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Dan Black Speaks to Fullerton Entrepreneurship Students


Dan Black ’67 was gracious enough to speak at two of Professor John Bradley Jackson’s Entrepreneurship classes yesterday and talked about what it’s really like being an entrepreneur. Mr. Black has started multiple businesses and has been a great benefactor to CSUF for nearly two decades and has recently become more active with the Entrepreneurship Program on campus. His stories are wonderful and his advice to the students is invaluable.

He was candid about the risks and sacrifices required to start, grow and manage a new venture. He reminded the students that few of us will stay “on top” for long. He suggested that we need to treat others well on the way up because we will meet them on the way down.

Dan Black is a true university citizen. His gifts and pledges to Cal State Fullerton will undoubtedly have an impact on the lives of countless students for generations to come. He enrolled at CSUF in 1964 and took, without great intention, a freshman physics course. Dan credits this course taught by future friend and mentor, the late Dr. Ray Adams, for influencing his decision to pursue a career in physics. Dan graduated in 1967.

Following graduation, Dan worked in sales and marketing for EG&G, a firm that manufactured physics equipment. In 1973, he started his first company, Trace Analysis Laboratory. He left that company a year later and launched MineraLab – later renamed Advanced Medical Nutrition, Inc. – which he sold in 1998. Dan then co-founded ProThera, a nutritional, supplemental company, where he currently serves as Chairman of the Board and CFO.

In 1998, Dan reconnected with his alma mater. That year, he established the Dan Black Scholarship, which provided $25,000 annually for scholarships to physics majors. In 2000, he funded the Dan Black Program in Physics and Business. In 2006, the university renamed it Science Laboratory Center “Dan Black Hall” in recognition of Dan and his wife Kathy Chao Black’s more than $4 million in gifts and pledges to the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. The Blacks also pledged $100,000 to the Mihaylo College of Business and Economics’ capital campaign and $25,000 to the performing arts campaign.

Dan Black practices was he preaches.

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