Dr. Pier Abetti is currently Professor of Management of Technology and Entrepreneurship in the School of Management of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Troy, NY. From 1989 to 1992, he was Director of Rensselaer's Center for Entrepreneurship and New Technological Ventures. He obtained the degree of Doctor in Engineering from the University of Pisa, Italy and his Master's and Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Prior to Joining RPI in 1982, Dr Abetti had a distinguished 32-year career with General Electric Company, as advanced development engineer; manager of major innovative projects in extra-high-voltage transmission, data communication computers, and telephone switching systems; and manager of the Electrical and Information Advance Technology Laboratories. From 1973 to 1980, he was manager of General Electric's Europe Strategic Planning Operation. During that period, GE's sales in Europe, primarily of high-technology products, increased from $700 million to almost $3 billion. Dr. Abetti has written two books and 150 technical and management papers in five languages. He is listed in American Men of Science, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the East and in Who's Who in Technology Today. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and a former member of Research and Development Council of the American Management Association. His present interests are focused on the strategic management of technology and R&D planning for high-tech corporations, the management of technological innovation and entrepreneurship in large and small companies, and economic development with high-tech Incubators and Technology Parks