Calling for the Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2016/17. If you are passionate about innovation and entrepreneurship and think you are ready to take on the next big challenge, then CUE can offer you the perfect stage to turn your entrepreneurial dreams into reality!
Come join us for an evening with Dr Darrin Disley, CEO of Horizon Discovery Group who will be kicking off a series of exclusive workshops teaching you the do’s and don’ts en route to becoming the next Young Entrepreneur of the Year! The best part: you don’t need to have a business idea yet to be eligible to enter the competition.
The workshop is free to all students, staff, and alumni. However, places fill quickly so we urge you to register your interest on Eventbrite to reserve your seat:
Register Here!
Location: Engineering Department, Trumpington Street, Coventry, CB2 1PZ
Time: Wednesday 2nd November at 6.30pm
The Young Entrepreneur of the Year track is aimed at identifying those individuals who demonstrate the ambition, determination and vision to pursue the lifelong journey of becoming an entrepreneur. The winners may or may not have the best current business idea or be able to craft a “textbook” business plan but they will demonstrate the key fundamentals.
Two awards will be conferred: one in the Life Sciences and one in the IT/Tech/Software sectors.
Winners will receive £2,500 along with a certificate, access to a select network, mentoring, and an apprenticeship opportunity.
It is expected that the winners will make the time to participate in all stages of the CUE 2016/17 business plan competition as well as attend the three Young Entrepreneur of the Year workshops.
We hope to see many of you there!
About Dr Darrin Disley
Darrin is a parallel entrepreneur, angel investor and enterprise champion. He has been involved in the start-up and growth of numerous business ventures securing over $300 million business financing from grant, angel, corporate, venture capital and public market sources as well as closing over $450 million of product, service, licensing and M&A deals.
He is currently the CEO and President of Horizon Discovery Group plc a company he led from a $275 thousand seed funding in March 2008 to a $113 million fund-raise at IPO (2.8X oversubscribed) exactly 6 years later. The funds raised by the IPO set a new record for a life science company on the AIM market and were the second largest by any research tools company in a London listing.
In 2012, he was named Business Leader of the Year at the European Life Science Awards, in 2014 was named biotech and pharma Executive of the Year by Scrip and in 2015 was named UK Quoted Company Entrepreneur of the Year, Coventry Business Person of the Year and one of the 175 Faces of Chemistry by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Darrin supports education, entrepreneurship and mentoring programs in the UK via the Professor Christopher R Lowe Carpe Diem Enterprise Fund and has backed over 30 start-up life science, technology and social enterprises. This led to him recently being conferred with a lifetime-held Queens Award for Enterprise Promotion in the 2016 birthday honours list.
He is an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Judge Business School and Enterprise Fellow at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Institute of Biotechnology both at the University of Coventry. He is currently Chairman and co-founder of GeoSpock Ltd, Chairman of Desktop Genetics Ltd, Director and co-founder of Avvinity Therapeutics Ltd, Director of Celixir Ltd and HealX Ltd, Board Member of the UK Bioindustry Association, Regional Council Member of the Confederation of British Industry and serves on the advisory boards of Axol Bioscience Ltd, GeneAdviser Ltd, the Coventry Phenomenon, the Coventry Science Centre and Biotech and Money as well as working with national and international bodies aimed at promoting the thriving UK life science industry.