The Hunter Centre had two guest speakers at the beginning of the month: Professor Becky Reuber of Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, and Dr Ron Botham, visiting professor at the Hunter Centre.
Professor Reuber's talk was "Send in the clones: fit between social venture funds and special ventures" and took place on March 11. She is Professor of Strategic Management and the author of dozens of scholarly papers and the recent textbook Entrepreneurship: a Process Perspective. Her research has received awards from Canadian and international organisations. She sits on the editorial board of several entrepreneurship journals, and is Associate Editor of Family Business Review. Professor Reuber teaches MBA and executive courses in entrepreneurship and case analysis at the Rotman School. She is an active supporter of entrepreneurial firms in Canada, consults to public- and private-sector organisations, and has helped pick entrepreneurial award winners for a variety of organisations.
Dr Botham's talk was "Creating a More Entrepreneurial Culture: the Impact of Enterprise Insight Local Initiatives" and took place on March 4. Dr Botham is a freelance consultant. Between 1985 and 1999 he held a variety of senior research and strategy posts in the Scottish Development Agency/Scottish Enterprise after which he joined the University of Glasgow's Training and Employment Unit (1999-2009) as Professor of Entrepreneurship and Regional Development. During his career he has undertaken a large number of policy related entrepreneurship studies. Most recently he has completed studies of High Growth Third Age Entrepreneur for NESTA and a three year combined before-after/control area study of Enterprise Insight's local initiatives to create a more enterprising/entrepreneurial youth culture to increase the supply of future entrepreneurs.