Allan Gibb is Professor Emeritus, University of Durham England and is the former chair and Director of the Small Business Centre at Durham Business School UK. Allan has been engaged in the field of Entrepreneurship and Small Enterprise development for over 30 years. He has experience in over 80 countries around the world, has been adviser to many governments, governmental organisations and non- government entities and has worked with all of the major international development organisations. He has broad expertise ranging from the field of education at all levels, to small and medium business creation, development and internationalisation, to large company restructuring and intrapreneurial development. He has published widely on issues covering enterprise/entrepreneurial education, SME policy development, entrepreneurial restructuring of organisations and management development. Find Allan at www.allangibb.com.
Allan Gibb's visit is sponsored by the Centre for Regional Innovation and Competitiveness at the University of Ballarat.
Patricia G. Greene is the Dean of the Undergraduate School at Babson College where she holds the President's Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship. Prior to this position she held the Ewing Marion Kauffman/Missouri Chair in Entrepreneurial Leadership at the University of Missouri - Kansas City (1998-2003) and the New Jersey Chair of Small Business and Entrepreneurship at Rutgers University (1996-1998). Dr. Greene earned a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, an MBA from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a BS from the Pennsylvania State University. She is a founding member of the Diana Project, a research group focusing on women and the venture capital industry. Prior to becoming a professor she worked primarily in the health care industry.
At 18 years of age, Carolyn Creswell was a Uni student working in a bakery one day a week making muesli. When she was told that she would be losing her job as the business would be sold, she seized the opportunity and bought the tiny business for $1,000. Fourteen years later, Carolyn still runs Carman's, which is now a thriving Melbourne-based company, wholesaling muesli and now muesli bars to more than 2,000 outlets nationally including Coles and Woolworths. It is currently the top selling gourmet muesli in Australia and the muesli bars are now also available on Qantas domestically and internationally. Carman's has recently started exporting to Asia and the Pacific. Her business is now turning over $5 million annually and in 2005 she was amongst the Business Review Weekly's Fast 100 Australian companies.
"Life's too short to drink bad coffee," is the catch cry from Gloria Jean's Coffees.
Prior to establishing Gloria Jean's in Australia Peter Irvine had over 40 years experience in business at a high profile management level ending with his role as Managing Director of DDB Needham marketing. Peter was part of the team at DDB Needham that launched McDonalds in Australia.
In 1995, with his business partner Nabi Saleh, Peter visited the United States to experience first hand the Gloria Jean's Coffees brand. They identified the opportunity for this unique brand in Australia and saw the chance to ‘provide Australian consumers with high quality coffee and consistent service in accessible locations'. The rest is history. From its first franchised store in 1998 Gloria Jean's Coffees now has 340 stores and kiosks - all locally owned and operated by more than 200 franchisees. Worldwide they have over 550 stores.
In December 2004 Peter and Nabi announced the purchase of Gloria Jean's Coffees worldwide rights for brand and supply.
Founder & Executive Chair Fernwood Women's Health Clubs, 2005 Telstra Australian Business Women of the Year. The first Fernwood Women's Health Club was established in central Victoria in 1989. Since then Fernwood has become synonymous with Australian women's health and fitness. Today, with national reach and almost 70 clubs, Fernwood is the largest organisation of its kind in Australia with more than 80,000 members, 3,000 employees and an annual turnover in excess of $80 million. Fernwood has plans to move Internationally in 2006. In 1999 Diana was inducted into the Australian Business Women's Hall of fame and has sat on numerous boards and councils including the Federal Government Sport and Leisure industry consultative group, the Latrobe University Regional Advisory Board, the Franchise Policy Council and is currently the Vice President of the Victorian Executive of the Franchise Council of Australia. Diana has been the recipient of many awards, and was a finalist in the 2005 Entrepreneur of the Year, and the 2005 Franchisor of the Year Awards, and is the Telstra Australian Business Woman of the Year for 2005.
Graeme Wood revolutionised the travel industry in Australia when he created the concept for, and co-founded, Wotif.com in 2000. Wotif.com is Australia's leading last-minute accommodation website offering travellers value for money by selling hotel rooms available within the next 14 days at a discount. Conceived by Graeme Wood in 1999, in 2000 he and three partners launched the website. After just five years in business, Wotif.com has grown from providing discount accommodation for 60 hotels in Australia to over 6,000 hotels in more than 36 countries. In 2004 Graeme's innovative management strategy saw Wotif.com announced as overall winner of the Premier of Queensland's SMART Awards, as well as receiving the award for Outstanding Achievement by an Organisation in the Services Sector. Graeme was also recognised at the 2004 Management Excellence Awards where he was awarded the Australian Institute of Management Medal for Management Innovation. Most recently, Graeme was awarded as the 2005 Technology, Communications, Ecommerce and Life Sciences category winner of the Ernst and Young, Entrepreneur of the Year awards for the Northern Region (QLD and NT). Graeme is a graduate of the University of Queensland, Australia with a Bachelor of Economics and Master of Information Systems.
Barry J. Moltz has been running small businesses with a great deal of success and failure for 15 years. He co-founded Prairie Angels which invests in local seed stage companies. Barry is also on the Advisory Board of the Angel Capital Association, which is the national professional alliance of angel groups. His first book, “You Need to Be A Little Crazy: The Truth about Starting and Growing Your Business” describes the crazy ups and downs and emotional trials of running a business. It is in its fourth reprint and has been translated into Chinese, Russian, Korean and Thai. Barry is a national recognized speaker at 100 business events a year. He has received numerous awards such as Angel of the Year, and was inducted into the Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame. In 2001 and 2002 he was chosen as one of the Top 100 people in Chicago's Hi Tech community. He was appointed by the Illinois Governor in 2005 to serve on the board of the Institute for Entrepreneurship Education (IIEE). He also teaches entrepreneurship at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). Find Barry at www.barrymoltz.com.
Born in Dublin, Jim Stynes was brought from Ireland to Australia as part of a 1980's plan to recruit Irish footballers for the Melbourne Football Club. Stynes played his first senior game in 1987 and retired 264 games later at the end on 1998. He has been one of Australia's most honoured footballers winning the top footballers award in 1991 and in 2003 he was inducted into the Australian Football League's Hall of Fame. Stynes has devoted his life off the football field to helping Victorian youth. In 1993 he made an even bigger commitment to our youth co-founding the Reach foundation with film director Paul Currie. He won the Victorian of The Year Award in 2001 and 2003. In 2004 he earned Entrepreneur Of The Year – Social Category Southern Region. Champion footballer and Brownlow Medal winner Jim Stynes has made his mark in the lives of over 200,000 Victorian youth as co-founder of Reach, a charity organisation that provides a platform for young people to support other young people. Reach and Stynes work together to encourage teenagers to realise their potential and discover their purpose through being made to feel valued and special in a positive and supportive learning environment.
The following topics and themes have been established as a framework for encouraging potential conference attendees to begin the process of devising papers and symposiums/workshops. It will also enable the conference planners to ensure that there is a balanced and interesting program for all attendees.
Research and Policy:
Entrepreneurship educators and practitioners:
