$$News and Reports$$

Apr. 30, 2017
 Bengis.jpg

 

BGU’s Bengis Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation of the Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management hosted representatives from around the world for the first International Bengis Roundtable last week to discuss how to teach innovation and entrepreneurship and how to maximize academic-industry collaborations.

Delegates from Brazil, China, the UK, the Netherlands, Ireland and Israel discussed best practices for teaching and integrating innovation into the academic setting and university-industry relations. Upon hearing about the roundtable, Francisco Carvalho de Arruda Coelho, Vice Secretary of Science, Technology and Higher Education, State Government of Ceara, Brazil organized his own delegation to attend in addition to another delegation from Brazil.

BGU’s Prof. Dafna Schwartz, Chairperson and Director of the Bengis Center and Prof. (Emer.) Raphael Bar-El organized the event.

Presentations of particular interest included:

“Enabling Female Entrepreneurs:  Multinational Corporations Engage with a Global Challenge”

Prof. Linda Scott is Emeritus DP World Chair for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, University of Oxford. She was chosen as one of the top 25 World Thinkers of 2015 by the UK’s Prospect Magazine for her leadership in women’s economic empowerment.

“The Role of a Development Bank in Supporting Innovation”

Prof. Marcos Costa Holanda is the President of Banco do Nordeste (the Bank of Northeast of Brazil-BNB), a development bank established by the Government of Brazil in 1952 to support the economic development of the nine states of the Northeast region of Brazil (today encompassing about 50 million inhabitants).

Dr. Carlos Eduardo Siqueira Gaspar is currently the Chief Innovation Officer of Banco do Nordeste do Brasil.

“The Global Evolution of Cambridge’s Crossover Model of Innovation”

Philip Cooke is a Professor at the MohnCentre of Innovation, West Norway University of Applied Sciences.

“China-Israel Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation”

Prof. Dr. Li Zheng, the founding director of the China-Israel Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Jilin University, and Prof. Yang Song will speak about the activities being conducted as part of the framework of the joint entrepreneurship and innovation center that was established recently with BGU.

Other speakers of note included: Prof. Tsvi Vinig of Amsterdam University and Prof. Stephen Roper, Director of the Enterprise Research Centre, the UK’s national SME research center.

The international delegations also toured significant places in Israel’s Negev region, such as the Advanced Technologies Park adjacent to the University. BGU is a founding partner in the Park.