Arthur Angelo Ciocca

December 5, 1937 - December 18, 2021

After 35 years in entrepreneurial companies and roles, I thought I knew a lot about “Silicon Valley-style” entrepreneurship But after meeting Art Ciocca, I’m so grateful for the opportunity to learn everything he had to teach me on the subject

Art’s vision of entrepreneurship, which I’ve had the extraordinary opportunity to help implement at Santa Clara University, wasn’t one of teaching students how to start, build, or run a business Rather, Art was focused on how to think like entrepreneurs and how to teach the elements of an Entrepreneurial Mindset to students from all disciplines and walks of liferegardless of whether that student will ever start a business

Art saw entrepreneurship as a set of life skills - empathy for those who are in pain and those with problems we can try to solve; the optimism to approach problems as opportunities; confidence in taking risks; and an awareness of the impact of our actions I still blink in surprise when I recall my initial conversations with Art as he described his vision to me in such a pure form

Every day, I get to think about Art's vision and help bring it to life at a university he loved.

I’m honored to continue the work of building the campus-wide Ciocca Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship And I remain inspired to equip students from all backgrounds and disciplines with the tools of an entrepreneur, just as Art wanted

Chris Norris Executive Director