Oxford Entrepreneurs Year in Review 2009 Final

2008-2009 Year in Review

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Letter from the President Dear Oxford Entrepreneurs,

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OE has a rich history of excellence in promoting student enterprise as the largest and most active student enterprise organisation in Europe. After seven years of growth, we continue to hold true to our mission of encouraging and supporting student entrepreneurship by providing

inspiration, education, networking and the chance to learn by doing at the University of Oxford and beyond. 2008-09 has been a benchmark academic year in terms of membership, governance, programming, innovation and impact. The tangible impact of OE can be seen in the lives of those who engage with the society and felt by the contagious energy that flows through our events when like-minded, enterprising individuals connect. I am delighted to welcome Jordan Poulton as OE’s 2009-10 President. Jordan previously ran OE’s 2009 Idea Idol competition and sat as VP Governance; founded and led the Oxford Investment Society; and, is the co-founder of CrewDates.com. Accompanying Jordan will be the launch of the OE Enterprise Centre, Enterprise Wednesday networking socials, quarterly alumni events for OE and Cambridge University Entrepreneurs members in London, and the new Oxprentice programming line. Under Jordan’s leadership, I am confident that OE will reach new heights – from strength to strength. On behalf of the 2008-09 OE Committee, thank you to all of our sponsors, partners, supporters and members. It has been an honour working with each of you over the last year. Please enjoy the 2008-09 OE Year in Review, a window into the internal workings of OE to see what it takes to run a world leading enterprise society from the inside out. Sincerely, Victoria Lennox President 08/09 "The entrepreneur builds an enterprise; OE builds entrepreneurs." Thomas F.A. Whitfield

2008-2009 Review Highlights Oxford Entrepreneurs’ key achievements in the 2008-09 academic year:

• Increased membership to 5,700 members; • Signed up 90 percent of 2009 MBA class; • Expanded alumni membership by 80 percent; • Media attention from Spectator Business, The Financial Times, The Economist, BBC

Oxford Radio, and Fox FM; • Ran 46 events; • Featured seven renowned entrepreneurs including Lord Bilimoria (Cobra Beer), Tim Smit

(Eden Project), James Caan (Dragon's Den); and, Brent Hoberman (Lastminute.com); • Piloted Ideas2Market programme that engaged 300 OE members and fostered the

development of 13 companies with a 90 percent participant satisfaction rate; • Over 300 attended Idea Idol 2009 where we gave away £10,000 to winners Easy

Solution (£7,500), Foresight Pharma (£2,000) and Youth Bank (£500); • Founded and incubated Oxford Women in Business (300 members; 6 events) and

Students in Free Enterprise Oxford SIFE Oxford (3 companies); • Planned for the development of the OE Enterprise Centre to open on July 1st; • Led the creation of the National Consortium of University Entrepreneurs; and, • Developed a new, effective governance model and innovative internal management

solutions.

November 2008 – Start It Up In a Day Bootcamp participants watching a keynote address from Tim Smit, Founder & CEO of the Eden Project.

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About Oxford Entrepreneurs

Oxford Entrepreneurs (OE) is the University of Oxford’s student enterprise society that relentlessly strives towards excellence and growth. It was founded in 2002 to encourage and support student entrepreneurship by providing students with inspiration, education, networking and the chance to learn the skills needed to succeed in business and start entrepreneurial ventures. OE is supported by its Founder and Senior Member Fiona Reid – Director of Oxford’s Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation – and a group of esteemed advisors from the local

business community; is governed by the Proctors of the University of Oxford; and, is run by a paid sabbatical student president and a committed committee of some of the university’s most enterprising students.

October 2008: Alec Dent signing up new member at Freshers’ Fair

Operations Governance

Jordan Poulton, VP Governance – OE is supported by its Founder and Senior Member Fiona Reid – Director of Oxford’s Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation – and a group of esteemed advisors from the local business community; is governed by the Proctors of the University of Oxford; and, is run by a paid sabbatical student president and a committed committee of some of the university’s most enterprising students.

To safeguard OE’s sustainability and to aid with succession, this year we developed a new governance model composed of VP, Director and Officer posts to more effectively allocate responsibility and authority for business processes and programming portfolios. This model has greatly improved the efficiency and effectiveness of the organisation, has ameliorated previous succession challenges, and has enhanced the quality and quantity of OE’s offerings by expanding organisational capacity. Management

Jon Krohn, VP Management – This year OE committed to developing innovative internal management solutions to enable us to focus on delivering exceptional programming and to prepare the organisation for growth and change – e.g. shifting to online content management systems; enhancing documentation of committee meetings and decisions; restructuring information management databases; and, implementing evaluation and feedback mechanisms.

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Recognising that the OE Committee is the life-blood of the organisation, we also invested greatly in developing the leadership capacity of the Committee. We did this by running a strategic planning retreat at the beginning of the year, hosting skills-based workshops exclusively for committee members (e.g. a leadership workshop with Oxford Innovation, a pitching workshop and finance training with Rob Geraghty, and a creativity workshop with Eddie Pratt), running committee socials, and providing members with opportunities to attend national and international entrepreneurship conferences. Indeed, the success of this academic year is a testament to the Committee’s commitment, efforts and synergy.

“Being part of the OE Committee was like being part of a large team of specialists that shifted forces to the tasks that needed the most attention at the time. It was an incredibly dynamic and motivating experience. Communication was a feature that seemed to be most responsible for the success of the committee, guaranteeing that things always went smoothly. The impact of that environment was only topped by the individual committee members’ passion and enthusiasm for what they were doing. OE`s Committee works in such a professional manner and is so well trained that created such an enormous buzz. OE is now only a few hundred members short from becoming the largest student entrepreneurial society in the world and is still able to preserve the internal atmosphere of a group of friends. Being part of the committee was a great pleasure and a truly rewarding experience." - Jochen Klingelhoefer, Membership Director

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Top: Committee members during October Committee Retreat; Middle: Peter Baxendell and Oliver Bridge welcoming guests to an event; Bottom: 2008-09 Committee

Finance & Sponsorship Reijo Pold, VP Finance – As a student-run organisation, OE relies on the generous support of our sponsors, with whom we work closely to develop long-term, mutually beneficial and sustainable partnerships. OE’s sponsors have a genuine interest in enabling young entrepreneurs and promoting an entrepreneurial culture. Indeed, they have each gone above and beyond financial contributions by directly engaging our members and providing

additional in-kind support– e.g. Octopus Ventures bi-weekly Start-up Clinics and Placi Espejo’s Idea Idol contestant mentorship. On behalf of OE, and former sponsorship and finance directors Sanjay Budhdeo and Nikhil Shaw, I would like to say a massive thank you to all of our sponsors, without whom we would not have been able to impact so many lives by encouraging student enterprise. We look forward to our continued partnership. OE’s Gold Sponsors are Octopus Ventures, Deutsche Bank and Purple Media. Our Silver sponsors are Linklaters, Oxford Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Oxford University Careers Service, Science Oxford, Cmypitch.com, Business Link, Webmart UK, Business Boffins, Bain and Mission Possible. OE’s Idea Idol Gold Sponsors are The Big Oxford Computer Company, Credit Suisse, Cobra Beer and Skype, and the Idea Idol Silver Sponsors are Henmans llp, Cmypitch.com, Octopus Ventures, Purple Media, G&Ds, Oxfordshire Enterprise Hub, Oxford University Careers Service, and OxCEI.

Membership

Jochen Klinglehoefer and Carly Becker, Membership Team – In seven short years OE has grown to be the largest university enterprise society in Europe. This year, we increased our Membership to over 5,700 members – including undergraduate, graduate and MBA students, active alumni and external members from across all disciplines and industries. We did this by means of developing an effective sales strategy and undertaking Committee pitch training with Rob Geraghty (Founder of the Wow Factor) in preparation for Freshers’ Fair;

developing a College Rep system across nine colleges (which was conceptualised by Radhika Mehra); and, reaching out to OE Alumni. By expanding our programming beyond the business school, holding events across campus, collaborating with other societies on events, and working with Oxford Colleges and the Oxford University Careers Service, OE was able to gain exposure to a broader range of students, providing us with the opportunity to challenge misconceptions that entrepreneurship is just for business students or for those who want to start companies. For OE, being enterprising is a way of thinking that crosses all disciplines.

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Mike Moleschi, MBA Relations Officer – OE-MBA relations reached new heights this year, beginning with a presentation by OE`s Executive Officer Andy Young at the 2009 MBA Orientation. OE signed up 90 percent of the 2009 MBA Class who are now part of our community. Beyond membership, OE worked with Oxford Business Network (OBN) groups on events and initiatives such as Into the Dragon`s Den, an investment finance panel run jointly with

the Oxford Private Equity Network, and hosting social entrepreneur Dr. Ann Olivarius in partnership with the Social Enterprise Network. We entered into publicity partnerships with the Entrepreneur OBN, the Environment & Business OBN, and the Venture Fund Competition among other MBA groups. We look forward to continued growth in OE-MBA relations.

Ollie Bridge, Alumni Relations Officer – Alumni re-engagement was a key objective for the 2008-09 OE Programme. Through partnering with the Oxford University Alumni Network via its monthly newsletter and engaging existing OE alumni, this year OE expanded its alumni community by 80 percent to 269 members. OE Alumni are working in a range of industries, with many entrepreneurs in the mix. For instance, Daniel Tenner of Woobius is radically shifting the way

that companies share their data with project collaborators; Cécile Galoselva of Ethical Property has purchased £10m of real estate to rent to clients in the third sector; and, Morgan Murphy recently launched a social networking site, Motorpool, for classic car enthusiasts. These represent just a sample of the strong calibre of start-ups in our midst.

Ahmed, Aldridge and Elliott speaking to OE Alumni in May 2009 in London

May 8th saw the Oxford Entrepreneurs Alumni Social at the Adams Street Club in London. This exclusive event was attended by over 90 Alumni – including Stephen Bardle, David Langer, Alistair Hann and James Uffindell among other enterprising alumni – and featured a panel of distinguished guests – including, Syed Ahmed (The Apprentice and SA Vortex), Rod Aldridge (Capita) and Ben Elliott (Quintessentially) – who shared insights from their entrepreneurial journies. Growing and supporting the OE Alumni Community will continue to be a priority for OE into the future.

Melissa Massey, External Relations Officer – This year OE has taken strides to enhance its presence in the community by expanding its regional, national and international ties. In doing so, we have worked with Business Link, Oxfordshire Enterprise Hub, Mission Possible, Science Oxford, Make Your Mark, Oxford Economic Partnerships, OxHub, Astia, SFEDI, and Oxford Young Enterprise to increase our presence in the enterprise community. OE`s President spoke to visiting delegations, young students and university enterprise students about OE and its work; we sent delegations to visit our partner societies – e.g. Cambridge, Imperial and Warwick; and, our members attended high profile national and international conferences and events – e.g.

MIT Global Start-up Workshop in South Africa. We have also strengthened our ties with Oxford Brookes Business & Entrepreneurship Club and worked with and mentored societies across the country – e.g. Oxford Brookes, Imperial, London Met and Buckingham among others – advising them on developing and growing the their society’s governance and programming. As the largest university enterprise organisation in Europe, OE takes its responsibility to support student enterprise seriously, at the University of Oxford and beyond.

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Marketing Marketing

David Mok, Marketing – The Marketing Team is involved in every element of OE`s operations and programming; from membership drives and informing members of events to preparing the creative and media elements of programming and issuing press releases. I worked closely with a talented team – including Alex Dent (Marketing Officer), Shivani Mehra (Creative Director), and Hamish Gregory (Visual Media Marketing Officer) – toward the objective of positioning OE as a leading organisation supporting enterprise. We also worked closely with Andy Young and Will Powell, who head up OE`s IT & Communications, Rob Forbes from Octopus Ventures who assisted with PR

and radio interviews, our media partner Purple Media, and our print partner Webmart UK to develop and implement an innovative and marketing strategy. Several of our key marketing initiatives included: bolstering our presence at Freshers’ Fair 2008; developing useful and cool gimmicks to brand OE across campus; creating an exceptional Michaelmas Term Card to attract new members; enhancing the presentation of our Weekly E-Newsletter and building it into a useful source for the latest enterprise opportunities in Oxford and in the UK; ensuring that the website was updated with the latest news; effectively branding OE`s Idea Idol 2009 and Ideas2Market programmes (i.e. logos, displays, t-shirts, gimmicks, programmes, balloons, lanyards, etc.); and, using social media technology platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Younoodle and LinkedIn to build OE`s online community. Through these efforts OE received media exposure from the FT, the Economist, Spectator Business, City AM, the major Oxford student papers, local Oxford papers, BBC Oxford Radio and Fox FM; our website received over 1 million hits; and, our online communities are growing.

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Programming OE’s 2008/09 programming focused on the areas of clean technologies, internet enterprise, social enterprise, enterprise investment and enterprising women, responding to the interest of our members and critical trends. This year, OE ran 46 events through our three programming lines – Change Makers Speakers Series; Ideas2Market; and, Idea Idol – and the programming of our two incubated societies Oxford Women in Business and SIFE Oxford. We launched the academic year with An Enterprising Affair – an evening drinks social at the Oxford Castle’s Living Room attended by over 400 OE partners and members to celebrate the launch of the academic year (se

‘An Enterprising Affair’ – OE 2008/09 Launch

e photo right). Change Makers Speakers Series

Matt Waszak, Events Director – OE`s trademark Change Makers Speaker Series is the foundation of our programming, wherein OE hosts leading national and international entrepreneurs to inspire our members. This year OE hosted seven keynote speaker events attended by more than 1,200 members. Speakers included: Tim Campbell – Founder of the Bright Ideas Trust and Winner of the

Apprentice; Lord Karan Bilimoria – Founder & Chairman of Cobra Beer; Tim Smit – Founder and CEO of the Eden Project; Julie Meyer – Founder & CEO of Ariadne Capital & Entrepreneur Country; James Caan – Founder & CEO of Hamilton Bradshaw and BBC Dragon`s Den Dragon; Brent Hoberman – Founder of Lastminute.com and MyDeco.com; and, Mike Mason – Founder of Climate Care.

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Partel Tomberg & Chris Evans, Ideas2Market Team – This year OE conceptualised, developed and executed Ideas2Market, a 16-week programme that provides students with the tools, resources and network necessary to, well, to put it simply, bring their ideas to market. The

programme involves panels, workshops, a day-long boot camp, mentorship sessions, opportunities to network, an exhibition, and a competition to help students to start ventures whilst at University. In its inaugural year, Ideas2Market ran the following events: a presentation skills workshop provided by Simon Henderson and associates from Bain and Co.; a team building session run by Russell Smith of Business Boffins; a Start It Up In a Day Bootcamp led by Business Boffins for 40 of our most promising entrepreneurs; a mentorship programme that matched 24 ventures with experienced mentors; the Into the Dragon’s Den panel with representatives from Business Link, the Oxford Early Investment Network, NESTA and Octopus Ventures; an executive summary competition; workshops with Mike Skidmore on creativity and innovation, Rob Geraghty on the perfect pitch, and John Thompson on selling skills for entrepreneurs; and, a Start-up Exhibition showcasing 40 of OE’s fastest growing ventures. Overall the programme engaged more than 300 OE members, 13 companies completed the programme from start to completion, and the overall winner TeacherPlanit.com – a free, online, collaborative teacher resource that enables teachers to share the best educational information between themselves and their students – won £1,000 toward their venture. The runners-up and winners of the free Cmypitch.com pitches were: PACEM, Chikungunya, 31Favours.org, Little Tracker and Fitness For Everyone. Overall, 93.8 percent of the participants thought that the programme was well organised and useful. In particular participants enjoyed the Start It Up In a Day Bootcamp; the mentorship programme; the range of events that provided them with direct contact with sponsors, speakers and expertise; the quality of the participants and new enterprises; and, the overall organisation and dedication of the team. Many thanks must go to our sponsors of the Ideas2Market Programme: Octopus Ventures, Linklaters, Deutsche Bank, Cmypitch.com, Business Boffins, Business Link, Webmart UK, Oxford Centre for Entrepreneurship & Innovation and Oxford Careers Service for making all of this possible. Many thanks also go out to all of the programme speakers and mentors and in particular Peter Miller-Smith and David Lind.

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Ideas2Market Case Study – Interview with John Randall, CEO of Little Tracker What does Little Tracker do? “Little Tracker is a tracking service enabling parents to keep an eye on their children at all times using wi-fi technology to detect exactly where they are in the event of the child getting lost/running off. The service is totally free and is paid for by shops and brands purchasing advertising space displayed digitally on the parents part of the tracking device.” How was your I2M Experience? “I2M has substantially helped Little Tracker to develop from just an idea. Through the various meetings and availability of a personal mentor the program has opened many doors. We have gained lots of useful contacts in the business world and several exciting opportunities have occurred thanks to Ideas2Market. We are currently in talks with an already established company that have a similar product already in Alton Towers and Chessington as a result of the start-up exhibition.” Best Bit for Little Tracker “The best part of the programme is the personal mentors, they really want to help you succeed and are able to provide you with many contacts and innovative ideas. They are also realistic and won’t give false hope if they don’t think something is going to work. Another great aspect to the programme is the ‘boot camp’ which should definitely be applied for!” What would you say to next year’s participants? “Any new groups should definitely take part in the Ideas2Market programme even if they are unsure about the feasibility of their idea or even if they don’t have one at all. It is an exciting and eye opening experience and opportunity that should certainly not be taken for granted. The leaders of the program are excellent and very willing to help at every stage.”

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Idea Idol Competition

Jordan Poulton & Sarah Batty, Idea Idol Directors – Idea Idol is OE`s flagship ideas competition to encourage students to think of new enterprise ideas. After three months, hundreds of entries and weeks of training and preparation, we crowned 2009’s Idea Idols in a dramatic finale

on March 5th at the Said Business School. Out of the hundreds of entries submitted in January, we selected the top 25 enterprise ideas to move onto the semi-finals and receive training from Russell Smith (Business Boffins) on how to write an executive summary and from Malcolm Sadler (Henmans llp) on the legal considerations of starting a business. Out of the 25 executive summaries, judges from Oxfordshire Enterprise Hub, the Big Oxford Computer Company and Henmans llp selected the 7 finalists to move onto the finals. The finalists received extensive pitch training from Rob Geraghty (The Wow Factor) and Placi Espejo (Oxfordshire Enterprise Hub)

in preparation for the big night.

Over 350 people attended to watch the finalists deliver their 2 minute elevator pitches and face gruelling questions by four judges, including Julie Meyer (Founder & CEO of Ariadne Capital), Will Ghali (Marketing Director at Cobra Beer), Ian Robin (Director of Skype for Business), and Ian Carnegie-Brown (MD of Investment Banking at

Credit Suisse. Once the finalists had pitched their idea and faced tough questions, the judges went off to

deliberate as to the winner.

Judges Meyer, Ghali, Robin and Carnegie-Brown listening to the pitches

OE Committee preparing for Idea Idol 2009

The winners were fledging ventures Easy Solution (£7,500) and Foresight Pharmaceuticals (£2,000), and the People’s Choice Award winner was Youth Bank (£500). The runners-up were Diagnosis 2U, AiFlex and Teacher Planit. Easy Solution is an idea developed by Camilla Oxley and Jochen Klingelhoefer. They describe their product as an automated system that will change how research is conducted in more than 100,000 life and biomedical science research labs across the world.

Easy Solution was also awarded £2,000 in initial legal support from Henmans llp. Foresight Pharmaceuticals, developed by Phoebe Williams, is a hormonal gel that prevents the transmission of HIV/AIDs, Human Papilloma Virus and Herpes Simplex Virus. Youth Bank was pitched by Joyce Meng. It is a business incubator and micro-credit program that connects street youth (aged 15-25) in the urban developing world with the skills, mentors and resources to launch their own community businesses. All finalists received free pitches with Cmypitch.com and

Idea Idol finalists after the big night

Cobra Beer Drinks Reception at Idea Idol 2009

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Skype and G&Ds gift packs.

We would like to once again thank Idea Idol’s gold sponsors: The Big Oxford Computer Company, Skype, Cobra Beer, Credit Suisse. We would also like to thank you Silver Sponsors: Octopus Ventures, Henmans llp, Cmypitch.com and Oxfordshire Enterprise Hub, as well as our valued partners: Oxford University Careers Service, Oxford Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Webmart UK, Business Link, Business Boffins, G&Ds and Purple Media. Without their support Idea Idol would not have been possible.

Idea Idol winners Easy Solution and Foresight Pharma with Mark Hall, CEO of The Big Oxford Computer Company & OE Directors

Audience awaiting Idea Idol 2009

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Oxford Women in Business

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Sarah Batty, Women’s Enterprise Director – Recognising the disparity between the number of men and women engaging in business and enterprise at the University of Oxford and the lack of extracurricular opportunities for business-minded young women, OE’s President conceptualised and initiated OxWiB and recruited me as the Founding President of the organisation mandated to inspire, educate and connect young women in business and enterprise.

Supported by a talented committee – including Carly Becker, Amber Graham-Watson, Katie Leviten and Chelsca Lord – and mentored by Sue Stockdale of Mission Possible, OxWiB grew to over 300 members in its first year and has run five-well attended events; including, Sue Stockdale (Founder of Mission Possible);

Essie Weingarten (Founder and CEO of Essie Cosmetics); Julie Meyer (Founder and CEO of Ariadne Capital and First Tuesday); Sara Berman (Fashion Entrepreneur); and, the launch of Alison Bird’s new venture Single Minded at the Corner Club. After a first successful year, OxWiB is delighted to announce that the 2009-10 President is Amber Graham-Watson supported by our new Senior Member, Alison Bird from Oxford University Careers Service. OxWiB will remain a part of the OE structure.

SIFE Oxford OxWIB event with Sue Stockdale on International Women in Business Day in November 2008

Peter Baxendell, SIFE Oxford Director – SIFE is an international business competition wherein student teams develop socially and environmentally sustainable projects to address pertinent social challenges. Given that over 30 universities in the UK have established SIFE teams, OE opted to incubate SIFE Oxford to

complement existing OE programming. The year began with a training session for Oxford’s team during a meet up of students from across the UK. SIFE Oxford then ran a launch and networking session to get ideas flowing. In its first year, 15 students and 2 mentors engaged with SIFE, leading to the development of 3 projects: EcoHob is a project mentored by David Lind that provides rural communities in Chad with economical and ecological cooking solutions by means of reflective solar dishes that concentrates the sun’s rays onto a cooking pot; the Sphere project, led by Ayaaz Nawab, aims to promote community cohesion through international dance and musical performances; and, the Carbon project, which was supported by Tahsin Chaudhry, sought to develop a carbon footprint competition between university colleges. SIFE Oxford also collaborated with OxHub to run social enterprise exhibitions at the Vaults and Gardens and presented on a panel during the University’s Alternative Careers Fair. After our first solid year, SIFE Oxford will continue to be incubated by OE in the coming academic year.

The National Consortium of University Entrepreneurs

With the belief that university enterprise societies are an integral part of university enterprise networks – as they have the capacity to be incredible catalysts for enterprise and entrepreneurship – the National Consortium of University Entrepreneurs (NACUE) was conceptualised and catalyzed in the summer of 2008 by OE’s President, in close partnership with Make Your Mark and the National Council of Graduate Entrepreneurs. NACUE was founded in December 2008 during a meeting of twelve university enterprise society leaders from across the country including: Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, London Business School, Oxford Brookes, Kings College London, Nottingham, Essex, Warwick, University College London, London School of Economics, Kingston, and Southampton. OE played a large role in brokering the development of NACUE. Melissa Massey and Peter Baxendell supported OE’s efforts in planning meetings and Jon Krohn, Hamish Gregory and Partel Tomberg provided event support. With the backing of Microsoft and Tata, NACUE officially launched on May 2nd in London, when over 80 enterprise society leaders convened from across the UK for a leadership training weekend to enable them to be more effective catalysts of enterprise at their universities. OE will continue to be a driving force of

the NACUE network by facilitating collaboration and sharing best practices with other societies to stimulate university enterprise across the country.

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Making an Impact

The tangible impact of OE can be seen the lives of the people who engage with the society and the electric energy that flows through our events when like-minded enterprising individuals connect. For instance, the joint winners of 07/08 Idea Idol – Altitude Medical and www.zoombu.co.uk – went on to be the only two companies to receive funding at the 2009 SBS Venture Fund Competition and this year OE companies won the Meltwater Business Plan Competition, the MIT Global Start-Up Pitch Competition, and one of our companies – Tuxebo – is heading to Silicon Valley for the summer having been selected for the YCombinator incubation programme.

Looking at the current OE Committee as a microcosm of the society, start-ups developed include: www.groupspaces.com, www.genderchecker.com, Inventum Technologies, Studiously Cool, http://www.isepankur.ee/, http://www.rentaplace24.com/, www.crewdates.com, Genie Technologies, Easy Solution, www.obwib.com, and www.scholarlyminds.com/ among others. Passionate about supporting enterprise, past Presidents of OE have gone onto build start-ups that support and enable enterprise – including, www.younoodle.com (Bob Goodson and Kirill Makharinksy), www.enternships.com (Rajeeb Dey), www.seedcamp.com (Alistair Bell) and www.nacue.com (Victoria Lennox). Committee Members Peter Baxendell, Jordan Poulton and Sarah Batty were profiled as some of the most influential students at the University by the leading student papers as a result of their engagement with OE; Rajeeb Dey, Victoria Lennox, Andy Young and David Langer were profiled as four of eleven “rising stars of the business world” in the December 2008 Spectator Business; and, our President won the Builder of Entrepreneur Support Networks and Overall Enterprise Support Champion at the 2009 SFEDI (Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative) Awards.

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This year OE contributed to the development of over 50 companies with 13 coming through its Ideas2Market Programme – ranging from groups management and travel websites to fashion events management and bio fuel technology ventures; increased its membership to 5,700 members; held over 45 events to inspire, inform and connect members; collaborated with over 75 private, public and tertiary organisations toward the objective of promoting student enterprise; founded SIFE Oxford, which developed three social enterprise projects and OxWIB, which has run 5 events in its first year with a membership of over 300 young women; and, has mentored the start up and development of over 5 enterprise societies. Indeed, 2008-09 has been a landmark year for OE in terms of membership, governance, programming, innovation and impact.

Looking Forward

OE has set in place some exciting plans for the 2009-10 academic year that are sure to bring the society to even greater heights by providing increased opportunities for members to engage in the growing OE community. Due to the hard work of our Senior Member Fiona Reid and VP Management Jon Krohn, this summer OE will open the doors of the OE Enterprise Centre making it the first enterprise society in the UK to have its own HQ and hub for entrepreneurs to connect, learn and build their ventures. Moreover, the next academic year will see the launch of Enterprise Wednesdays – bi-weekly networking events for Oxford students at G&Ds; quarterly Oxford-Cambridge Enterprise Alumni Events in London for alumni from OE and Cambridge University Entrepreneurs headed up by Michaela Wood; and, a new programme called The Oxprentice, a rigorous project-based programme to enable students to develop entrepreneurial skills that was conceptualised by Jordan Poulton.

Thank You

When I assumed the presidency last year, I did so with the understanding that I had some big shoes to fill in following the likes of Bob Goodson, Kirill Makharinksy, Tahsin Chaudhry, Kulveer Taggar, Rajeeb Dey and Alasdair Bell. This has been an incredibly challenging and rewarding year for me both personally and professionally. I attribute the success of this year to the dedication, commitment and outright passion of OE’s exceptional 2008-09 Committee. I would like to thank our Senior Member, Fiona Reid for your ongoing commitment to the society; Rob Geraghty, John Boyle, Placi Espejo, Alliott Cole, Mike Skidmore, Alison Bird, Amanda Nolte, Peter Miller-Smith and Nigel Adams for your mentorship; Jon Krohn, Andy Young, Joe Kennard, Emily Davis, Afua Osei, Dorothea Ringe, Barbara Diehl, Reijo Pold and Partel Tomberg for your advice, encouragement and friendship; my parents Gary and Carolann Lennox and Cyprian Szalankiewicz for putting up with me – it has been quite a year; all of the speakers, workshop hosts and panellists for your invaluable wisdom and time; our sponsors for believing in our work and supporting it; and, most importantly, thanks to all of our members for being Oxford Entrepreneurs. It has been an honour.

Victoria Lennox

08/09 President

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