Conference that Equipped Entrepreneurs with the skill-set to attain prosperity from Green Economy

9th June 2010

Last month over a hundred students’ entrepreneurs, academics and practitioners gathered at the University of Cambridge to attend a seminar on entrepreneurship in the green economy, organised by These Young Minds. Professor Alan Barrell, Entrepreneur in Residence at the university opened the evening by connecting the global issue of climate change to local opportunities for entrepreneurship and innovation. Trewin Restorick CEO Global Action Plan, in his keynote told the audience of how he started Global Action Plan, an award winning result oriented environmental change influential, seventeen years ago with a few thousand pounds and that the organisation now employs over sixty employees as well as generates over six million pounds annually. Speakers Sak Nayagam Managing Director, Climate Change Services, Europe, Africa and Latin America and Darren Strange, the sustainability lead at Microsoft, spoke about the personal journey they had taken to address climate change issues. All speakers stressed the opportunities that the current focus of regulations on mitigating climate change brings for entrepreneurs, in the shape of new technology and green products for example. The panel then took questions from the audience, which centred on issues such as the amount of green jobs available to graduate students, opportunities and threats to small businesses in the green economy and how to achieve behavioural change on climate change issues.


Sak Nayagam, Managing Director, Climate Change Services, Europe, Africa and Latin America, Accenture said it was a genuine pleasure working with ‘These Young Minds’ on their recent event at Cambridge University. The topics presented and panel questions on the transition to the low carbon economy were stimulating for both the speakers and audience alike.”

Prof. Alan Barrell Resident Entrepreneur Judge Business School said ‘These Young Minds have scored a great success with this major event – focussing on The Green Economy and what Entrepreneurs can do to help direct the citizens of our planet towards sanity and a more secure future. To have a major corporation such as Microsoft engaged with students, start ups and ‘the next generation” in an environment like the Engineering Department, University of Cambridge – was a great feat for a relatively new organisation. The aims of “These Young minds” to become a world leader in supporting Social Enterprises are ambitious and far reaching. I have every confidence they will grow from strength to strength – if we all support them as they deserve”.
Alim Abubakre Founder and Director of These Young Minds said that These Young Minds conceived the event Entrepreneurship in the Green Economy to inspire great ideas that will inspire life changing actions for the society. According to Alim, the choice of Cambridge University as the venue for this event is instructive, as this institution has an impeccable track record in spinning off world-changing ideas.


Sponsors for this event include Microsoft and Cambridge University Press. Media Sponsors of this event are CSRwire, Policy Review TV, Crimson publishing, Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges.

Editor’s note:
These Young Minds is a service based social enterprise that provides an inclusive platform for stakeholders to learn about corporate responsibility issues through seminars and conferences.

They create awareness of the conference deliberations among young people through links with various youth organizations.

For press enquiries please contact a.abubakre@theseyoungminds.co.uk