John Surdyk

John Surdyk leads the INSITE initiative at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. INSITE supports student entrepreneurs through competitions, residential programming, and non-credit instruction that prepares them to develop business models, prototype rapidly, and pitch persuasively with the goal of de-risking potential products/services and launching a new business ventures.

Prior to joining INSITE, Surdyk founded Re-Envision Consulting, a firm working with nonprofits throughout the United States and Canada pursuing innovative, earned-income strategies where novel approaches to social problems and new technologies could be deployed for public benefit. Earlier in his career, he worked with the consulting arm of the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park as well as Navigant Consulting in Chicago.

He serves as Treasurer on the board of the Overture Center, Wisconsin’s largest nonprofit arts organization. Surdyk did his undergraduate work at Stanford University in Earth Systems Science and earned an M.B.A. at University of Wisconsin–Madison.