OE has a rich history of excellence in promoting student enterprise as the largest and most active student enterprise organisation in Europe. After seven years of growth, we continue to hold true to our mission of encouraging and supporting student entrepreneurship by providing inspiration, education, networking and the chance to learn by doing at the University of Oxford and beyond.

2008-09 has been a benchmark academic year in terms of membership, governance, programming, innovation and impact. The tangible impact of OE can be seen in the lives of those who engage with the society and felt by the contagious energy that flows through our events when like-minded, enterprising individuals connect.

I am delighted to welcome Jordan Poulton as OE’s 2009-10 President. Jordan previously ran OE’s 2009 Idea Idol competition and sat as VP Governance; founded and led the Oxford Investment Society; and, is the co-founder of CrewDates.com. Accompanying Jordan will be the launch of the OE Enterprise Centre, Enterprise Wednesday networking socials, quarterly alumni events for OE and Cambridge University Entrepreneurs members in London, and the new Oxprentice programming line. Under Jordan’s leadership, I am confident that OE will reach new heights – from strength to strength.

On behalf of the 2008-09 OE Committee, thank you to all of our sponsors, partners, supporters and members. It has been an honour working with each of you over the last year. Please enjoy the 2008-09 OE Year in Review, a window into the internal workings of OE to see what it takes to run a world leading enterprise society from the inside out.

Sincerely,

Victoria Lennox
President 08/09

“The entrepreneur builds an enterprise; OE builds entrepreneurs.” Thomas F.A. Whitfield2008-2009 Year in Review

Oxford Entrepreneurs is proudly launching a prestigious new programme called “The Oxprentice” – a multi-stage business skills competition taking place in the 09-10 academic year, and climaxing with one Oxford student being crowned the first-ever, well, Oxprentice!

With lots of applicants vying for the prizes and publicity that will be showered upon the Oxprentice champion, competitors will be selected through a full-day audition in central Oxford on Saturday of 7th Week (June 13th). Please see The Oxprentice webpage for full audition details: http://www.oxfordentrepreneurs.co.uk/events/oxprentice/

Profits from the audition will be provided to OE’s partner in the event, The Oaktree Foundation UK, a youth-driven charity that supports educational development in sub-Saharan Africa.

May 8, 2009 – 7.30pm
Adam Street Club – The Strand, London
Registration Full

The crisp surroundings of the Adam Street Club on The Strand, London, play host to this year’s Oxford Entrepreneurs Alumni engagement on Friday 8th May. Oxford Entrepreneurs has a diverse and rich community of alumni, and the committee is keen to meet them in person over a few drinks in the relaxed surroundings of the Adam Street Club.

Alongside meeting other alumni and the committee, guests will also be able to hear from and talk to three high profile entrepreneurs, Rod Aldridge, the founder of Capita, Ben Elliot, co-founder of Quintessentially, and Syed Ahmed, founder of SA Vortex and more famously, a former contestant from The Apprentice, who will all be sharing their experiences on the evening.

The event, on the 8th May, begins at 7.30pm and runs until 10.30pm though the Adam Street Club is open until 3am, so feel free to make an evening of it - on Fridays there is often a nice party atmosphere in the club as the evening progresses. We’d love to see you there!

May 6, 2009 – 7pm

Brent Co-Founded Lastminute.com in April 1998 with Martha Lane Fox and was CEO and took the company to profit and gross bookings of over $2bn. The company floated in March 2000 when the dot-com bubble was at its peak - the IPO was 40 times oversubscribed and the price increase during the process was a record for a UK company. Lastminute.com acquired 14 businesses after the IPO to supplement the annual growth of the core brand which was over 100% from 1998 – 2004. In 2005 lastminute.com was sold to Sabre for $1.1bn.

Brent most recently founded another VC-backed internet based start-up, MyDeco, the online interiors site that will revolutionise the way we shop and design for our homes. He is a Governor of University of the Arts College, London and a non-executive board director of Guardian Media Group. From January, 2007 he took on the role of Non-Executive Chairman of Wayn.com – a travel and leisure social network with over 13 million members. Brent is also an angel investor in several internet companies including Viagogo, Wayn.com and moveme.com.

April 29, 2009 – 6pm

Said Business School

Register: http://oe.wufoo.com/forms/mike-mason/ 

Mike Mason, Managing Director – Innovation, founded Climate Care in 1997 pre-Kyoto.  Since then the company has become a market leader in the origination, development and retail of voluntary and compliance carbon offsets, pioneering methodologies and project standards in a number of areas and supplying everyone from consumers to some of the world’s largest brands.  In April 2008 Climate Care was acquired by JP Morgan. 

Mike also founded and continues to run Biojoule, a company developing new ways to use biomass for energy that doesn’t compete with food.  Mike qualified as a mining engineer initially and worked mostly in Africa.  He then gained an MBA and moved to business development in the oil industry.  He left the oil industry to set up a computing consultancy and a number of healthcare ventures. In 1994 Mike went to Oxford to study Environmental Change and Management, where he also taught Environmental Economics for several years.

REGISTRATION FULL

James Caan is CEO of private equity firm Hamilton Bradshaw and has been building and selling businesses since 1985. Having founded the Alexander Mann Group in 1985 and co-founded executive head-hunting firm Humana International with his partner Doug Bugie, 2001 Caan was awarded the BT Enterprise of the Year award and the PricewaterhouseCoopers Entrepreneur of the Year 2003.

Setting up London-based Hamilton Bradshaw in 2004, the private equity company specialises in buyouts, venture capital, turnarounds and real estate investments and development opportunities in both the UK and Europe.  In October 2007, Caan joined the panel in the fifth series of BBC Two’s Dragons’ Den and filmed series six transmitted this Autumn soon to be followed by with a 1 hour special ‘Outside of The Den’ following up on Den Investments as well as exploring both his business and personal journey.  September 2008 saw James publish his Autobiography The Real Deal - an incredible story of his remarkable life. From his childhood as a Pakistani immigrant to the phenomenal success of his first company, this book traces James’s journey to both financial and personal maturity. Published by Virgin it deals with his fear at realising his goals too early, and offers a frank account of what success at 30 really means.

A married father of two daughters, Caan has homes in London, the South of France and Pakistan.

John Thompson, 37, is a computer science graduate of the University of Wales, and started his career in software research. He discovered sales four years later, and began selling for a successful software start up in Oxford in 1996. John increased his earnings by 6 times in his first year in sales, and went on to be a top achieving sales person and sales manager increasing sales by 1000%. In 2001 he co-founded Commerce Decisions and was its CEO from inception to its sale in an all cash £12m deal in 2008. John’s approach to selling was instrumental to getting the company started, staffed, funded, growing and profitable. The company has won many major Government Departments and blue chips as clients.

February 12, 2009 - 6pm

Julie Meyer has 20 years of investment and advisory experience, helping start-up businesses and industry standards to emerge and establish themselves. As Chief Executive of Ariadne Capital, she has overall general and financial management responsibility for the group which she founded in August 2000. Ariadne is an investment and advisory firm focused on the Software and Services, New Media, Communications and Life Services sectors. Julie is well-known for founding First Tuesday, the largest global network of entrepreneurs, which many credit for igniting the Internet generation in Europe. It was sold for $50 million in cash in and shares in July 2000. Julie has raised hundreds of millions of capital for start-ups in addition to overseeing another $150 million of seed capital found for start-ups through First Tuesday. Named a “Global Leader of Tomorrow” by the World Economic Forum and one of the top 30 most powerful women in Europe according to the Wall Street Journal, Julie’s mission is to back the best entrepreneurs in Europe with global ambitions. She was awarded “Entrepreneur of the Year” Award in October 2000 by Ernst & Young U.K.