Panel Debate to launch Professor Elizabeth Chell’s new book “The Entrepreneurial Personality”

Over the last 20 years, entrepreneurship has emerged as a major focus of research interest among academics, policymakers and educators. While much has been learned about how entrepreneurs can be identified and nurtured, there are still differing views about to what extent an entrepreneurial approach is innate – and how much is shaped by circumstance.

The answers to these questions are important – entrepreneurs can deliver social and economic benefits for all of us. Yet without a detailed understanding of how entrepreneurs are formed, how can we ensure that the UK has a culture that supports entrepreneurs? Crucially, how can we be sure that we have the right educational environment to encourage and support the entrepreneurial efforts of our young people from the earliest age?

Please join us on Thursday 12th June for a lively panel debate to launch Professor Elizabeth Chell’s The Entrepreneurial Personality: A Social Construction, a timely look at how our entrepreneurial potential can be catalysed or not by the cultural, economic and business environment around us. Elizabeth Chell will open the discussions by presenting findings from her research on entrepreneurs. John Bates will respond and will suggest an agenda for what the UK should do about it. They will be joined on the Panel by Rajeeb Dey, founder of the English Secondary Students Association and previous President of the Oxford University Entrepreneurs Club, and Alastair Wilson, Chief Executive of the School for Social Entrepreneurs. The event will be chaired by Richard Halkett, Executive Director of Policy & Research at NESTA.

Who should attend?

> Enterprise policy and programme directors, academics, and practitioners and consultants advising entrepreneurs how to start up and grow their businesses.

> Professor Chell is currently leading research for NESTA to develop a tool to identify and measure the innovative qualities of young people, a crucial first step in developing the entrepreneurs of tomorrow. To find out more about this work, please join us on 12th June.

Registration is from 5.00pm with presentations to start promptly at 5.30pm. The Panel debate will be followed by a wine reception and networking until 7.30pm.

The Entrepreneurial Personality: A Social Construction, Routledge (May 2008), pp. 320, £34.95 (Hardback), ISBN: 978-0-415-32809-8

Biography

John Bates is Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at the London Business School. Over the years he has been responsible for the School’s practical initiatives in developing entrepreneurial firms including various networks of entrepreneurs, advisors and investors associated with the School. He has been teaching and developing courses at the School since 1985, while also starting up and running two hi-tech businesses, a consultancy practice and a venture capital company. His current teaching portfolio includes two MBA electives, New Venture Development and New Creative Ventures. John has an active interest in the technology and creative industries and is the former Chairman of Multimap.com, Europe’s leading online map service provider, and Director of five companies including the London Technology Network, the Centre for Creative Business and Sussex Place Ventures Ltd. He is also a Visiting Professor at the University of the Arts London and formerly a member of the Invention and Innovation committee of the National Endowment for Science technology and Arts (NESTA).

Professor Elizabeth Chell BA (Hons), MPhil, PhD has pioneered the study of entrepreneurial behaviour and the entrepreneurial personality over the course of her career. Elizabeth’s own entrepreneurial streak is evident from the key role she played in the creation of two academic centres of excellence – the Institute for Entrepreneurship at the University of Southampton and the Science Enterprise Centre at the University of Manchester. In her latest project, she is carrying out research for NESTA to develop a tool to measure the innovative characteristics of young people.

Rajeeb Dey (22) is a young serial entrepreneur. He is the Founder and Chairman of the English Secondary Students’ Association (ESSA), Founder of Enternships.com and was the longest serving President of Oxford Entrepreneurs. He is currently in his final year reading Economics and Management at Jesus College, University of Oxford. At University, Raj has served as President of the Oxford Majlis Asian Society – the second oldest society at the University, hosting one of the largest balls (Mumbai Nights) to raise money for charity. He was also the longest serving President of Oxford Entrepreneurs (2006-7), the largest free student society at Oxford with over 4000 members. His work in entrepreneurship has led to him being invited as one of the first “Connectors” for the Make Your Mark Campaign – helping to promote entrepreneurship in the UK. He is an Advisory Board Member of the UK-India Business Council (for its Next Generation India initiative) as well as being actively involved with a number of other organisations, including being a Trustee of the Phoenix Education Trust, a Commissioner on the Carnegie UK Trust’s Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society and most recently has been appointed as a Trustee of UnLtd – the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs.

Richard Halkett joined NESTA in 2006. He is responsible for developing a programme of policy and research projects to enrich and strengthen innovation policy in the UK. Before joining NESTA, Richard worked at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a large foreign policy think tank in Washington DC, where he was Assistant Director of Studies. He focused on the overall research direction of the centre and its 30-plus research programmes. Throughout his career, Richard has focused on technology, innovation, education and foreign policy issues. Richard was co-founder and chief executive of Boxmind, an Oxford-based technology company, which he ran from 2000 to 2003. Prior to that, he worked for Lloyds TSB plc. He was also a UK-US Fulbright Scholar at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. While at Berkeley, Richard was co-founder of PolicyMatters: the journal of the Goldman School. He graduated with a double first and a university prize from Merton College, Oxford and went on to complete his Masters in Public Policy at Berkeley, where he was nominated for the Aaron Wildavsky Prize for his advanced policy analysis. He is also a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Alastair Wilson, Chief Executive of the School for Social Entrepreneurs and formally, Development Director of the SSE Network of Associate Schools, and Founder and Manager of Homeless Direct.After working for six years as a Marketing Manager for ICL/Fujitsu computers, Alistair spent a year as a student of the School for Social Entrepreneurs. This lead him to starting up Homeless Direct, a capacity building project which supports local providers of emergency care for homeless people in recruiting donors and volunteers. After 3 years of running Homeless Direct, he returned to the SSE initially as Development Director and is now CEO.
Alistair is also a trustee of UnLtd (Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs), the London Funders Group, Akram Khan Dance Company and the Social Enterprise Coalition.

Registration required:

Yes

Free:

Yes