Celebrate Enterprise Awards – winners
The awards evening hosted by Vice-Chancellor Julius Weinberg took place on 8 May 2012 in the John Galsworthy Building, Penryhn Road campus.
Student Awards
A shortlist and winners were drawn from the 175 students who have enrolled this year on the Enterprising Business Awards. The Awards are a year-round programme of mentoring, support, and peer learning with financial support for project development. In addition, nominations were received from across the university.
The winners of the three categories were:
Entrepreneur of the Year – Nishant Parekh (In-theBox.co.uk)
Nishant has done numerous enterprise projects with SMEs in order to kick-start his business consultancy, in-theBox. More recently, he has begun developing a stationery product based on traditional Indian cloths.
Shortlisted: Fiona Quinn (saffronorganic.co.uk) and Rashid Samauroo (omauro.com)
Student Enterprise Champion – Austin Meakin (amSquared)
Austin has participated in a wide range of enterprise activities in the last year. He has networked widely with other students and graduates through the Enterprising Business Awards, entered numerous competitions, and started several enterprises. He traded as Spread It Thick (Design) after graduating from Kingston University, formed and directed Storm New Media Ltd in April 2011, and formed amSquared Software Ltd in April 2012 (100% shareholder).
Shortlisted: Ninela Ivanova (mouldedmind.blogspot.com) and Careeta-Robert Green (bornwithagift.com)
Most Enterprising Student – Neomi Bennett (neo-slip.co.uk)
Neomi has recently finished her Nursing BSc(Hons). During her degree she developed Neo-Slip, a novel means of easing the application of anti-embolism stockings. She has won many prizes for Neo-Slip, including cash, mentoring, and access to decision makers in the NHS.
Shortlisted: Victoria Bloom and Clea Jentsch
Staff Awards
Twenty nominations in three categories were received from around the University for the awards, which recognise and celebrate activities and achievement in enterprise. Presenting the awards, Julius reminded guests of the importance of enterprise within the University.
The winners of the three categories were:
Staff Enterprise Champion
Theresa Nash, Principal Lecturer in Nursing in the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, won the Enterprise Champion award, for a person or team who has promoted enterprise within the University, encouraging student and staff engagement Theresa has been an enterprise champion in the FHSCS for the last seven years, working to encourage enterprise among staff and students alike. She founded Heritage2Health, a network that conducts large-scale volunteer events at National Trust and English Heritage properties. Her partnerships also include local and regional NHS Trusts. In April, Theresa also won a staff achievement award.
Staff Commercial Champion
Professors Julia Davidson and Antonia Bifulco, in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, won the Commercial Entrepreneurship award, for a person or team who has developed income-generating enterprise activities on behalf of the University. Julia and Toni’s Centre for Abuse and Trauma Studies (CATS) is one of the most commercially active areas of FASS. The pair has developed extremely strong professional local, national and international networks, working across a range of commercial activities including consultancy, contract research, CPD and course licensing. They hold high-value grants for their internationally recognised research and CATS is also on the framework to supply services to the Home Office.
Staff Social Entrepreneurship
Professor Catherine McDermott, in the Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture, for a person or team who has developed social enterprise activity on behalf of the University. Catherine has been one of the instigators and developers of Project Kingston Africa, which aims to create opportunities for interaction between Britain and Africa and support knowledge exchange between Africa, Kingston University and the wider community. She is a practitioner and expert in curating and her innovative projects have attracted long-term backing from the British Council, Design Council and the Science Museum. Recently her multi-disciplinary ventures have enabled more than 400 students and staff to participate in what she refers to as a 'live practise laboratory', where enterprise, risk and collaboration are the norm.
