In the fall of 2002, I wrote of new beginnings for entrepreneurship at Ivey; I guess that makes this new beginning 2.0. I’m delighted to be back with the Morrissette Institute for Entrepreneurship and while I look forward to communicating in more depth with all of you in the near future, I’d like to take this opportunity to look back and look forward in a broader sense at what is next for entrepreneurship at Ivey.
Let me begin by thanking David Simpson for his hard work and accomplishments as Executive Director of the Institute over the past two years. Dave improved the student experience during his tenure and worked diligently to engage alums in more and more of our initiatives. Dave will continue to play an important role at Ivey heading the Business Families Centre.
When I was hired in 2002, Stewart Thornhill and I were the only faculty who acknowledged Entrepreneurship as our main area of teaching and scholarship. Today we have seven full-time faculty members in the area and a quick look suggests we are the largest research faculty in the country and ranked second in North America when it comes to top journal publications per faculty member. In 2002, we offered 3 semester length courses in entrepreneurship and today we have certificate programs in HBA, MSc and MBA, and a core course in EMBA. Lastly, in 2002 we had no Executive Education presence and today we run multiple programs for practicing entrepreneurs, including the QuantumShift Program which is North Americas longest running, and most successful, program for significant high growth entrepreneurs.
Looking ahead, there are opportunities to offer greater variety and intensity of programming for our students; to grow the entrepreneurial ecosystem at Western and to create an even greater impact with the entrepreneurial community at large. Two initiatives I’m particularly excited about are building a venture accelerator and a greater venture ecosystem here at Western. The opportunity for Entrepreneurship is great and I’m delighted to be digging back in. I look forward to connecting, and reconnecting, with all of you as we craft the future of entrepreneurship at Ivey.