Boomer Venture Summit Winners

Congratulations to the 2008 winners of the Boomer Venture Business Plan Competition, Niveus Medical and HomePreferred. Each team received the $10,000 award at the Santa Clara University Boomer Venture Summit and Business Plan Competition.

Niveus Medical presented their plan to take an intelligent electrical muscle stimulation system to market, helping patients quickly return to their active lifestyles following critical illness. The Home Preferred team (below) pitched a plan to be the first retail chain to serve baby boomers who want to age in place.

America's 78 million Baby Boomers make the aging boomer market one of the most important trends to follow. The competition attracted a cross-section of the venture community to learn about the demographic and market-leading ideas presented in the Business Plan competition.

The Summit was co-produced by Jan Sola, Ph.D., Associate Director of the Executive Development Center (EDC) and Mary Furlong, ED.D, Dean's Executive Professor of Entrepreneurship.

CTE Alumni Recognized by US President

Congratulations to the CTE Class of 2007. Alumni from the CIE's inaugural Certificate in Technology Entrepreneurship program recently received high praise from 43rd U.S. President George W. Bush. The President recognized the CTE alumni during a round table discussion on Italian Entrepreneurs, while on a recent visit to Italy.

In the photograph above, sitting next to the President are Valentina Coccoli '07 (left) and Micol Macellari '07 (center). At the President's request, Macellari addressed the crowd and shared her experiences in the program. Emanuele Orgiu '07, Abramo Barbaresi '07, and Elisabetta Capezio '07 were also in attendance, as were three students in the entering Class of '09.

The U.S. Ambassador to Italy, Ronald Spogli has been a strong advocate for advancing entrepreneurship in Italy. Among his efforts to promote entrepreneurship education was the establishment of the Fulbright BEST program, with which he intends to send many more students to Silicon Valley to study entrepreneurship in the future.

A White House press release covers the event, with SCU and CIE mentioned in the 8th paragraph.

CIE Hosts SCU Trustee Dr. Frank Greene

Please join us for One-Day MBA for Film Entrepreneurs on June 7th. The Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship is sponsoring this intensive workshop that features SCU Trustee Dr. Frank Greene.

In addition to his experience as a film financier, Dr. Greene is a venture capitalist, start-up entrepreneur, operating business executive, engineer and technologist with over 40 years of experience. His education includes a PhD in Electrical Engineering (EE) from Santa Clara University, an MS in EE from Purdue University, and a BS in EE from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

The full-day event is produced by the Institute for International Film Financing (IIFF). Student tickets are available at a significant discount. Visit the event website for more information and to register.