Hank Kopcial
Executive Director, Young Entrepreneur Foundation
As the executive director of the Young Entrepreneur Foundation, Hank Kopcial oversees the NFIB’s Free Enterprise Scholars Program and the D.C. Summer Intern Program. He also oversees the NFIB’s Young Entrepreneur Awards program and the D.C. Summer Intern program. Working with the Foundation’s board of directors, he oversees the development of new programs such as the Entrepreneur-in-the-Classroom, which will be introduced to high schools across the country in the fall of 2006. Under his direction the Foundation is also involved in co-branding activities with other business education organizations including Junior Achievement, DECA, Future Business Leaders of America, and the Foundation for Teaching Economics. Kopcial represents NFIB and the Young Entrepreneur Foundation on the board of advisers for the Fund for American Studies.
Kopcial joined the staff of NFIB in May 2004, having managed the creation and implementation of a $5 million education campaign at the National Association of Manufacturers. Prior to that assignment, Kopcial worked for more than 14 years at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and just under 14 years with the National Junior Achievement program. While at the Chamber he had responsibility for the $35 million Spirit of Enterprise Campaign. He also worked in senior development positions at the Hudson Institute, a conservative Washington, D.C., think tank, and the Career College Association, the D.C.-based trade association that represents the for-profit sector of higher education.
Originally from Ohio, Kopcial attended Washington University, St. Louis, where he majored in marketing. Kopcial lives in Fairfax,Va. and has one daughter, Kelly.
