Entrepreneur Playground
Building Castles in the Sky: Inspiring Conversations on Entrepreneurship
About the Workshop Leader:
Dr. Fahri Karakas is a Senior Lecturer in Business and Leadership at Norwich Business School. He has been teaching self-making, creativity, design thinking, leadership, and entrepreneurship for last 15 years. Dr. Karakas also teaches at university of Cambridge Pembroke-King’s Programme and at Mountbatten Institute in London.
“Put away your spreadsheets, this is how venture capital works”
About the Workshop Leader:
Hussein Kanji is a founding partner of Hoxton Ventures, a European venture capital firm based in London. The firm was founded in November 2013 with a $40 million fund and has made 19 investments to date, which have a collective market capitalization of $3.7 billion.
The challenges in building a company from £0 to £ 50 million are vastly different from making £ 1 billion from £ 50 million. Elnur will give a personal account of how he overcame the challenges every entrepreneur faces.
About the Workshop Leader:
He has a BSc (Distinction) in Computer Science and a Masters (Merit) in Management from the LSE. Elnur has 10 years of senior IT leadership experience, mainly from British Petroleum and Shell, followed by 10 years of business leadership experience as an entrepreneur in several business sectors, including e-commerce, digital marketing and travel technology. Currently, Elnur is an international businessman and has been a chairman of several companies. Besides the UK, he has lived and worked in six other countries. In 2011, together with a group of visionary Muslims set up HalalBooking®– a state-of-the-art online search & book platform for
Muslim-friendly travel. Since then, HalalBooking.com has established a reputation as the world's No1 independent Halal Travel website for searching and book halal-friendly Beach Resorts, City Break Hotels, Villas, Health Spas and other types of accommodation.
“Growth is the biggest challenge, not just the pace but also the quality of that growth. Is it fair? Is it green? Does it improve not just livelihoods but well-being?”
About the Workshop Leader:
Dr Linda Yueh CBE is a Fellow in Economics at St Edmund Hall, Oxford University and an Adjunct Professor of Economics at London Business School. She is an Associate Fellow (U.S. and the Americas Programme) at Chatham House. She was awarded CBE for Services to Economics in the 2023 New Year Honours List.
About the Workshop Leader:
David Rowan is a multifaceted professional based in London, recognized for his significant contributions in the tech industry as an early-stage tech investor, writer, journalist, and speaker. He is the founding UK Editor-in-Chief of WIRED and the author of the Amazon #1 business bestseller "Non-Bullshit Innovation: 17 Proven Ways to Transform How You Work," published by Penguin. David is also renowned for his extensive experience in public speaking, having delivered over 600 keynotes worldwide. His expertise in technology is further exemplified through his columns in prestigious publications such as The Times, GQ, and Condé Nast Traveller
About the Workshop Leader:
Peter Cowley is a tech entrepreneur, angel investor and speaker based in Cambridge, United Kingdom. He is a co-founder of Cambridge, UK-based VC Martlet Capital and was President of the European Business Angel Network (EBAN)
