served as a lead instructor for the inaugural NASA Entrepreneurship Academy and Bootcamp, and serves in various advisory roles to several deep tech startups. 

"David brings a mix of academic and practical knowledge to his new role. His scholarly interests have to do with how people make decisions in new ventures and, more recently, with how artificial intelligence is shaping the next generation of entrepreneurship,” said Forbes. “As a teacher and advisor, too, David works closely with emerging ventures and is experienced in bridging the gap between the worlds of research and practice.” 

Mat Hughes, Professor and Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the School of Business and Economics at Loughborough University, will be Senior Editor of familybusiness.org.

Hughes’ research interests and knowledge lie at the nexus of entrepreneurship and strategy and include entrepreneurial orientation, innovation and ambidexterity, social capital, absorptive capacity, corporate entrepreneurship and strategy, family firms, internationalization, and business acceleration/incubation. He has an author or co-author of at least 185 research papers and has published eight articles on familybusiness.org. He is also an Associate Editor at the Journal of Family Business Strategy.

His podcast, “Professor Mat Hughes” focuses on family businesses and features interviews with noteworthy family business scholars. Available on Spotify or Apple Music, it was named one of the Top 25 UK Innovation Podcasts by Feedspot in October 2021. And along with appearing on his own podcast, Hughes has been an expert source for BBC radio broadcasts focusing on  entrepreneurship.

“We are very excited to have Mat join our team,” said Eddleston. “He has been a consistent thought leader and advocate for family businesses.  With his added expertise and enthusiasm, FamilyBusiness.org is sure to reach new heights - helping to build healthy families and healthy businesses.”

Hughes and Townsend will be joining our sites at a time when readership is growing. EIX.org and familybusiness.org attracted nearly 2 million visitors during the last academic year (July 2020 through June 2021) and are on track to surpass that number this year.