Enterprise News
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Enterprise News AUTUMN/WINTER 2014 ISSUE 6 Greg Clark MP meets our enterprising students Rt Hon Greg Clark MP, The Minister of State James Geary is another enterprising student for Universities, Science and Cities, visited who met with the MP. James is a Chemistry Keele earlier this Autumn to sign a major £83 & Politics Graduate, who set up Gears’ Oil million Growth Deal with Local Authority and Limited during January 2014 whilst on Business Leaders across Staffordshire and SPEED Plus. His company manufactures Stoke-on-Trent. rapeseed oil, with the waste being turned into biodiesel, animal feed pellets and As part of the visit, the Minister met with our firelighters…the whole carbon cycle! James very own SPEED Plus students, who have set was recently awarded a highly prestigious up their own businesses with the help of the Babson Award by Santander Universities - SPEED Plus business start-up programme. read more about this on pg 2. Josh Drumm-Roberts (pictured above) Jack Holden and Natasha Rhodes are both studied Maths and Marketing and is now a undergraduates who are working hard to re- Director along with business partner Chris establish ENACTUS Keele here on campus. Maiden of QuickTicks Ltd, a company ENACTUS is a non-profit global organization providing innovative, fast, easy and secure of 65,500 students, businesses and online ticketing for events. They also provide academics in 1600 universities world-wide. marketing strategies, ticket sales channels The aim is quite simply, to change lives by and venue gating systems along with real- helping to solve social problems with the use time event statistics. Both Josh and Chris of business advice and training. started on the SPEED Plus business start-up programme in October 2012 and already have a sales turnover in excess of £100K. Josh and Chris also won the Keele Santander Awards of Entrepreneurship in March 2014 and each won an iPad! Cath Edwards and Susanne Finlay- Bearblock are both Postgraduate students with an MSc in Environmental Sustainability & Green Technology. They started their journey on the SPEED Plus programme in October 2013 and together set up their business, 3 Green Rs, an environmental sustainability consultancy providing mentoring, professional development and workshops for schools across Staffordshire and Cheshire. They presented the Minister with a handmade Bug Hotel which he gladly took home to his family! ENTERPRISE NEWS | Issue 6 2 James goes stateside Keele University was one of only two News and World Report as the number one universities in the UK to be awarded a place in the world for entrepreneurship education, on the prestigious Santander Babson College as one of just 30 young entrepreneurs from Entrepreneurship Programme earlier this around the world chosen for the scholarship. summer. James Geary graduated from Keele During his time in Boston, James learned University in 2013 with a degree in Chemistry from experts about marketing practices, & Politics. He then set up Gears’ Oils , a business planning as well about vital business company that makes rapeseed oil, biodiesel, strategies. Photo: Joanne Leake (Student Enterprise Coordinator), firelighters and pellets from oil seed rape. Josie Humphries (Santander Branch Manager), James James said “The course was the opportunity Geary (Gears’ Oils) and Jane Clark (Santander Regional As a young entrepreneur and part of the Relationship Director) of a lifetime. From the moment that our flight SPEED Plus business start-up programme, an landed, I was learning and meeting new initiative to support young entrepreneurs set people with exciting ideas to share. Being MORE ABOUT THE SANTANDER up by a collaboration of West Midlands part of an active class made the whole course SCHOLARSHIP universities, James was put forward for the unique and unforgettable for the whole two The Santander Universities Global Division has scholarship by Dee Frankish, Student weeks. Now I have returned, I will use this collaborated with universities for 17 years and was Enterprise Manager here at Keele. knowledge – especially the lessons on set up to support the higher education and research alternative business models, to augment my system. In partnership with Babson College, James spent two weeks this summer at business, consider new ways to expand and Santander sponsors these two week, intensive Babson College in Boston, named by U.S. courses, to teach a wide range of business skills to grow. I’m really excited about what the next five years will bring” young entrepreneurs. Our 4th Cohort of SPEED Plus businesses As one cohort started this summer. With a slight change to the programme, we started with a 2-day ends another induction event in June, where they learned about the programme and also benefitted one begins from a creative/branding workshop delivered by creative agency Red2Design Our 3rd cohort of SPEED Plus students started of Newcastle-under-Lyme. Guy Weir of Jacksons Accountants supported each of in January 2014 and successfully completed their time on the SPEED Plus project this our new business during induction to summer. register with HMRC or Incorporate with Companies House. We also had 2 guest We worked with 17 individuals and 13 speakers, who give their views and a ‘my journey’ account of their time on the companies, to help them develop their Cohort 3 business dreams into real businesses. Here’s programme; Kath Warrilow of Cupcake Yourself and Kane Forrester of KaneAtron a quick run-down of the businesses we rd supported during the 3 Cohort: Ltd. Martha Birks: Martha Lee Photography Although our 4th cohort is the smallest we’ve had, with just 8 businesses and 9 Charlotte Booker: Holy Moo Adrian Bloor/Jez Nicholls: Crave Coffee individuals, it’s perfectly formed, with a range of exciting new businesses and Cath Edwards/Susanne Finlay-Bearblock: passionate individuals and we very much 3GreenRs look forward to supporting them all. Peter Fijol: VIVA IT Solutions James Geary: Gears’ Oil Ltd Zishan Aziz/Zeb Khan: Protein Chef Ltd David Holdway: Dragonfly Aerial Images Tom Edensor: Edouble Designs Ltd William Gee: Board Buds Damien Husnu: All Gain No Pain Matt Heathcote: Holistic Refinement Davina Patel: Dash Nails Uk Ltd Krzysztof Pazowski: Chinese Metasoft Jacob Kordan: Your Music Job Ltd Aaron Regan: Total Freelance Daniel Pearse: Holistic Merchants Cohort 4 Suzanne Leech/Matt Fox: The Winding Christine Sherratt: Christine Sherratt River Liqueur Company Ltd Sahdeea Sultana: Sultana Designs Ella Austin/Sarah Date: Costumes UNI’d ENTERPRISE NEWS | Issue 6 3 SPEED Plus – 1 Summer, 2 Award Nominations! Both Dee and Jo work closely with a range Earlier this year the Student Enterprise Team of over 30 organisations across the region, was delighted to learn that the SPEED Plus which provide a range of services such as Project had been nominated, and shortlisted training, accountancy, legal and general for, not one but two prestigious awards! business support and advice. The SPEED Plus project was submitted to the Dee Frankish, Student Enterprise Manager National Enterprise Educators’ Awards said “ We work with so many fantastic (NEEA) in the HE Enterprise Champions organisations across the region which, category and SPEED Plus teams across all five provide enormous help and support for our universities were delighted to learn that they budding entrepreneurs and we were both were one of three shortlisted finalists! absolutely delighted to be a finalist in the Collaborative Partnership category”. Dee Frankish and Joanne Leake, who make up the Student Enterprise Team here at Keele, Although we weren’t lucky enough to bring were also thrilled to be one of the three home the awards, it was a huge accolade finalists for the Collaborative Partnership just to be a finalist amongst such strong Award – in the Recognising Our Finest competition and only goes to highlight Awards 2014, which was organised by the what great enterprise opportunities are run ABOUT SPEED PLUS Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce earlier here at Keele by the Student Enterprise this autumn. The Finest Awards is a significant Team! SPEED Plus is a 6 month, part-time business event in the local business calendar, start-up project for budding entrepreneurs. It is highlighting the strength and thriving designed to offer university staff, students and networking activity of the region's alumni, plus graduates from other universities who are returning to the West Midlands region, professional services sector. the opportunity to develop their hobby or business idea into a real-life business. The project is a £4.2m collaboration and is part- funded by the European Regional Development Fund. It is run at the University of Wolverhampton, Birmingham City University, Coventry University, Staffordshire University and Keele University. The project started in July 2012 and aims to create 600 new businesses in the West Midlands by 2015, providing a much needed boost to our local economy. www.keele.ac.uk/speedplus ENTERPRISE NEWS | Issue 6 4 SPEED Plus Regional Awards This September, our lead partner, Wolverhampton The day ended with the presentation of awards to University, hosted a SPEED Plus Networking & select SPEED Plus businesses from each university. Showcase Event for all past and current SPEED Keele’s award winners were: Plus businesses at the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham. SPEED Plus Journey Award This award is for the beneficiary or Partnership It was an opportunity for everyone to get together who has shown the most development