Anderson recognized for fostering entrepreneurs
By Vanda Farahmand
Feb. 9, 2005 9:00 p.m.
The UCLA Anderson School of Management was recently named
“Best in Entrepreneurship” worldwide by the Financial
Times for a fourth consecutive year.
The Harold Price Center, a research center in the Anderson
School, offers a wide range of academic and extracurricular
opportunities aimed at preparing business students for future
endeavors in business management and entrepreneurial
environments.
The Harold Price Center is the division of Anderson responsible
for overseeing all research, teaching, extracurricular and
community activities related to entrepreneurial studies and
preparation.
Students can elect to take several courses aimed at
entrepreneurial ventures, such as small business management,
financing emerging enterprises and business plan writing. Students
can also take part in conducting field studies with entrepreneurial
firms.
The Center also offers many opportunities for students to get
involved in entrepreneurial-related subjects, said Kindra Liedtke,
Anderson School program manager.
Furthermore, the largest student organization at the business
school is the Entrepreneur Association, which has over 540 members.
The association sponsors numerous extracurricular activities aimed
at introducing students into an entrepreneurial environment and
opening opportunities for students to get involved with
entrepreneurs and business developers.
Some programs the association sponsors include Entrepreneur in
Residence, where entrepreneurs are invited to join students and
faculty for a day, Think Tank, where entrepreneurs from the UCLA
Anderson School meet, collaborate and share ideas about
entrepreneurship, and Women in Entrepreneurship, which is a
supportive and educational forum for female entrepreneurs to
strengthen business relations and connections.
In addition, the annual Entrepreneur Conference, which will be
held in May this year, is a distinguished conference for the
association where students, entrepreneurs, alumni and business
executives meet for a day of seminars and discussions.
The goal of the conference is to provide students and
entrepreneurs with insight into business skills, create a learning
environment for students and connect business leaders and students,
said Jeremy Milo, an Entrepreneurs Conference co-director.
Milo emphasized the beneficial environment the conference
offered for students to connect with impressive business
executives.
“It is a good opportunity for students to have
high-quality interaction with entrepreneurs that have had success
themselves,” Milo said.
With over 350 attendees each year, the conference is a day of
networking, discussions and education aimed at helping students and
future entrepreneurs learn to build successful organizations and
learn from the experiences of accomplished business leaders.
The conference is now entering its 20th year, and past keynote
speakers include Yahoo CEO Terry Semel and Paul Orfalea, founder
and chairman emeritus of Kinko’s.
In addition to being ranked first in entrepreneurship among
full-time business programs, the Anderson School is ranked 26th in
business schools internationally, and the faculty was ranked fifth
among 100 schools globally.
“FT’s high ranking (No. 5) of our faculty research,
our No. 1 faculty intellectual capital ranking in BusinessWeek,
combined with our continued top FT ranking in entrepreneurship
truly reflects the high quality of our faculty, students and
alumni,” said Anderson Dean Bruce Willison in a 2005 press
release.
