Edward Benjamin Shils (May 17, 1915 – November 14, 2004) was a noted and innovative management professor, who received six degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, an institution at which he taught for over five decades.
Shils most significant contribution to Penn was the 1973 founding of the Wharton Entrepreneurial Center, renamed in 1985 to the Sol C. Snider Entrepreneurial Center, at Penn's Wharton School of Business.
While entrepreneurship is widely accepted as an academic discipline today, the Center was the first of its kind in the world.
He subsequently passed the Pennsylvania Bar Exam and operated a law practice from his Center City consulting office.
After his death, the dental industry established the Edward B. Shils Entrepreneurial Education Fund in his honor.