STEUBENVILLE, OHIO — Franciscan University of Steubenville announced the appointment of Simon Kyne to lead its Entrepreneurship Program.

Kyne brings more than 27 years of executive experience in fast-growing entrepreneurial companies, most recently serving as vice president of innovation and quality at Milton’s, a nationally recognized food brand based in Carlsbad, California.

“Simon Kyne is a proven leader in innovation, strategy, and team-based execution,” says Douglas Perry, executive director of the Leadership Institute and chair of the Department of Accounting, Business Administration, and Economics. “He combines deep marketplace experience with a humble and inspiring Catholic faith. We are grateful that Simon and his family have answered God’s call to Steubenville to help form the next generation of entrepreneurs.”

Kyne will serve as the director of the Entrepreneurship Program, which integrates rigorous business education with Catholic teaching, equipping future leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs to launch and lead ventures that achieve success in the marketplace, while contributing to human flourishing, living the Gospel, and impacting our culture for Christ.

The University offers a minor in entrepreneurship tailored to non-business majors while remaining available to business students.

During his career at Milton’s, Kyne led executive-level marketing and innovation functions, with expertise spanning consumer insight and market analyses, new product development and commercialization, brand strategy, and strategic problem solving. Kyne’s work contributed to the company’s turnaround, helping transform a declining bread business into a category-leading consumer food company.

Kyne has co-lectured with other executives on multiple occasions at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. Prior to Milton’s, Kyne held marketing and business roles at Brookside Foods, where he helped penetrate new markets, acquire new customers, and build revenue-expanding initiatives.

In addition to his corporate leadership, Kyne is deeply engaged in Catholic leadership formation and evangelization. He has served as a board member for Life Restoration Ministries and for Friends of Catholic Christian Outreach, and he cofounded the Society of Catholic Leaders (Credo), an apostolate dedicated to enabling evangelization and Catholic witness among business peers and within the workplace. He has also provided leadership training for the missionaries of Catholic Christian Outreach through their School of Incarnational Leadership in Canada. Serving these ministries has helped to shape Kyne’s pedagogical approach, which emphasizes lifelong learning and apprenticeship, the God-given dignity of the human person, the “law of the gift,” and a deep commitment to student success.

Kyne earned a bachelor of arts degree in history (honors) from the University of British Columbia and an MBA from Western Washington University. Simon and his wife, Mary, a 1999 graduate of Franciscan University, are relocating from San Diego, California. Kyne will begin his full-time duties at the University in March 2026, with teaching emphases in the subject areas of marketing strategy, ethics, leadership and innovation.

A headshot can be found here.