Mark Mann wins GUV Personality of the Year
23rd May 2019
OUI’s humanities and social sciences innovation lead named main Mann in Global University Venturing’s awards.
Dr Mark Mann, Oxford University Innovation’s (OUI) Innovation Lead for Humanities and Social Sciences, has been named “Personality of the Year” by university innovation trade magazine Global University Venturing (GUV).
The award was given in recognition of Mark’s role in developing OUI’s social enterprise offering. Mark played a leading role in preparing the strategy of the programme and implementing it across the University. Launched in September 2018, the social enterprise programme has already led to the formation of social enterprise spinouts sOPHIa, which has a platform to help tackle poverty around the world, and Greater Change, which is providing secure and cashless donations for the homeless.
Mark is also responsible for the creation of SE2020, a £550,000 investment pot to kickstart more social enterprises. Both the programme and the fund are helping build up a healthy pipeline of social enterprises for Oxford University and OUI, with a number of companies expected to spin out in the coming months.
Mark beat a shortlist of global talent for the award, including MIT’s Lesley Millar-Nicolson and Mark Payton from Mercia Technologies. Previous winners include Oxford Sciences Innovation’s founder Dave Norwood and SETsquared’s Innovation Director Simon Bond.
Brendan Ludden, Head of Physical Sciences at Oxford University Innovation, said:
“Through his work on social enterprise, Mark has had a profound impact on OUI, the University and the wider Oxford innovation ecosystem. The programme is helping take concepts from our humanities and social sciences divisions and turn world-changing ideas that would otherwise lay undiscovered into real world impact. It is fantastic that Mark’s work is being recognised with this award, both in terms of his own efforts being showcased and the validation of the role of social enterprise in university innovation as a whole.”
GUV’s write up on Mark’s award can be found here: https://globaluniversityventuring.com/personality-of-the-year-mark-mann/
Picture courtesy of Bart van Overbeeke/Global University Venturing.
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