UCL's entrepreneurs to attend venture capital 'boot camp'

Next week (13-14 October) UCL will become the first British university to host the successful 'Entrepreneurship Boot Camp' successfully pioneered by leading venture capitalist Dr Jack M Gill. The fast-paced course has been designed for those with an interest in the dynamics of high-tech entrepreneurship and has already proved extremely popular at leading US institutions including Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Texas and Rice universities - but this is the first time it has opened its doors to students and academics in the UK.

Dr Gill is a scientist, engineer, company founder and venture capitalist with 35 years of experience in Silicon Valley, Boston-New England and Texas. His first five Vanguard VC funds aggregated $155 million paid in capital and returned over $1 billion to investors. Jack maintains cutting edge knowledge of many innovative fields and technologies including biotechnology, medical devices and diagnostics, photonics, telecommunications, internet businesses, mobile communications, business software, and others.

The intensive 'Boot Camp' experience will include six full lectures on topics ranging from the dynamics of a start-up company and how to attract investment, to common 'company killing' pitfalls and a rigorous analysis of what makes entrepreneurial leaders successful. The course also includes three case studies from real world entrepreneurs and self-help kits on leadership and planning.

"Despite the impact of wars, natural disasters and the ups and down of market cycles, technological advances and entrepreneurial solutions make the world go around," said Dr Gill. "Entrepreneurs create enterprises, jobs, products, services and benefits to mankind. We must find them, feed them, support them, educate them, nurture them and recognise them for their wonderful inventions and contributions."

Dr Gill's course will equip UCL academic staff and students with a sophisticated knowledge of the process of bringing innovations to commercial markets. The course is a key element in UCL's broader enterprise strategy, designed to ensure that the university has an organisational culture that emphasises enterprise and knowledge transfer for the benefit of society.

Professor Steve Currall, Vice Dean of enterprise in the UCL Faculty of Engineering Sciences and Head of the Department of Management Science & Innovation, said: "Dr Jack Gill is one of the founding fathers of the venture capital industry in California's Silicon Valley. We are thrilled to have engaged him to teach this course as it helps UCL take its entrepreneurship education to even greater heights."

"UCL Advances is unique among UK universities in its approach to building the entrepreneurial environment through networking and training," says Tim Barnes, Executive Director of UCL Advances. "By bringing a leading figure such as Dr Jack Gill into the heart of UCL we are able to take a sizeable step in extending the contacts and understanding that are critical to developing entrepreneurship among our staff and students for both their benefit and that of the UK as a whole."

To find out more about Professor Currall and visit the web pages of UCL Advances, use the links at the top of the article.

Image: Dr Jack M Gill