Professor Allan Gibb
is a former Professor of Small Business management and the founder and Chairman of the Foundation for Small and Medium Enterprise Development at Durham University in the UK. He has worked in over 80 countries from developing to transitional and developed economies while accumulationg over 30 years of experience in the sphere of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) and Entrepreneurship development. Internationally he is well-known as a speaker, author and a person who bridges the gap between concept and practice.
Danny Mekic
is a young and outspoken Dutch entrepreneur. In 2009, was called out as the Netherlands best Entrepreneur under the age of 25. At an early age he founded his own internet company Domeinbalie.nl, specialising in internet domain name registration. He is considered one of the domain name registration experts in the world and advises domain registries on new technical implementations and legal issues. On top of that he coaches student companies, teaches Entrepreneurship and studies at the University of Amsterdam.
Wendy Parvin
Programme Director of GLEAM and Associate Fellow of Durham University's Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning, Director of Conversations With Purpose (CWP), a consultancy venture established in 2006 delivering enterprise development with a focus on mentoring to develop social capital within SMEs. Wendy's expertise includes: mentoring for new venture creation; Women's economic empowerment; leadership and growth within small business development.
Besnik Krasniqi
is director of the Business Support Centre in Kosovo and will soon finish his doctoral studies at Staffordshire University in the field of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Economics. His main expertise and research interests include determinants of entrepreneurship and small business development, institutions and private sector development in transition economies and SME policies, innovation behavior of firms and financial obstacles of SMEs.
Klaas Molenaar
is a widely respected expert in the areas of entrepreneurship development, SME support programmes and Financial services for SMEs. More than 30 years field experience in SME programmes worldwide. Founder and general director of Triodos Facet. Founder and chairman of SEON and IntEnt Foundation, linking Migration, Development and Entrepreneurship. Professor on Micro Finance and small enterprise development at University of Applied Science INHolland. President of the board of the European Micro Finance Network (EMN).
Martha Mador
is Head of Enterprise Education at Kingston University, London. She leads the Entrepreneurship Centre for WestFocus, providing learning opportunities for students, staff, alumni, and entrepreneurs across 7 member institutions. Martha is part of a team which runs KnowledgeLondon, the CPD network for Knowledge Transfer practitioners across London; the HEEG network of Entrepreneurship Educators in the South-East of England; the WestFocus collaboration.
Klas Brynte
Klas started his entrepreneurial background 1998, as a project manager for
Drivhuset Örebro universitet (Greenhouse, Örebro university), helping
university students starting their own businesses. The experience he gained through the OFB project in Sweden took him to entrepreneurship training in South Africa, Canada, Finland, the middle East and soon Russia. Today Klas works full time as an Entrepreneurship Trainer, business start up consultant, business coach and lecturer.
Maarten de Jong
is Coordinator of Investor Matchmaking at BiD Network. He holds a degree Industrial Engineering and Management Science. He was inspired by ‘entrepreneurship for development’ during his stay in Sri Lanka, where he wrote his master’s thesis. In 2006, straight after university, he joined BiD Network as coach matchmaker and later on he became account manager. Then BiD Network decided to setup a network of investors to provide entrepreneurs with better access to finance. Now, together with his team, Maarten matches BiD’s most qualified entrepreneurs to targeted investors.
Ton van der Krabben
is an independent freelance consultant and trainer in the field of entrepreneurship development as well as value chain development, since 1987. He does not pretend to have any answers but tries to ask the right questions. The key element in his CV is common sense.
Richard Oaten
is an independent consultant specialising in governance and job creation in re-emerging economies. Currently working in these areas in Zimbabwe, previously advisor to the Prime Minister in Republic of Haiti, Minister of Trade and Industry in UNMIK government of Kosovo. Spent 30 years in Africa in both management of private sector industry and governance.
James Ofwona
is the founder and CEO of Tricomp Ltd - an IT and Telecoms consulting and integration firm based in Warsaw, Poland. He is also the Founder and CEO of Simba Friends Foundation, which helps create e-opportunities for children and the youth, as well as provide support education grants for needy children. James Ofwona is a Co-founder and the Chairman of the Kenyan-Polish Forum (KPF).
Dr. Donath R.Olomi
is the founding director of the University of Dar es Salaam Entrepreneurship Centre (UDEC). Under his leadership, the Centre has grown in terms of staff and programmes, and has supported various units within and outside the University to set up entrepreneurship programmes. He is an effective facilitator and trainer on private sector development, business planning and entrepreneurship development.
Paul Iske
is an advocate of entrepreneurship and innovation. As Chief Dialogues Officer at ABN AMRO Bank and director of the Dialogues Program he stimulates entrepreneurial and innovative thinking and behaviour within and outside ABN AMRO Bank. Projects include the Institute of Brilliant Failures and Second Chance (addressing (in) tolerance for bankruptcy). He is initiator and director of the Dialogues Incubator, responsible for new value creation via open, radical and sustainable innovation.
Stephen Lazaro
is Stephen Lazaro is the principal of Morogoro Vocational Teachers Training College (MVTTC) in Tanzania. Together with VETA (Vocational Education and Training Authority) and Triodos Facet, he intensively worked on building the capacity of teachers to mainstream entrepreneurship in the curricula of VET Institutions in Tanzania during the last 2 years.
Nils de Witte
is entrepreneur and matchmaker for SME finance at Business in Development Network. Nils is a pioneer in New Business Development. In 1995 I initiated the first business angels network in the Netherlands. This network matched at least five hundred new and innovative companies with private investors. In 2008 he joined BiD Network as one of the two directors.
Jaap van Tilburg
is an entrepreneur, who started several companies since he graduated from university as master in physics and business administration about 30 years ago. His expertise is innovation and new business start-up especially new technology based firms. He is working as a consultant, project manager, trainer and coach in several countries. Currently he is focussed on three entrepreneurship projects of the Nikos (Dutch Institute of Knowledge Intensive Entrepreneurship) of the University of Twente: www.venturelabtwente.com, www.utwente.nl/top and www.kansrijkeigenbaas.nl.
Ulla Gredemyr
started her entrepreneurial career as a project manager and business consultant for women in rural areas in the north of Sweden during the mid 90ties. Today, she’s the woman behind the concept of Summer Entrepreneur. After training of thousands of potential micro entrepreneurs, Ulla today focusses on educational programme development and training of trainers for schools and organisations looking for effective tools for promotion of an entrepreneurial lifestyle and entrepreneurship development.
James Wanjohi
is Managing Director of Branson School of Entrepreneurship based in Johannesburg, which provides education and seed funding to young entrepreneurs. James is a Young Global Leader 2009, an honour bestowed by the World Economic Forum each year to recognize the 200 most distinguished young leaders below the age of 40 around the world. He is the Founder and Managing Director of Alpha Strategy Consultants and an advisor to the Employment Economic Research Unit of the Government of South Africa.
Pim de Bokx
is General Director of BViT innovation network, Managing Partner of Huygens-XC Expertise Centre on Entrepreneurship Incubation and partner of XLX entrepreneurship simulation training. Pim has been entrepreneur since he was 18, from garden architecture to interim management. Through BViT and his network he offers innovative and motivated starting entrepreneurs the chance to be introduced to knowledge and capital in order to develop their business.
Soeniel Sewnarain
is chairman of PROMiSe, the business club for multi-cultural entrepreneurs in Rotterdam. He is advisor at EtnoLife Services Ltd and editor in chief of HinduLife Magazine, the biggest magazine for Hindustanis in the Netherlands.
Henk Schenkels
started his entrepreneurial career as a 15-year old hairdresser. Within a couple of years he started his own salon and discovered his passion about being an entrepreneur. In the last 25 years he became the founder of several successful concepts in the hairdressing industry. He is a true believer that creating talent by education is the key to success. His creativity and passion for the entrepreneurship made him an advisor to the corporate market. His ideas about managing people and creating brands are a true inspiration to others.
Nadia Zernina
Is the Marketing Manager for WestFocus as well as the Project Manager for KnowledgeLondon and the Higher Education Entrepreneurship Group (HEEG) aiming to increase the capacities and capabilities of Higher Education to develop more enterprising students and more graduate business start-ups through up-skilling staff and sharing best practice.