Enterprise Week 2023, brought to you by the University of St Andrews’ Entrepreneurship Centre, was a great success with a range of speaker sessions, panel discussions, events, and competitions. The annual event aims to inspire and encourage entrepreneurship across the University and local community. Across the week students, staff, alumni, and local community members got involved with inspiring sessions that aimed to spark their curiosity, uncover their creativity, and develop their ideas. Each day covered a different theme including Food and Drink, Circular Economy and Sustainability, Technology, and Investment. All the speakers were entrepreneurs from the University’s Alumni network who shared their own experiences and advice to those with a dream of being a creator, founder, or entrepreneur. The speakers included:
- Alex Mezger – Co-CEO at Jude’s ice cream
- Dr Bahbak Miremadi – Co-Founder and CEO at Elephant Healthcare
- Rachel Hanretty – Owner and Founder at Mademoiselle Macaron
- Juno Lee – Co-Founder and CEO of CombiniCo
- Claire Rampen – Co-Founder at Reath
- Rob Gelb – Serial Entrepreneur, currently Managing Editor at Campfire and Programme Facilitator at the Entrepreneurship Centre
- Alex Rowe – Co-Founder and Parter at ISOBEL VC
The opening Keynote event was hosted in The Byre Theatre on Monday 2nd October. Professor Dame Sally Mapstone DBE FRSE, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of St Andrews opened the week and delivered an inspiring speech on the entrepreneurial ambitions of the University, highlighting the Entrepreneurial St Andrews strategy before introducing keynote speakers, Alex Mezger – Co-CEO of Jude’s ice cream and Dr Bahbak Miremadi – previous Board Member at Jude’s ice cream and Co-Founder and CEO of Elephant Healthcare.
In a live-podcast format, Dr Miremadi interviewed Alex which uncovered the Jude’s story, as Alex shared how the family business started and how culture and sustainability is at the heart of what they do.
All attendees were able to sample Alex’s delicious ice cream with free ice cream giveaways for all attendees.
If you’d like to get involved in next years’ Enterprise Week or the Entrepreneurship Centre’s community, please get in touch with the team.