Tag Archives: Chris van der Kuyl

Opportunities for Scotland – an interview with The Right Honourable The Lord Smith of Kelvin

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We’d like to welcome you to:

The Opportunities for Scotland

An interview with….
The Right Honourable The Lord Smith of Kelvin

Tuesday 22 May 2012
Registration 5.45 pm

Free

To celebrate the launch of an ambitious plan for growth for The Entrepreneurial Exchange in Tayside we are delighted to present an audience with Robert Smith, Baron Smith of Kelvin, one of Scotland’s most influential business leaders.
Robert Smith is one of Scotland’s leading business figures. He joined the Board of Scottish & Southern Energy as a non- Executive Director in June 2003 and became Chairman in January 2005. Lord Smith is also Chairman of the Weir Group PLC joining the Board in February 2002 and being appointed chairman in July of the same year. In addition he is a non-executive director of 3i Group plc, Standard Bank Group Ltd and Aegon. He also chairs Glasgow 2014 Ltd, the organising committee for the Commonwealth Games. He is currently a member of the Council of Economic Advisors to the First Minister of Scotland, Chancellor of the University of the West of Scotland and patron of the Scottish Community Foundation. He also chairs The Smith Group, which studies opportunity pathways for young people not in education, employment or training. A former chairman and chief executive of Morgan Grenfell Private Equity he was also chief executive of Morgan Grenfell Asset Management from 1996 until 2000 before becoming vice chairman of Deutsche Asset Management between 2000 and 2002.
The evening will be chaired by Exchange Chairman, Chris van der Kuyl who will interview Lord Smith on a wide variety of subjects including the role of Culture and Sport in a vibrant economy, the opportunities for renewables and engineering in Scotland and the inclusion agenda.
The Exchange would like to invite a wide audience from the business, academic and civic leadership communities of Tayside to come and join us for a fascinating insight into Tayside and Scotland’s future.
To book your place please contact Karen McTaggart at the Exchange office on 01698 285650 or at karen@entrepreneurial-exchange.co.uk.
We look forward to seeing you there.

The D’Arcy Thompson Lecture Theatre
Ground Floor, Tower Extension
University of Dundee, Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
http://www.pp.dundee.ac.uk/campusmap/?id=9a367565c33bd3a7

New Entrepreneurial Exchange Director – Amanda Boyle

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This year sees four women on the Board for the first time in the Exchange’s history. Welcomed by new Chairman Chris van der Kuyl, new director Amanda Boyle of Bloom VC talks about what she hopes to bring to the organisation.

New Chairman, Chris van der Kuyl, on the future of the Exchange

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Chris van der Kuyl, CEO of BrightSolid, was appointed Chairman of the Exchange at the Annual Conference. He’s hugely ambitious for the organisation over the next 12 months, and spoke of the challenges and opportunities facing Scotland’s entrepreneurs.

In his opening address to the conference, Chris said: “While the economic outlook continues to be gloomy it is inspiring to see so many of you seeking out the opportunities that occur in challenging times, that’s the definition of an entrepreneur, that we actively seek out challenges and change.

“Nobody got up the day that the banks crashed and did back flips, but by the end of the day, or the next morning, when we’d done all the risk assessment, most of us knew what was going on and started to think about the opportunities it would create.

“In the next few years ahead of us, in the UK and in Scotland, it’s going to be historic, we’ve got the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, and some kind of referendum. The spot light will be on us, as a nation, both the UK and more specifically, Scotland. We in the Exchange need to be acting as an incredibly strong voice for the entrepreneurial community, we’ve got to look at the challenges and opportunities ahead and be debating them, discussing them and acting on a strong and coherent message that supports the growth potential of every Scottish entrepreneur in business.

“None of us knows where that is going to be, but we can be a pivotal point for that debate, encourage that debate and support us all in trying to get the best outcome. Because what do we care about? We care about a thriving environment to do business in. There are great entrepreneurial opportunities, whether they are barriers blown out the way when it comes to red tape or access to finance, and its very important we do take a strong position whether that’s with sister organisations across the country, like the RSE who are spurring on the intellectual debate or the governments of the time.”

Chris also shared his thoughts about the new Board directors, appointed at the conference.