Prepare veterinarians for success with business training.

Carole Richards, D.V.M. ’07, had always had an entrepreneurial spirit. As a veterinary student, she dreamed of running her own practice.  In her early years after graduating veterinary school, Carole jumped into becoming the first junior partner running a new branch of a successful animal hospital. “The process started a little rough,” Carole says. “I was very interested in business and I learned a lot — but there was lots of frustration around not quite knowing what I was doing.”

Since then, Carole has become a successful business owner. Yet, like so many veterinary graduates, she had to learn all those skills on the job. “New veterinarians need to learn more about how a business works,” she said. “A lot of students may have gone to veterinary school because they loved animals, but veterinary practice is actually all about constant interaction with clients.”

New veterinarians are also jumping into a rapidly changing field: companion animal practices are consolidating in record numbers. Technology and innovation drive change in diagnosis and treatment while the global pet industry and animal health market expands. And farms and dairies are both disappearing and consolidating across rural America. Modern veterinarians need more tools to tackle these shifts.

Shifting paradigms also bring new opportunities. Entrepreneurial culture has infused many professions with new life and opportunity, yet the veterinary field has historically stayed settled in its patterns, avoiding disruption.

As demand and unrealized opportunity continue pounding on the veterinary profession’s door, the college is stepping out to greet them. In 2018, we founded the Center for Veterinary Business and Entrepreneurship (CVBE). In partnership with the SC Johnson College of Business, it provides the first comprehensive, interdisciplinary program for training students in veterinary business. The center will seamlessly integrate its new programs into the core D.V.M. curriculum, so that every student will gain a solid foundation both in veterinary medicine and business acumen.

“To have had the CVBE as a resource would have been a game changer for me,” says Carole. “I think it’s going to equip more Cornell veterinary grads with the ability to not just survive in this profession, but truly thrive.”

Your gift in support of the CVBE will help us shape a new generation of veterinarians who have the skills to succeed wherever their career leads them.