Peter Abramo

Peter Abramo, Ph.D. is a higher education leader and educator.  He has fifteen years of experience teaching entrepreneurship, helping students launch businesses and mentoring startups.   Prior to entering the classroom, he developed a business plan, raised funding, and created programming for a technology business incubator called the Center for Emerging Technology and Entrepreneurial Services (CETES).  Serving as the Executive Director of CETES, he worked closely with technology entrepreneurs working in the areas of virtual reality, robotics and UAVs.  Due to proximity to a large U.S. Army training base, he worked with soldiers transitioning out of the Army including two commanding generals and supported startups that provided products and services for the military. 

Peter is also a Certified Economic Developer (CEcD), a certification earned through the International Economic Development Council (IEDC).  He is currently a member of the IEDC Professional Development Advisory Committee and serves as a CEcD exam grader.  He is the past chair of the Economic Development Institute and remains involved as an instructor in their training program for economic development professionals across the United States.  Additionally, he is a Qualified Administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory®.

Prior to his career in academia, Peter worked in the pharmaceutical industry in consulting roles focused on product sales strategies.  He was an Executive Director at The Vanderveer Group where he worked with product teams at major pharmaceutical companies developing sales materials and strategies.  He became the second hire at a PDI Inc. subsidiary called Lifecycle Ventures where he built a Business Analytics Team to conduct due diligence for product acquisitions.  Along with a colleague, he set up a training company called MEAPA that provided professional development training to small and mid-sized companies. 

Peter holds a Ph.D. from Temple University in History, with an emphasis on U.S. and European Military and Diplomatic History in the 19th and 20th centuries.  His dissertation, The Economic and Military Potential of the United States: Industrial Mobilization Planning 1919-1945, focused on the planning efforts to establish a political economy during a time of total war.  Before starting his higher education journey, Peter served in the United States Marine Corps as an infantryman.