The event included presentations by promising startups mentored at the Business School, and a round-table discussion on entrepreneurship issues.
“Today is a special day, as we open the new and broadened Entrepreneurship Centre,” said Christoph Loch, Director of Cambridge Judge Business School. “The Centre is not just an academic exercise, but matters to Cambridge and indeed to the UK.”
He said that the Centre will “continue to teach individuals to prepare for entrepreneurial activities,” actively help startups to get “investment ready” and “help ‘ongoing’ small companies to build their management skills in order to achieve the ability to grow, addressing the ‘scale-up’ problem.”
“In sum, we are doing this because we want to have an impact and make a difference,” Professor Loch said.
The new Entrepreneurship Centre at Cambridge Judge combines several of the Business School’s initiatives, including the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (CfEL) and Accelerate Cambridge. It will enable Cambridge Judge to broaden its ambitions in building knowledge and skills as well as having impact on the practice of entrepreneurship in the Cambridge Cluster and beyond.
By creating a cohesive new structure, the Centre more fully encompasses the arc of entrepreneurship – including individual motivation and knowledge, venture creation and growth. The new Entrepreneurship Centre complements the Centre for Social Innovation, which launched last year and begins a new Master of Studies in Social Innovation degree programme in 2016.
The Entrepreneurship Centre is headed by Professor Stelios Kavadias, who also remains Cambridge Judge’s Director of Research.