Global Entrepreneurship Competition

21/06/2012

Winners at GEC12, congratulations and good luck!!

21/06/2012

And the 2012 winners are...
1st - AWAK from NUS Singapore
2nd - Alphabet Energy from UC Berkeley San Francisco
3th - BioSolution from Tech de Monterrey &
Ecolibrium Energy from the Government of India

info:
AWAK Technologies is a medical device company that developed an Automated Wearable Artificial Kidney (AWAK).

Alphabet Energy is a development stage company commercializing a revolutionary silicon thermoelectric material for use in energy recovery systems.

Ecolibrium Energy, provides a wireless, very low cost energy monitoring and optimization solution to Commercial and Industrial Customers, which will help them optimize their energy consumption.

BioSolutions is a Mexican company dedicated to the manufacture of bio based plastic resins made out from natural vegetable fibers.

21/06/2012

GEC Finalists 2012 executive summary.
Investors: take a look of this document, they are the best 16 global companies from around the world.

Global Entrepreneurship Competition Finalists 2012

05/06/2012

Rebeca Hwang
CoFounder
YouNoodle, CleanTechOpen

San Francisco
Rebeca Hwang is a Cofounder and CEO of YouNoodle, a startup based in San Francisco focused on building a meaningful platform for entrepreneurs around the world. Rebeca comes from a Chemical Engineering and Civil & Environmental Engineering background and received both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from MIT. Having participated and won entrepreneurship competitions at MIT, Rebeca continued her involvement with similar programs when she moved to Stanford to pursue her PhD in Environment and Resources. Rebeca was lead organizer of the Social E-Challenge Competition at Stanford, Co-founded Clean Tech Open (CTO), which is now one of the largest cleantech competitions in the US, and sat on judge panels for numerous competitions including the World Bank Competition. In addition to YouNoodle, Rebeca lectures "High Tech Entrepreneurship" at Stanford University and has been a speaker for the Ministry of Education in Denmark, University of Porto in Portugal, University EAFIT in Colombia, EnterPrize Puerto Rico, IEEE Egypt, Tech de Monterey in Mexico, IIT India, and Global Startup Workshop in Buenos Aires, Norway, Spain, South Africa, and Iceland.

31/05/2012

Xavier Lazarus
Partner
Elaia Partners

Paris
Dr. Xavier Lazarus is a Partner at Elaia Partners. He combines an entrepreneurial career with a venture capital experience in the software and IT industries. Prior to that, he worked at CPR Private Equity from 2000 to 2003 as Venture Capital Manager, where Dr. Lazarus was involved in launching and developing a venture capital business in the software and IT sectors. After an early career in Research in the Orsay University, Dr. Lazarus conducted entrepreneurial project developing software and systems and co-founded Cred-M. He holds a degree in Mathematics and a Ph.D. in Mathematics, with honors. Dr. Lazarus also graduated from Ecole Normale Superieure (ENS) of Ulm.

23/05/2012

Garrett Gruener
CoFounder Alta Partners

San Francisco
Garrett Gruener is founder of Ask.com and a co-founder of Alta Partners, a venture capital firm. He was also a candidate for the 2003 California recall special election from the Democratic Party, finishing 28th in a field of 135 candidates with 2,562 votes.

Gruener was one of the candidates to aggressively use the Internet to push his message, and also ran campaign ads in selected television markets. However, he was concerned about eventual winner Arnold Schwarzenegger winning and so in the last week of the campaign threw his support to Cruz Bustamante, the primary Democratic candidate. Gruener received $1.07 million in contributions to his committee.

Gruener is a class of '76 UCSD Alumus. He lives with his wife, attorney Amy Slater, and their daughter Dakota Gruener, in Berkeley.

Garrett Gruener is an accomplished pilot.

18/05/2012

Martin Kelly
Partner IBM Venture Capital Group

Ireland
Martin is the partner responsible for establishing IBM Venture Capital Group in EMEA in 2007. In this role Martin identifies and manages IBM engagement with VCs and entrepreneur communities.

In 2010, he co-led the development of IBM Global Entrepreneur Program www.ibm.com/isv/startup. A key element was the worldwide rollout of SmartCamp www.ibmsmartcamp.com and the development of smart city ecosystems.

Martin has previously led business development in some of IBM public sector and healthcare markets. He has worked in the industry for 20 years in a variety of technical, project management and business development roles for firms including PWC Consulting, Masterfoods Europe, H.J.Heinz UK and Bank of
Ireland.

In addition to IBM activities Martin sit an advisory board member on the Innovation Fund Ireland. He was awarded Global Corporate Venturing Personality of the Year in 2012 (on behalf of the IBM team) He has a BSc in information Systems from Trinity College and an MBA from University College Dublin.

17/05/2012

Manav Subodh
Global Manager -Entrepreneurship and Innovation INTEL Corp.

Bangalore
Manav joined Intel in January 2005 and today works as a Global Manager -Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Higher Ed at the Corporate Affairs Group. He works with universities, schools, governments, foundations and multilaterals to drive innovation & entrepreneurship programs across various countries.

Before moving to the current global role, Manav was working as Head Corporate Affairs for South and West India in which he was responsible for managing government relations and driving strategic programs with the governments on Broadband, Education and Green IT. He has lead several public private partnerships (PPP) for Intel programs. Manav also worked as a Technical Advisor to the Intel India President in which he managed strategic relationships and devised an external engagement strategy for Intel India President’s office.

Manav is passionate about youth employability, creating solutions using technology for people in rural areas and developing sustainable business models.

Manav has over 12 years of experience in the IT, Software and Telecom sector. Prior to joining Intel Manav worked as a National marketing manager at Hughes and before that as a Business Manager at QAI. He is an engineer in electronics telecommunication and has done his master’s in business management.

15/05/2012

Manel Sarasa
Cofounder OpenBravo, Conor Partners, WineisSocial

Barcelona
Manel Sarasa is the Co-Founder of Wineissocial. He serves as the President of Openbravo.
Mr. Sarasa served as the Chief Executive Officer of Openbravo, until December 2, 2010. Mr. Sarasa is leading Openbravo to fulfill its vision and extend the adoption of ERPs to all small and midsize enterprises through an innovative open source business model. He was responsible for overall strategy, management, international expansion and takes a very active role in shaping Openbravo's winning culture. Mr. Sarasa joined in Openbravo following seven years with DiamondCluster International where, as a Senior Principal, he led the successful launch of eight businesses in various countries and consulted leading telecom players in the areas of overall strategy, marketing & sales, customer service and overall turnaround programs. Prior to DiamondCluster, he worked at Andersen Consulting (now, known as Accenture). He has been Vice Chairman of the Board of Openbravo, S.L. since December 2, 2010. He serves as a Director of Openbravo, S.L. He has been Director of Teambox since November 2010. Mr. Sarasa has a BS in Engineering and Industrial Organization from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) and did his postgraduate studies at London School of Economics.

15/05/2012

Andrea Bohmert
Partner Knife Capital

Cape Town
Investor, Entrepreneur, Manager, Mentor, Connector – Andrea invests in innovative and fast growing companies in Southern Africa. Apart from financing, she also provides her know how and experience to the benefit of the companies. Through her vast network she identifies the most promising companies, connects them with the most appropriate partners and leads them to successful exits. Her latest quest is to find investors for a 2nd generation Growth Equity Fund focusing on Southern Africa as well as Angel Investors for the early stage investment opportunities.

Andrea is a Partner at Knife Capital and Co-Founder of Angelhub. Before joining Knife Capital Andrea was Founder and Co-Managing Partner of Hasso Plattner Ventures Africa. Passionate about entrepreneurship and thriving on seeing companies grow, Andrea has been a mentor and judge in numerous initiatives such as Seedcamp, IBM SmartCamp as well as numerous South African entrepreneurial initiatives.

Andrea received her business degree from RWTH Aachen, Germany and holds an MBA from Henley Management College, UK.

10/05/2012

Founders of the sixteen most promising startups selected as finalists to compete in the Global Entrepreneurship Competition.

10/05/2012

Lluis Font
CEO Zyncro

Barcelona
Luis Font’s 20-year career in the Information Technology Industry has included general management, consulting and entrepreneurial experience with leading international firms and successful start-up businesses. Luis had worked for 12 years in Business and IT Consulting at PricewaterhouseCoopers, enjoying a fast-paced and challenging environment. He was able to do hands-on consulting work with leading companies around the globe having a major impact on clients’ bottom lines. He actively participated in building cutting-edge procedures and tools that enables companies to systematize and improve the way they negotiate and manage their most critical business process. He holds a Certified Information Systems Auditor title (CISA) from ISACA, and is a Master in Information Technology Management from Universidad Ramon Llull.