“Some dates you look forward to, others you circle in red on the calendar. This date for the induction of the inaugural class into UNH’s Alumni Entrepreneur Hall of Fame is one of those circled dates on the calendar. This is truly a very exciting celebration”. This was the opening line of the ceremony on October 4 th made by ECenter Executive Director Ian Grant as part of UNHInnovation’s annual Innovators’ Dinner.
Due to the generosity of an anonymous UNH alum in the winter of 2018, the ECenter created the Alumni Entrepreneur Hall of Fame to celebrate the entrepreneurial success of UNH’s alumni.
Pictured top to bottom, Katie Bouton ’96, Christine “Chris” Dwyer M’72, Peter T. Paul ’67, Chris Rondeau ’94, and David Shaw ‘73 were the first five members inducted. Due to a last minute emergency, Peter Paul was unable to attend in person, but was recognized at a small presentation ceremony in November. President James Dean provided a recorded video congratulatory message to all inductees. Instead of a traditional acceptance speech, each inductee was asked to outline a problem he or she sees in the world that needs to be solved, and ways in which UNH could assist in the building of the solution.
A summary of the three minute challenges:
Katie Bouton: “Build a company that can do good work and have good lives. Build the case for a return on investment that connects mission and purpose and profitability.”
Chris Dwyer: “Children from families who are less advantaged are significantly less likely to be on track during adolescence, same is true for students of color. What are the opportunities for interventions during adolescence—high school—to help increase success in college?”
Chris Rondeau: “One in five youth report being bullied. 160,000 students a day don’t go to school for fear of being bullied. How do we stop it, disperse it, slow it down? How do we inspire kindness?”
David Shaw: “How can all of the new amazing technology be used to create stewardship for our critically important oceans? Stewardship is about political science, English language, good communications skills, engineering and physics. UNH could be the global center for all of these resources.”
Earlier in the day, the Hall of Fame inductees spent over two hours at a round-table event at the ECenter having engaging conversations with over 25 entrepreneurial students from all of the colleges on campus. The roundtable included a meaningful opportunity for several students who have started companies to get advice on solving some of their growth issues. This included Nikki Swartz (’18) who asked for suggestions as a woman entrepreneur on finding angel investors focused on women start-ups. Omar Nabulsi (’18) asked how to build credibility as a student when approaching customers. Francesco Mikulis-Borsoi (’20) and Kristian Comer (’20) who are both engineers, asked if it would be better to add a sales person to help them increase sales or go step-by-step themselves until they achieved a certain level. They both were 2018 winners of Holloway Prize for their now launched and revenue generating company, You Scheduler.
The thoughtful and insightful answers to each of the questions showed the level of experience and expertise each inductee had gained over the years. All of the students were appreciative and honored to be in a small personal forum.
To read more about the inductees, visit our website.
To view of induction ceremony, visit our YouTube page.
To watch the student round table event with the 2018 inductees, visit our YouTube page.
To nominate an entrepreneurial UNH alum to be considered for induction in 2019, visit our website.
