Best Buy Founder Dick Schulze Didn't Attend College But He Thinks You ShouldThe Minnesotan business legend talks about his namesake entrepreneurial school and decades of sustained success.
ByKenny Herzog•Originally published
Dick Schulze's college prospects were diverted long ago by a stint in the Air National Guard, but that doesn't mean he thinks emerging entrepreneurs and innovators shouldn't pursue higher education. It's why the 80-year-old Best Buy founder and Chairman Emeritus founded the University of St. Thomas' Schulze School of Entrepreneurship in 2005. And it's the reason he remains a trustee emeritus at the St. Paul, Minnesota-based institution (Schulze is a St. Paul native) and is deeply invested — financially and otherwise — in the on-campus leadership incubator that bears his name.
It seems to be paying off, both for Schulze's legacy and the fortunes of alumni. UST's School of Entrepreneurship landed at no. 23 on this year'sPrinceton Review/Entrepreneurrankingof the country's top 50 undergrad programs for aspiring business leaders. Not only that, but Best Buy has defied odds andremained profitable and investor-friendlyamid the pandemic and larger sea changes in consumer shopping.