Date & Time
What does it take to build and launch a successful business? In celebration of National Postdoc Appreciation Week, hear from a panel of entrepreneurs and company founders about entrepreneurship and the process of building a company. This panel is hosted by Dr. Konrad Walus, Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; UBC and Co-Founder; Aspect Biosystems, and features:
- Dr. Shannon Bard - Entrepreneur in Residence and Co-Lead, Climate Venture Studio; UBC
- Dr. Aria Hahn - Chief Executive Officer; Koonkie Cloud Services
- Mr. Chang Han - Entrepreneur in Residence; UBC
- Mr. Blair Simonite - Entrepreneur in Residence; UBC
This event is part of 2021 National Postdoc Appreciation Week. Click here for a list of all NPAW events!
MODERATOR
Dr. Konrad Walus
Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; UBC and Co-Founder; Aspect Biosystems
Biography Coming Soon
PANELISTS
Dr. Shannon Bard is the Lead of the Climate Venture Studio at the University of British Columbia, working to accelerate the translation of climate solutions research to impact. She also coached science-based cleantech, healthtech, and social ventures through Venture Connection & Foresight Cleantech Accelerator. She has over 30 years experience in innovation and R&D in climate solutions, environmental sustainability, ecosystem & human health. Shannon was previously the global Director of Innovation for the environmental consultancy Hemmera and parent engineering firm Ausenco. Formerly, Shannon was a professor of Environmental Science at Dalhousie University, Director of the Marine Ecotoxicology Laboratory and co-winner of the Senate Environmental Award. She is a graduate of Stanford University, Université de Nantes, MIT & Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Biography coming soon.
Chang Han is an entrepreneur, consultant-investor, and professor, specializing in entrepreneurship, startup growth strategy and market entry. While he started his professional career as an attorney - first as a litigator in the U.S., then as in-house Intellectual Property counsel for an international bank in Asia - he spent the last 14 years back in Vancouver as a co-founder, business consultant, and teacher. He co-founded 3 businesses in biotech, international trade for sports performance beverages, and electric mountain bikes that are currently active, and has invested and/or consulted for several startups in urban mining, CPG and tech. In addition to consulting and advisory for SME’s, he often acts as in-house counsel or Chief Legal Officer for incorporation of startups, IP, contracts, regulatory, and HR, and teach entrepreneurship and innovation at BCIT in addition to being an instructor with the e@UBC programs and being the Lead Entrepreneur in Residence.
Blair Simonite teaches entrepreneurship and innovation at the Sauder School of Business, and is the founding Program Director emeritus for entrepreneurship@UBC, the university’s venture incubator/accelerator that helps UBC students, faculty, staff and alumni learn entrepreneurial skills and build successful new ventures. Blair is currently the e@UBC Leadership Development Entrepreneur-in-Residence, working with entrepreneurs to help them advance their ventures. At UBC he has helped hundreds of UBC entrepreneurs and their ventures on their startup journey, a journey from early stage to exit that he has done several times as an insider, advisor, and board member. Blair has a particular interest in ventures whose goal is to apply technology to create positive impact for people, society and the environment.
Registration
Registration in this session is required, and is now open. Those successfully registered will receive a registration confirmation within one week of the session date.
NO-SHOW PENALTY: If you register and do not attend or cancel after 3pm on the day before the event, it may affect your eligibility to join future events. To avoid this no-show penalty, please cancel by at least 3pm the day before the event by e-mailing postdoctoral.fellows@ubc.ca.
Accessibility
If you have a disability or medical condition that may affect your full participation in the event, please email postdoctoral.fellows@ubc.ca in advance of the event.
PDFO EVENT COMMUNITY AGREEMENT
The PDFO has created a community agreement for our events in order to foster an inclusive, welcoming, and respectful environment in which all event attendees feel safe and supported.
By participating in a PDFO event, we commit ourselves to:
- Treating one another with kindness, courtesy and respect in all interactions;
- Engaging in gracious, active listening and valuing others’ opinions;
- Not dominating discussions so that others can share during the session;
- Ensuring that any potentially confidential or sensitive information shared as part of the session is not shared outside of the session;
- Actively participating in the session; and
- In online sessions, when possible and if comfortable sharing audio and/or video to create a greater sense of community and participation.
DELIVERY FORMAT
This panel will be delivered online via Zoom. The following suggestions may help to improve the online experience:
- Use headphones to reduce noise and avoid feedback between your mic and speaker.
- Ensure that you are in a quiet location so that the audio does not get polluted with unwanted noise.
- Keep your microphone on mute unless you are speaking during the session.
- In case of technical problems, time for plugin downloads, etc., please attempt to log into the Zoom meeting 10-15 minutes before the start. You will be placed in the waiting room until the official start time.