November 9, 2009

Purdue partners with Kauffman for Global Entrepreneurship Week

Global Entrepreneurship Week, cofounded in 2008 by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and Make Your Mark, a business-led, government-backed campaign in the United Kingdom, will connect young people through local, national and global activities designed to help them explore their potential as self-starters and innovators.

"With the goal to inspire young people to embrace innovation, imagination and creativity, Purdue's Global Entrepreneurship Week activities will encourage youth to think big and turn their ideas into reality," said Alan Rebar, executive director of Purdue's Discovery Park and co-director of the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship. "Millions of young people globally will join this growing movement to advance entrepreneurship and innovation."

Purdue activities include a keynote address by Avisek Das, director of business development for North America at Tata Sons Ltd. His talk, titled Bottom of Pyramid Opportunity: Entrepreneurial and Corporate Models, is from 4:30-5:30 p.m. Nov. 16 in the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, Room 121. The event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.

Purdue's Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program will host a seminar and reception with Ron Ellis, president and chief executive officer of West Lafayette-based Endocyte Inc. Titled "Lessons in Fundraising," the seminar is at 4:30 p.m. Nov. 19, in the Burton D. Morgan Center, Room 121. The public is invited to attend the workshop, which will include students from the university's Interns for Indiana and Discovery Park Undergraduate Research Internship programs. To register online, go to: www.purdue.edu/dp/entrepreneurship/event

The Hoosier Heartland Small Business Development Center, a state agency with offices in the Burton Morgan Center, also will lead workshops on how to start a business from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 17 at 310 S. Pearl St. in Logansport and from 1-4:30 p.m. Nov. 18 at Greater Lafayette Commerce’s offices, 337 Columbia St. in downtown Lafayette.

To help get the campus ready for Global Entrepreneurship Week, Purdue's sixth Life Sciences Business Plan Competition is scheduled for Tuesday (Nov. 10) at the Burton Morgan Center. Eight finalists, most startup companies based in Indiana, will vie for $100,000 in prizes.

Global Entrepreneurship Week is estimated to exceed the 3 million people and 8,800 organizations around the globe that were a part of the inaugural Global Entrepreneurship Week in 2008. More than 650 organizations in more than 80 countries are participating this year. 

"The world knows that entrepreneurship is the key to economic recovery, and the next generation of innovators holds that key," said Carl Schramm, president and chief executive officer of the Kauffman Foundation. "Now more than ever, we need to unleash the creativity and ingenuity of our youth by engaging them in the endless possibilities of entrepreneurship."

Event sponsors are Discovery Park, Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, Purdue CIBER, Purdue Research Park, The Lilly Endowment Collegiate Entrepreneurship Opportunities Program, Purdue's Discovery Learning and Research Center, and the Kauffman Foundation.

About the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship

The Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship leads Purdue's large-scale interdisciplinary entrepreneurship programs and manages the university's Kauffman Campuses Initiative. The initiative focuses on making entrepreneurship education available across the university's main and regional campuses, enabling any student, regardless of field of study, access to entrepreneurial training. Richard Cosier, dean of Purdue's Krannert School and Management and Leeds Professor of Management; and Rebar, who also is senior associate vice president for research at Purdue, co-lead the center.

About the Kauffman Foundation

The Kauffman Foundation, based in Kansas City, Mo., is a private nonpartisan foundation that works to harness the power of entrepreneurship and innovation to grow economies and improve human welfare. Through its research and other initiatives, Kauffman aims to open young people's eyes to the possibility of entrepreneurship, promote entrepreneurship education, raise awareness of entrepreneurship-friendly policies, and find alternative pathways for the commercialization of new knowledge and technologies. It also works to prepare students to be innovators, entrepreneurs and skilled workers in the 21st century economy through initiatives designed to improve learning in math, engineering, science and technology. Founded by late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman, the Foundation has approximately $2 billion in assets. 

About Make Your Mark

Make Your Mark is the campaign to give young people in the United Kingdom the confidence, skills and ambition to be enterprising - to have ideas and make them happen. Run by Enterprise Insight, Make Your Mark was founded by four leading business membership organizations: British Chambers of Commerce, the CBI, the Federation of Small Businesses and the Institute of Directors.

Media Contacts: Phillip Fiorini, 765-496-3133, pfiorini@purdue.edu

Barbara Pruitt, Kauffman Foundation, 816-932-1288, bpruitt@kauffman.org

Sources: Alan Rebar, 765-496-6625, rebar@purdue.edu

Candiss Vibbert, 765-494-9404, vibbert@purdue.edu

Nathalie Duval-Couetil, Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program, 765-494-7068, natduval@purdue.edu

Susan Davis, Hoosier Heartland Small Business Development Center, 765-496-6491, sdavis@isbdc.org

Jackie Lanter, Burton D. Morgan Center, 765-494-1335, BDMCenter@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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