William D. Bradford

Dean and Professor Emeritus | university of washington Foster School of Business

Dean and Professor Emeritus William D. Bradford was Dean of the Foster School of Business during which time he worked to launch the Consulting and Business Development Center. In 1999, he stepped down as Dean and assumed the role of the Endowed Professorship of Business and Economic Development (now named the William D. Bradford Endowed Professorship) for more than a decade when he also served at the Center’s Faculty Director.
The Center’s Bradford-Osborne Research Award was created upon his retirement from fulltime teaching to both recognize his life’s work and to create an incentive for other researchers.
Dean Bradford has published more than 75 scholarly articles with most focusing on issues related to entrepreneurs of color. He has authored or co-authored three books and more than 50 articles on finance during his career. His research informs the Center’s business assistance programs including the formation of the M3 model of improving Management skills, growing access to Markets through contracts and supply chain partnerships, and increasing access to Money through loans and investments.

In addition to UW, he has taught at Stanford, Ohio State, U. of Maryland, New York University, UCLA, and Yale. He has been a consultant to numerous firms and has had international lectureships in corporate finance and entrepreneurship in the UK, Indonesia, Egypt, the Ivory Coast, South Korea, Canada, China, and South Africa. Professor Bradford’s teaching areas are Entrepreneurial Finance, Venture Capital, Managerial Finance, and Management of Financial Institutions. Professor Bradford serves on the Board of Directors of the Commerce Bank (Seattle), and was a member of the board of directors of the Russell Trust Company from 2000 to 2008.