Profile

Dr. Leatherbee holds a Ph.D. in Strategy, Organizations, Entrepreneurship, and Technology from Stanford University. He is an Associate Professor at the UC School of Engineering and Director of the UC Master’s Program in Industrial Engineering. His research has been published in prestigious academic journals such as Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, The Review of Financial Studies, and Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. His contributions include developing capabilities to identify innovative opportunities and designing policies to accelerate entrepreneurship.

In addition, Leatherbee is an advisor to the Innovation Council of the Chilean Economic Development Agency (CORFO), the Chile-California Council, and serves as President of Santiago’s Regional Strategic Program for Mountain Tourism. He has advised Chile’s Ministry of Economy and has served as Chairman of the Advisory Board of Start-Up Chile. He has extensive experience as a board member of startups and publicly traded companies.

Leatherbee is co-founder of YX Wireless, a company specializing in communication technologies that has received multiple awards, including the National Innovation Award Avonni 2009. He is also co-founder and Academic Director of Aukan, an innovation consultancy serving both public and private sectors, and co-founder and former president of the Oportunidad para Transformar Educando Foundation.

He has received numerous distinctions and competitive research grants totaling over $700,000, including: Fondecyt (2016, 2023), Innovation Growth Lab (2021, 2025), UC Teaching Excellence Award (2019), Kauffman-Nesta (2015), the “Dreaming Chile from California” award (2012) granted by the Chile-California Council, “Entrepreneurial Engineer” (2007) from the UC Engineers Foundation, selection among the “100 Young Leaders” (2004) by El Sábado magazine and Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, “Entrepreneurial Spirit” (2000) from Shell, and the “Cup of Honor” (1993) awarded by The Grange School.

Network

Keywords from publications

Title Year Doi
Amicrofoundationalmodel of real options reasoning: The roles of individual search propensity and perceived uncertainty 2021 https://doi.org/10.1002/sej.1355
The lean startup method: Early-stage teams and hypothesis-based probing of business ideas 2020 https://doi.org/10.1002/sej.1373
Rest, Zest, and My Innovative Best: Sleep and Mood as Drivers of Entrepreneurs' Innovative Behavior 2019 https://doi.org/10.1177/1042258718798630
A Dynamic Model of Entrepreneurial Uncertainty and Business Opportunity Identification: Exploration as a Mediator and Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy as a Moderator 2018 https://doi.org/10.1177/1042258717721482
The Effects of Business Accelerators on Venture Performance: Evidence from Start-Up Chile 2018 https://doi.org/10.1093/rfs/hhx103
Key performance indicators 2018
Selection issues 2018
Act or Wait-and-See? Adversity, Agility, and Entrepreneur Wellbeing across Countries during the COVID-19 Pandemic 2023 https://doi.org/10.1177/10422587221104820
From critique to catalyst: How academic entrepreneurs transform negative feedback into pivots and performance 2025 https://doi.org/10.1002/sej.70004

School Co-Authors

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External Co-Authors

  • D. Carrington Motley
    1 publication
  • Marcus A. Y. Salusse
    1 publication
  • Satoshi Kawakatsu
    1 publication
  • Claudia Bernhard-Oettel
    1 publication
  • Przemyslaw Zbierowski
    1 publication
  • M. K. Ward
    1 publication
  • Jingjing Qu
    1 publication
  • Constanze Eib
    1 publication
  • Marisleidy Alba Cabanas
    1 publication
  • Riitta Katila
    1 publication
  • Tomoki Sekiguchi
    1 publication
  • Saddam Khalid
    1 publication
  • Janet A. Boekhorst
    1 publication
  • Ana Perez-Luno
    1 publication
  • Amanda Jasmine Williamson
    1 publication
  • Francesco Rosati
    1 publication
  • Pierre-Jean Hanard
    1 publication
  • Edgard Barki
    1 publication
  • Nicola Thomas
    1 publication
  • Jun Li
    1 publication
  • Arobindu Dash
    1 publication
  • Dominika Wach
    1 publication
  • Muhammad Mohsin Zahid
    1 publication
  • Sreevas Sahasranamam
    1 publication
  • Tatiana Iakovleva
    1 publication
  • Alexandre Benzari
    1 publication
  • Ute Stephan
    1 publication
  • Olivier Torres
    1 publication
  • Sharon K. Parker
    1 publication
  • Adnan Efendic
    1 publication
  • Johan Wiklund
    1 publication