Global entrepreneurship organization honors CEI with top award for cross-discipline programs

Houston, Texas — Global entrepreneurship educators from around the world honored the Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative (CEI) on Oct. 17 with a 2009 Award for Exceptional Activities in Entrepreneurship Across Disciplines at the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers' annual conference in Houston.

"The best entrepreneurship centers in the world — from long-established centers to new programs only months old — shared best practices and ideas for entrepreneurship education, innovation and technology commercialization, research, fund raising and outreach programs designed to help launch early-stage companies," said Brad Burke, managing director of the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship at Rice University, which hosted the conference. "The best of these centers were recognized by their peers for their outstanding work. Their efforts have far-reaching effects as these are the people who are helping entrepreneurs who themselves are responsible for the most of the job creation, economic development and wealth creation in our world."

The GCEC's awards program is designed to showcase and celebrate top university entrepreneurship programs. CEI, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's cross-campus entrepreneurship effort, prevailed over several top programs that were finalists, including MIT, Stanford University and University of Maryland.

Other award winners were:

• Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, Rice University — Excellence in Specialty Entrepreneurship Education
• Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, Rice University and MIT — Outstanding Center of Entrepreneurial Leadership
• University of California Berkeley, Temple University and University of Texas at Dallas — Outstanding Contributions to Advance the Discipline of Entrepreneurship
• Georgia Tech University — Exceptional Activities in Entrepreneurship Across Disciplines
• Indiana University — Bloomington Exceptional Contributions in Entrepreneurship Research
• University of Southern California — Marshall — NASDAQ Center of Entrepreneurial Excellence
• Maggie Ailes, Ball State University & Travis J. Brown, Indiana University-Bloomington — Entrepreneurial Support Award

Representatives from nearly 350 universities attended the conference, hosted by Rice University. Ted D. Zoller, executive director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and a key CEI partner, accepted the award on behalf of the university.

The CEI, now in its sixth year, was developed and is managed for the university by the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, the outreach and economic-development arm of UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School. Kenan Institute Director John D. Kasarda directs the CEI. Its education and venture-creation programs are developed and led by faculty champions across campus in partnership with successful entrepreneurs and business leaders, many of them UNC alumni.

The initiative launched in 2004 with a five-year grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation but is now self-sustaining with funds provided by the schools and departments that host CEI programs along with contributions from private donors. For more information, visit www.unc.edu/cei.

The GCEC is the primary vehicle by which top university entrepreneurship centers work together to share information and best practices, develop programs and initiatives, and collaborate and assist each other in advancing, strengthening and celebrating the contributions and impact of university entrepreneurship programs. For more information, visit www.globalentrepreneurshipconsortium.org.