ICE Chairman, William Record has announced that he will be awarding £5000 a year to a business at ICE who has shown the most social impact and job creation.
The announcement came at our Enterprise Hub launch event last month where it was also announced by Campus Director Jamie McGowan that we will be doubling our pledge to award 50 free memberships in 2019 to 100 by running two ICE50 schemes this year, continuing through 2020 and 2021. Meaning that over 300 startups will be supported over the next three years through the ICE50 scheme at ICE alone.
Details about how ICE members can apply for the Chairman’s Award will be revealed soon. William has also offered to spend an hour 121 session with each new member accepted onto our ICE50 scheme to advise and mentor them on their new venture.
William started his first business ‘Braebourne Ltd’ aged 22. Backed by 3i PLC (VC) he went on to win the British Venture Capital Association /Financial Times ‘Venturer of the Year Award’ for `Best Start Up’ and employ 120 staff. Later, he sold to multi-national, enabling William to invest and take an active role in over 25 SME and start-up businesses.
Also announced at the Enterprise Hub launch were additional details about our new Outreach Programme which will be starting in Merthyr and Ebbw Vale and headed up by our new Outreach Manager, Lesley Williams (more info coming soon).
Jamie said:
“I’m very grateful to everyone who came along to our Enterprise Hub Launch event. I was very excited to show off the new space and couldn’t wait to share the news about our support moving forward. The generosity of William in offering the Chairmans award was outstanding and I cant wait to see how this benefits out community. What really impressed me was the pledges of support from the incredible community in South Wales, everyone who attended offered a pledge on our board. These ranged from the offering of mentoring to free headshots, everyone at ICE is very grateful for the support.”
Jamie was recently named the UK Entrepreneur’s Champion of the Year at the Great British Entrepreneur Awards.
For more information on membership at ICE, drop an email to [email protected] or call 02920 140 040.