Spotlight on Oli Pinch

This week the spotlight is on Oli Pinch, Training Manager, UCL Innovation and Enterprise.

What is your role and what does it involve?

I'm the Training Manager in UCL Innovation and Enterprise. I organise a wide range of extra-curricular entrepreneurship activities and programmes for UCL students and staff to engage with.

How long have you been at UCL and what was your previous role?

I've been at UCL for more than three years and have come from working at City University's Cass Business School. Before that I was an English teacher in Asia and, back further still, worked at the University of Manchester. You could say that education is in my blood!

What working achievement or initiative are you most proud of?

We do so many great activities for students at UCL it is hard to pick one out but we recently finished our summer idea accelerator - an eight-week programme of workshops, mentoring and peer-to-peer learning for students, staff and alumni. The aim of the programme is to help teams turn their good ideas into great businesses. We had a great pitching event with ten of the teams pitching to a panel of judges and awarded three grants of £10,000 each to the winners. Hopefully they'll go on to be incredibly successful businesses and entrepreneurs!

Tell us about a project you are working on now which is top of you to-do list?

Top of my to-do list is to provide all 35,000 of our students with the opportunity to engage in entrepreneurship. We're not suggesting everyone should start a business but there are some key entrepreneurial skills like problem solving, risk/opportunity assessment, team building and leadership which are useful to anyone and can boost employability. This is one of the goals of UCL Innovation & Enterprise and we hope that an online or blended learning approach will help us achieve it. We've started scoping and development so watch this space!

What is your favourite album, film and novel?

Film

Pulp Fiction - it has been a favourite for many years. It is simply faultless.

Novel(s)

Girlfriend in a Coma (1998) by Douglas Coupland

or

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (1969)

or

Many others I could name. These two in particular have stayed with me.

Album

Abbey Road (1969) by The Beatles

The Beatles got me into playing as well as listening to music. It's my go to album.

What is your favourite joke (pre-watershed)?

A book fell on my head last night. I've only got myshelf to blame.

Who would be your dream dinner guests?

Adam Richman

Derren Brown

Rick Stein

Rick and Adam doing the cooking and Derren for the entertainment! I'm on the wine.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Stop wearing digital watches and learn to tell the time properly. It will save plenty of embarrassment later!

What would it surprise people to know about you?

I have a tattoo on my right shoulder and am planning on another one this year.

What is your favourite place?

Hong Kong - when I worked in mainland China, Hong Kong was a little slice of the west a one-hour train ride away. It will always be somewhere that makes me smile.