Inspiring Young Business Leaders

On Monday 21 June, the WIP Class of 2010 were treated to a memorable afternoon of entrepreneurial leadership. The class met with an inspiring host of business leaders and listened to their fascinating tales of business development and innovation.

Firstly, the WIP and SAWIP classes were invited to the swish World HQ of Blackboard Inc. – a worldwide educational software company which provides IT solutions to over 2200 education institutions in more than 60 countries. The class were privileged to spend an hour with CEO and co-founder of Blackboard, Michael L. Chasen. This is the man who took Blackboard from a start-up company with just one product and a handful of clients to a publicly held company, with thousands of clients, offering software and services used by millions of people around the world. Clearly a very successful and accomplished man! The class were surprised and humbled by Michael’s candidness and apparent energy when speaking to a roomful of young people. He spoke very positively and encouragingly about not being afraid to ‘go out on a limb’ with a good idea and he imparted advice on how to successfully expand a business from small, modest beginnings to tackling international markets and developing a worldwide presence.

In addition to taking full advantage of the free refreshments on offer courtesy of Blackboard’s swanky office bar, the WIP class asked some interesting and engaging questions which, by Mr Chase’s own admission, showed the high calibre of potential young leaders present in the room.

The afternoon was appropriately concluded with a business-panel discussion exploring the theme: “Capturing the Spirit of the Entrepreneur”. The discussion was chaired by WIP’s very own Ciara Fitzpatrick and the impressive panel of entrepreneurs included:

• Rick Stamberger, president and CEO of SmartBrief,
• Miles Gilburne, Managing Director of ZG Ventures, and former Senior Vice President of Corporate Development of America Online (AOL) and
• Luis Derechin, Co-Founder of JackBe Corporation.
• Tom Weeler, Managing Director of Core Capital and long-time friend of the Washington Ireland Program

Tom Wheeler helped guide the discussion over the course of the evening. Each panel member outlined their individual road to success, and told enthralling stories of interesting events along the way. Again, the WIP and SAWIP classes were engaged by the panel’s frank and honest account of their careers and experiences in business. The panel was not afraid to hold back on detailing the less glamorous side of being an entrepreneur and they stressed the principles of dedication and hard work. All panelists agreed that the key to entrepreneurship is not being afraid to fail; this means having the bravery to make innovative and enterprising decisions, while also acknowledging that failure is sometimes unavoidable - success comes with perseverance.

On a whole, the afternoon served up many valuable lessons for the WIP class of 2010. Beyond learning solely about entrepreneurship, classmates heard from experts and innovators in the field of business. These are people who have shown true leadership throughout their colourful careers and much of their advice and wisdom can be applied to leadership in all areas of profession.

Thomas Redmond Bio.