Introduction

It is with great sadness that we announce the recent death of this journal’s founding editor, Will Hausman. Will was not only Enterprise & Society’s first editor, but he was also central to its foundation. Will, then editor of the Business History Conference (BHC) annual proceedings volume, Business and Economic History, was at the core of a small group of BHC officers and members, including but not limited to Pat Denault, Glenn Porter, Phil Scranton, and Roger Horowitz, who recognized the potential to establish “a new journal that was dedicated to expanding the interactions between traditional business history and fields that might have seemed peripheral, but which had much to offer the study of business and its wider relationships.”1 Will not only helped to shape a vision of what the new journal should be but, as first editor, for Volumes 1 through 4 did much of the very heavy lifting involved in getting a new journal off the ground and underway. In addition to his work with Enterprise & Society, Will undertook many other roles on behalf of the organization, not least as President from 2006 to 2007. Will was also a very fine scholar in his own right, publishing extensively, especially in the history and economics of electricity and other power utilities. We will carry a fuller appreciation of Will’s life and career in a future issue. For now we wish to extend our deepest sympathies to Will’s family and friends. He will be very much missed by many.