Greetings from the Gigot Center for Entrepreneurship and
welcome to our fall 2012 newsletter. Our
Center continues to pursue projects that focus on our mission of
entrepreneurship education, business launching assistance and social entrepreneurship.
The previously branded IrishAngels Network has been
rebranded the “Irish Entrepreneurs Network” to more accurately describe its mentorship
activities and business plan competition judging. Karen Slaggert, our Associate Director, will manage
the “IEN” along with the Center’s McCloskey Business Plan competition as she
has in the past. Please log onto gigot.nd.edu to learn more about these programs.
During the annual meeting of the formerly branded
IrishAngels Network this past April, our members clearly articulated their
wishes to see the opportunity to participate in angel investment forums as was
past practice with the Gigot Center. I
am pleased to announce the formation of the new IrishAngel fund. Its first
investment forum will be held November 8 & 9, in Chicago at Notre Dame’s
Executive MBA facility on S. Michigan Avenue.
The fund currently has sixty new members with a goal of seventy-five to
one hundred. More information on the new
IrishAngels can be found at: http://www.newirishangels.com. Or, please contact the IrishAngel’s founding director,
Gale Bowman at galebowman@gmail.com.
Over the summer our Center created a new service for our Notre
Dame family of entrepreneurs. The Gigot
Funding Advisory Service will be launched in late November with its mission to
assist our entrepreneurs more efficiently find appropriate funding sources. A database of over four hundred and twenty
funding sources was created organized by the type of fund, where the fund
specializes, funding requirements and if any of their partners are Notre Dame
alumni. It will be run by an application
process that will be added to the Center’s web presence.
The Center is also very pleased to announce the addition of
Elisa Podrasky as the Center’s administrative assistant. Elisa is a Saint Mary’s graduate and a long
time Notre Dame employee. Patti
Reinhardt, has been promoted to a program assistant position working with Karen
Slaggert and Melissa Paulsen. Congratulations
and welcome aboard, Patti and Elisa.