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Headlines:
Lester Center Celebrates Another Outstanding Year
Haas MBA and Entrepreneurship Programs Shine in US News Survey
EcoFaeBrick Earns Top Prize at 10th Annual Global Social Venture Competition
Winners of the 11th Annual UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition Announced
Google Welcomes Student Leaders
IndieGoGo Makes a Splash at Sundance
INNOVATION will be on vacation for June and July. Save the date for the next Berkeley Entrepreneurs Forum on Thursday, August 27th featuring a panel from Google.
Lester Center Celebrates Another Outstanding Year
At the close of each academic year, supporters and friends of the Lester Center gather to celebrate the events and accomplishments of the previous year and to recognize those who make Entrepreneurship@Berkeley great. This year’s Lester Center Annual Awards Dinner took place last week at the Haas School of Business. View the dinner slideshow as a pdf.
Jerry Engel congratulates Dave Bend (MBA 2010) and Dhiren Bhatia (EWMBA 2010),
recipients of the Turner Fellowships for 2009
The evening included remarks by Lester Center Executive Director Jerry Engel and Haas Dean Rich Lyons, along with presentations of the 2009 Turner Fellowship, a fellowship established by former EWMBA student Daniel K. Turner of Montreux Equity Partners, to support MBA students in their entrepreneurial efforts, and the 2009 Gloria W. Appel Award for Outstanding Leadership in Entrepreneurship. We were also proud to present the Richard H. Holton Teaching Fellowship to members of our community who have consistently participated in the classroom by enriching the educational experience of our students. Finally, we presented the Jack Larson Scholarship to six outstanding undergraduates at Haas interested in entrepreneurship, with Jack Larson, a UC Berkeley alum and Lester Center Advisory Board Member, in attendance.
Our 2009 awardees were:
Turner Fellowship Recipients:
Dave Bend (MBA 2010)
Dhiren Bhatia (EWMBA 2010)
Gloria Appel Award for Outstanding Leadership in Entrepreneurship:
Kevin Casey (MBA 09)
Roxanne Miller (MBA 09)
Antony Passemard (MBA 09)
Richard Holton Teaching Fellows:
Noah Doyle (MBA 96)
Layton Han (MBA 97)
David Hartford
Dan Kihanya (MBA 96)
Steve Markowitz (MBA 96)
David Riemer
Jack Larson Scholarship recipients (all Haas 2010):
Justin Amey
Doreen Bloch
Ashley Pao
Mario Alejandro Restrepo
Eugene Shenkar
Cailin Trinh
Congratulations to all of those who were recognized!
Haas MBA and Entrepreneurship Programs Shine in US News Survey
The Berkeley full-time MBA Program ranked #7 in the 2010 US News & World Report survey published on April 23. The school's MBA programs ranked in the top 10 in six specialties, most notably for the Lester Center with entrepreneurship coming in at #7.
The full-time MBA ranking is based on data provided by participating schools as well as polls of business school deans, MBA directors, and recruiters. The peer and recruiter assessments count for 40%, placement success for 35%, and student selectivity 25%. Last year, the Full-time MBA ranked #7, the Evening & Weekend MBA ranked #6, and the Berkeley-Columbia EMBA Program ranked #8 in US News.
The school's MBA programs ranked in the top 10 in the following six specialties:
#3 Nonprofit
#7 Entrepreneurship
#8 Finance
#9 Marketing
#9 Management
#10 International
EcoFaeBrick Earns Top Prize at 10th Annual Global Social Venture Competition
Making high-quality bricks from abundantly available cow dung - instead of depleting scarce firewood and clay - earned EcoFaeBrick from Prasetiya Mulya Business School in Indonesia the $25,000 top prize at the tenth annual Global Social Venture Competition (GSVC) at the Haas School at the end of April.
View announcement of the winning teams
View Finalists' Business Descriptions
View Finals program booklet (pdf)
View Symposium program booklet (pdf)
Hosted by the Lester Center and the Center for Responsible Business, GSVC is an international MBA competition founded by five Berkeley MBA students in 1999 to promote the creation of social ventures with a measurable impact on society or the environment. Over the past ten years, the competition has grown into a thriving global initiative.
The GSVC winning team being awarded their first place prize by Haas student organizers
EcoFaeBrick not only reduces home building costs for rural Indonesians in the rapidly developing region of Godean and Sayegan, it also solves a major hygiene problem and promises attractive returns to its investors. Other top prizes were awards to mPedigree Logistics from Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business, SolarCycle from the George Washington University School of Business, and BrightMind Labs from the University of Auckland, New Zealand who took home the Social Impact Assessment prize, which was awarded to the team that best demonstrated social impact or value creation in financial terms.
The GSVC Symposium on Social Entrepreneurship, held the following day, brought together over 300 leaders and innovators in social entrepreneurship, business, and academia for a full-day conference at UCSF's Mission Bay campus. Attendees enjoyed engaging panels, participated in interactive workshops, and discussed the most recent trends and issues with leading and aspiring social entrepreneurs.
“The Lester Center is thrilled to see the growth and increased interest in social entrepreneurship and of the GSVC over the last 10 years,” says Lester Center senior program manager, Jill Erbland. “The energy and high quality of the finalist teams should be commended, and all of the student and staff organizers at Haas and our partner schools should be very proud of where the competition stands today.”
Today, GSVC's partnerships include the Haas School of Business, Columbia Business School, London Business School, Indian School of Business, and Thammasat University (Thailand). It is supported by outreach partners from the University of Geneva (Switzerland), ESSEC Business School (France), ALTIS--Postgraduate School Business and Society at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano (Italy), Yale School of Management, and a consortium of business schools in South Korea.
Winners of the 11th Annual UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition Announced
The 11th Annual UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition Finals, hosted by the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, took place at the April Berkeley Entrepreneurs Forum in front of a standing room only crowd in the Andersen Auditorium at the Haas School of Business.
View announcement of the winning teams
View Finalists' Business Descriptions
The 300+ attendees watched the eight finalist teams present while competing for $45,000 in prizes. The audience had the opportunity to select the People’s Choice award which carried a $5,000 cash prize. The event was the culmination of this year’s Competition which spanned months of activities, dating back to the fall when the 2009 student-led organizing committee was formed. We would like to thank the sponsors, executive summary round judges, semi-final round judges, final-round judges, mentors, workshop presenters, and Competition executive committee members, without whom the success of this year’s Competition would not be possible.
The winners are:
| First Place | AutoTB | |
| Second Place | Novophage | |
| Third Place | Integrated Diagnostics | |
| People’s Choice Award | Integrated Diagnostics |
“What a great night! Fantastic students, great ideas, solid business opportunities!" said Jerry Engel, executive director of the Lester Center. "AutoTB brings rapid diagnosis, and therefore rapid treatment to challenged populations that suffer from the scourge of Tuberculosis. Winning the UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition not only gives AutoTB some seed financing, but more importantly brings them to the attention of the venture community that will help them scale into a global enterprise.” Special guest speaker Josep Miquel Piqué, CEO of 22@Barcelona, dazzled the crowd with his special announcement that the first place winner would also be headed to Spain to present their business plan at the HIT Barcelona World Innovation Summit next month with a chance to take home 50,000 Euros.
Kelly Karns & Adnan Iqbal of 1st Place winner AutoTB (holding check)
are flanked by Bplan co-chairs Angus Hildreth & Richard Mordini
Google Welcomes Student Leaders
A group of first-year MBA student leaders involved in the Lester Center programs had a unique opportunity to spend a half-day at Google last week thanks to Haas School Executive Fellow John Hanke (MBA ’96), Director of Product Management for Google “Geo.”
Kicking off with a private tour, the group toured the main campus including typical office sights such as cubicles and conference rooms, but also complete with laundry rooms, the haircut mobile van, mini snack kitchens (Google believes that a snack should never be more than 200 feet away from one’s desk!), and a fully equipped gym. Then it was off to presentations by Strategic Partnerships, Sales, and Product Marketing for Geo (Maps, Local, and Earth). The presentations provided an overview of each Googler‘s position, some of their past and current projects, and how they came to work at Google, including education and professional backgrounds.
When asked why he wanted to bring Haas students to Google, Hanke reflected, “I learned a great deal from visiting companies while I was a student (maybe because I didn't have a background in business and hadn't even set foot in the major companies around Silicon Valley). So I thought it might be helpful to some of the current students to see a bit more of Google.” Following the presentations, the group was joined by Haas alums for lunch at one of the many Google cafeterias. There was so much interest from the Haas alums to host the group that they outnumbered the current MBAs. The students had an outstanding day and were able to experience an inside view of a company that is certainly in the public eye, but not typically accessible by the public. "Google provides their employees a great environment where they can be themselves and innovate to their heart's desires," said Bernie Lin, VP of Admissions for MBAA and Bplan mentorship organizer.
On behalf of all of our student leaders, the Lester Center would like to thank John and his Google colleagues who so graciously shared their time and talents with us.
IndieGoGo Makes a Splash at Sundance
IndieGoGo, one of the most interesting startups to emerge from the Lester Center’s Berkeley Entrepreneurship Laboratory, made a splash at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2009. An online social marketplace connecting filmmakers and fans to make independent film happen, IndieGoGo’s motto is “Do-It-With-Others”, and it provides filmmakers with the tools for project funding, recruiting, and promotion, while enabling the audience to discover and connect directly with filmmakers and the causes they support.
IndieGoGo was founded by Danae Ringelmann and Eric Schell, both MBA 2008.
IndieGoGo filmmaker Ondi Timoner’s film We Live in Public was selected for the 2009 Sundance Festival's Documentary Grand Jury Prize from the 16 films in the U.S. Documentary category. Timoner's second Grand Jury Prize (she won in 2004 for Dig!) is the story of the Internet's revolutionary impact on human interaction portrayed through the perspective of Josh Harris, the web maverick notorious for his experimental public art projects.
IndieGoGo filmmaker Ondi Timoner accepts the Documentary Grand Jury Prize
Robert Redford made a surprise appearance at an event co-sponsored by IndieGoGo titled “Where Internet and Film Collide”. Left to right: Joe Canfora (Actor), Redford, Slava Rubin (Co-Founder of IndieGoGo)
IndieGoGo celebrated its first anniversary at the 2009 festival. "After launching IndieGoGo at Sundance 2008, it was great to return to Park City and celebrate the online fundraising success with so many of our filmmakers, and even Robert Redford," said co-founder Danae Ringelmann.
In just over one year, IndieGoGo has:
- Become the most trafficked website for film funding with over 1,000,000 pageviews
- Raised over $100,000 in contributions ranging from $5-$5000; many contributions have come outside of the filmmaker’s immediate network
- Empowered over 5,000 filmmakers in 93 countries
- Enabled over 1600 free project profiles including award winners at Sundance and beyond
- Given fans access to many VIP perks including film credits, cast parties, and speaking roles
- Participated in industry-leading discussions at the Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals, Internet Week NY & Power to the Pixel
- Built a strong grassroots following in the blogosphere, Facebook, and Twitter
Faculty Feature: Ron Star
The Lester Center is pleased to present this month’s installment of our faculty feature, focusing on one of our esteemed faculty members. We bring you Ron Star who teaches Entrepreneurship during the fall semester.
Since receiving his JD/MBA from Harvard, Ron has spent his entire career (28 years!) at the Howard Rice law firm in San Francisco, where he heads the Emerging Companies practice. Ron focuses on all of the business law needs of an entrepreneurial venture, including financings, intellectual property, strategic partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, and employment matters. For most of his career, Ron also has moonlighted at Haas. Ron began as a guest lecturer on venture capital for Brian Moore's MBA class back in the 1980's, and stepped up to become one of the instructors in MBA 295 (Entrepreneurship) shortly thereafter.
He has been an instructor in that class for more than 25 different semesters. He also has co-taught sessions of the Haas/Intel T2 program in Mexico and India with David Charron, as well as having been an instructor in the Haas Global-Bio Program. Ron has taught in a variety of other programs, including at Boalt Law School, Stanford Law School, Stanford's Graduate School of Business, Sonoma State and the University of San Francisco.
When asked why he likes teaching at Haas, Ron reflects “Just as investors focus on the people (founders) more than they focus on the particular idea, the joy of teaching at Haas is the people. The students are terrific, creative and incredibly dedicated. My co-instructors and the mentors that we have involved in the class over the years have been great. There is also a strong relationship with the Lester Center team -- believe it or not, I began working with Jerry Engel even before he joined Haas!”
GET INVOLVED!
Get involved with Entrepreneurship and Innovation! The Lester Center's programs offer the inside track on entrepreneurship by bringing entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and other industry leaders to the Haas School and provide opportunities for interaction and the development of entrepreneurial ideas. Please check out the The Lester Center's website to view the wide variety of opportunities.
