Newswise — The Darden School of Business and its Batten Institute for entrepreneurship and innovation announce the speaker line-up of Darden’s upcoming Entrepreneurship Conference to be held 3–4 November in Charlottesville. “Innovate. Effectuate.” is the theme of this year’s conference, which will unravel the mysteries behind successful entrepreneurs and innovators and will provide the framework for applying their strategies to build a viable business.
Featuring some of the best and brightest in the worlds of entrepreneurship and innovation, panelists include top executives from leading and emerging companies gaining new ground in clean tech, RFID software, alternative energy, travel services, athletic wear and specialty finance. Sharing the stage are founders/CEOs of MKThink, Husk Power Systems, ODIN, hotelicopter, HelioSage, Resurgent Capital Services and TRUE linkswear, who will discuss lessons learned, mistakes to avoid and key trends in high-growth markets.
Trip Davis, president of the Darden School Foundation and lifelong entrepreneur, will moderate the keynote session From Darden Incubator to Exit: hotelicopter Flies. Joining Trip will be Adam Healey, hotelicopter co-founder and CEO, and Charles Seilheimer, hotelicopter co-founder, president and CFO. Hotelicopter is an online hotel search platform that connects 160,000 hotels to hundreds of sites and millions of travelers. Hotelicopter was launched in Darden's Business Incubator in 2006 and sold to a major industry player in July 2011.
The following academic and industry luminaries join Davis on the program: •Darden Professor Jeanne Liedtka, former chief learning officer at United Technologies Corporation and author of the critically acclaimed book Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Toolkit for Managers, will lead a session on the principles of design applied to new venture and product creation.•Darden Professor Saras Sarasvathy, leading scholar on the cognitive basis for high-performance entrepreneurship known as effectuation, will explore the mindset of successful entrepreneurs. Effectuation is globally recognized as a rigorous framework for understanding the creation and growth of new organizations and markets.•Frank Genovese, president and owner of The Rothbury Corporation and Darden visiting lecturer, will lead a workshop on how to buy a business. Since 1980, Genovese has been the chairman, president, COO, majority owner and co-owner of nine corporations (four of which were turnarounds) ranging from start-ups to a multinational corporation.•Philippe Sommer, Darden’s director for the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, will lead a session on start-up financing. Prior to joining Darden, Sommer was a founding partner of WestMed Venture Funds, which are publicly registered life sciences venture-capital funds affiliated with CIBC/Oppenheimer.
Other panelists and featured speakers include:
•Patrick Sweeney, founder and CEO of ODIN, a highly innovative leader in the RFID industry that provides software solutions to Fortune 500 companies and government agencies.•Mark Miller, co-founder and CEO of award-winning, San Francisco-based architecture firm MKThink. Prior to MKThink, Miller was founder and CEO of the successful clean tech start-up firm Project FROG. •Manoj Sinha, co-founder of Husk Power Systems, a globally lauded business launched in Darden’s Business Incubator. Husk uses discarded rice husks to provide power to approximately 150,000 people in rural India. •Matthew Hantzmon, co-founder and COO of HelioSage, a solar energy development company. Hantzmon is also a founder of Columbia Power Technologies and was previously managing director of Greenlight Energy, a wind energy power producer sold to BP Alternative Energy.•Tim Grant, founder and CEO of Resurgent Capital Services, a specialty finance enterprise. Since Resurgent’s founding in 1998, Grant has overseen the firm’s rapid and profitable growth and has managed portfolios of more than $110 billion. •Sean Eidson, CEO and co-founder of TRUE linkswear, a golf footwear and apparel company, which offers a flagship golf shoe built on a “barefoot” platform. TRUE linkswear has been nationally and internationally recognized. Its key customers include Golfsmith and PGA Tour Superstores.
Darden’s Entrepreneurship Conference kicks off Thursday, 3 November at 4 p.m. with the School’s annual Concept Competition for Darden MBA students. Thursday evening activities will be followed by a full-day program on Friday, 4 November. Registration is required. Admittance is free for current Darden/U.Va. students, faculty and staff, as well as students at other universities. The fee for all other attendees is $50 (includes meals and refreshments). Late registration after 28 October is $100.
Contact Joyce Smaragdis, associate director of outreach for the Batten Institute, at +1-434-924-7100 or by email at [email protected].
About the Batten InstituteThe Batten Institute at the Darden School of Business creates value and transforms society through entrepreneurship and innovation. The Institute’s academic research center advances knowledge that addresses real-world challenges and shapes Darden’s curriculum, and the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership offers one of the world’s top entrepreneurship programs. The Batten Institute was established with gifts now totaling over $100 million from U.Va. alumnus Frank Batten Sr., a media pioneer, visionary and founder of The Weather Channel. www.batteninstitute.org
About the Darden School of BusinessThe University of Virginia Darden School of Business is one of the world's leading business schools, offering MBA, Ph.D. and Executive Education programs. The unique Darden experience combines the case study method, the highest-ranked faculty whose research advances global managerial practice and business education, and a tight-knit learning environment to develop principled and complete leaders
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