Astrid Berg
Director, NIRAS
Throughout 2008, Astrid Berg has been project coordinator of the Survey on Entrepreneurship in Higher Education carried out for the European Commission’s Enterprise and Industry Directorate-Generale.
Astrid has 12 years’ experience as a consultant, analyst and evaluator of European funded projects, with expertise in further and higher education and vocational training. She has been involved in large EU programme evaluations including SOCRATES in 2000 under the leadership of the University of Kassel, Germany; the CD development action under ERASMUS (2004-2005); and (with the European Institute of Education and Social Policy) a status report to the Council of Ministers on implementation of the Bologna and Copenhagen Declarations (2005). A serial entrepreneur herself, enterprise and entrepreneurship is a field close to her heart. The European Survey on Entrepreneurship in Higher Education has been carried out by a consortium of NIRAS Consultants, Fora and Econ Poyry Norway. The results will contain recommendations for strengthening entrepreneurship education on both European, national and institutional level.
Dr David Stephenson
Head of Higher Education, Cornwall College
Dr John Law
Higher Education Advisor, British Council
Since joining the British Council, John Law has advised on issues of quality assurance, collaborative partnerships, research co-operation and international development.
John has over 20 years experience in the higher education sector specializing in the area of design and the creative industries. After graduating with a BSc in Industrial Design from Edinburgh’s Napier University, John gained several years experience as a practicing designer, before joining the University of Central England (UCE) in Birmingham where, in 1996, he gained his PhD in Design Management. In 2000 he was appointed as Head of the Department of Fashion, Textiles and Three Dimensional Design at UCE, before moving to Hong Kong as the Head of Department of Design at the Hong Kong Design Institute.
Dr Theresa Cowley
Research Director for Organisational Impact and Learning, NESTA
Theresa Crowley leads on NESTA’s ‘Innovative People’ research strand. She is a Chartered Psychologist with a background in qualitative and quantitative research at the Policy Studies Institute, Cabinet Office, HM Treasury and the National Audit Office.
Dr Tony Mendes
Executive Director, Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership (AEL), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
In his role with the Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership, Tony Mendes is responsible for integrating the entrepreneurship curriculum in all academic units of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Tony is an acclaimed entrepreneurial educator who formerly served as Director of College Initiatives at the Kauffman Foundation, Kansas City, Missouri. There he managed a program grant portfolio of $30 million at over 200 colleges and universities. Many of the collegiate programs he initiated have received national prominence. Dr Mendes is responsible for developing and delivering curricular and co-curricular initiatives targeted to faculty, student and administrative interests. He holds a PhD in Psychology from the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and an MBA from Rockhurst University. Prior to joining the Kauffman Foundation, He was founder and president of Mendes and Associates, a private consulting company, located in Kansas City, Missouri.
Jonathan Lloyd
Founder of Falling Pixel Ltd and a 2009 NCGE Flying Start Global Entrepreneur
Jonathan Lloyd founded Falling Pixel Ltd – an animated 3D asset design and online directory service – with a fellow student from the University of Portsmouth in 2007 and was selected in 2008 to become a Flying Start Global Entrepreneur.
Falling Pixel operates as a brokerage for graphic artists producing 3D content for use by many industries from TV and advertising to architectural and medical visualisation. Throughout his time at university, Jonathan worked hard to pursue his business idea and benefited from the help and advice he sought. Selected by the NCGE and the Kauffman Foundation as one of this country’s most promising graduate entrepreneurs, he intends to learn from the best examples of graduate entrepreneurship in the United States.
Karen Wilson
Senior Fellow, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
For five years Karen Wilson has focused on entrepreneurship education, policy and financing (venture capital) working with private sector firms, international organizations, foundations and universities, primarily in Europe.
Karen has spoken on entrepreneurship education, policy and financing at conferences across Europe and has authored and published several papers. Prior to founding her company, GV Partners, in 2004, Karen worked in the venture capital industry. Previously, she was part of the senior management team at the World Economic Forum in Geneva, and served as the Executive Director of the Global Initiative at Harvard Business School. Her past experience also includes management consulting, primarily in financial services, as well as investment banking. She has served on a number of boards and coached many start-ups. She currently serves as an adviser and board member of the European Foundation for Entrepreneurship Research (EFER), an advisory board member for the United Nations (UNCTAD) EMPRETEC program and a member of the European Leadership Council for Harvard Business School. Karen holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Management from Carnegie Mellon University as well as an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Keith Hermann
Deputy CEO at the Council for Industry and Higher Education (CIHE)
Keith Herrmann is responsible for research, organisational strategy, corporate governance and stakeholder engagement at the CIHE – a unique high-level partnership between leaders from businesses, universities and colleges.
Keith leads research in entrepreneurship education, leadership and management in higher education, innovation and workforce development. He has worked on a number of policy related projects with a range of partner organisations informing Government policy on using public procurement to stimulate innovation, graduate employability, developing entrepreneurial graduates and leadership and management in HE. Keith was previously Director of Programmes for Small Enterprise Development at Durham University Business School.
Lars Linstedt
Software Economist, Microsoft
Lars Lindstedt heads the UK Software Economy, Academic and Emerging Business programmes at Microsoft, focusing on how software delivers responsible economic growth and the factors that accelerate that growth, such as skills, innovation, entrepreneurship, and investment.
His previous roles have included running the Microsoft Technology Centre for four years, where corporate customers and partners are assisted with evaluating and developing innovative solutions on next-generation Microsoft technologies. Prior to joining Microsoft in 1996, Lars spent ten years in software development, consultancy and management at the EBRD and Syntek Ltd. He holds a degree in mathematics from the University of Cambridge and an International Baccalaureate from the United World College of the Atlantic.
Professor Allan Gibb
Professor Emeritus Small Business Management, Durham Business School, University of Durham
Professor Richard Williams
Pro Vice-Chancellor (International Relations, Enterprise & Knowledge Transfer), University of Leeds
Professor Richard Williams chairs the Enterprise and Knowledge Transfer Board at the University of Leeds and oversees the Enterprise and Innovation Office (intellectual property management, knowledge transfer support and consultancy).
Through developing the growing knowledge transfer (KT) arena at regional, national and international levels and through the development of discipline-based and interdisciplinary KT activities, Leeds seeks to enhance the personal creativity and societal impact of the university’s staff. Drawing on his own entrepreneurial experience and interests across science, engineering and the arts, new approaches to grow campus enterprise culture and strategic national and international partnerships with commerce and governments are under development at Leeds. A graduate in Mineral Technology (1982) and PhD (1988) from Imperial College of Science and Technology. Richard holds the Anglo American plc Chair in Mineral and Process Engineering and is founder of the Leeds Nanomanufacturing Institute, the Yorkshire Forward Nanofactory, the Particles CIC, and is a research director of The Virtual Centre for Industrial Process Tomography.
Professor Madeleine Atkins
Vice-Chancellor, Coventry University
Richard Beresford
Director, Centre for Creativity and Enterprise Development, Oxford Brookes University
Simone Baldassarri
Entrepreneurship Unit of the Enterprise and Industry Directorate-Generale, European Commission, Brussels, Belgium
Simone Baldassarri has worked in the Entrepreneurship Unit of the Enterprise and Industry Directorate-Generale of the European Commission since 2000 and leads the EU-wide Survey of Entrepreneurship in Higher Education.
Simone has led the Commission’s Best Procedure Project: ‘Entrepreneurship in Higher Education, especially within non-business studies’. The final report of the Expert Group was published in 2008. A graduate in Economics and Trade from the University of Rome, he previously worked in the private sector in advice and consultancy for enterprises – particularly SMEs.