Scott Hultman (MD, FACS, MBA ’08) graduated from UNC Kenan-Flagler with a ready-to-implement business plan that served as the foundation for the new UNC Burn Reconstruction and Aesthetic Center. The center, which opened in the fall of 2012, has created a space for UNC Health Care to conduct cutting-edge burn reconstruction research and develop new burn scar treatments that are giving patients life-changing results. Hultman, who has been a practicing plastic surgeon at UNC for 13 years, said that there was a strong interest in creating an aesthetic surgery center at the university as early as 2001. However, an original marketing analysis for the project predicted a whopping $20-million price tag that neither the UNC School of Medicine nor UNC Read More
Tag Archives: entrepreneurship
New Research:Unmasking Entrepreneurship’s Biggest Players
A startup venture needs not only money but people—well-connected players in the startup community who can quickly put their hands on expertise, connections and, yes, cash. In 2009, not long after the U.S. economy had slowed to a halt, Ted Zoller, director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at UNC-Kenan Flagler, saw that new ventures were needed more than ever. “But everyone was ducking for cover,” he said. “I thought, ‘How do we get things moving again?’ I decided we needed to hearken back to those people who have brokered multiple ventures. We needed to find those people and motivate them to get involved again.” So Zoller began developing his “dealmaker’s algorithm.” It’s software that mines from Standard and Poor’s Read More
Emerging Markets: Africa as a Learning Laboratory
For Lisa Jones Christensen, Africa is a vibrant learning laboratory for researchers, students, businesses, and business schools interested in pioneering sustainable approaches to economic development. Christensen, UNC Kenan-Flagler assistant professor of strategy and entrepreneurship, is faculty advisor to the school’s Center for Sustainable Enterprise and advisor to the dean on African issues. The Kenan Institute speaks one-on-one with Christensen about Africa, its challenges, and the opportunities it offers to those who invest in its growth. Kenan Institute: How did you become interested in Africa? Christensen: When I was in an MBA program, I was given the opportunity to go to Africa, to Mali, and it was a life-changing experience. My project was to help local community members run their own Read More