New chapter for Innovation Centre

19-Sep-2011

After 10 years as the University of the Sunshine Coast’s Innovation Centre founding CEO,  Colin Graham, announced he would be moving on to pursue his own entrepreneurial business and consulting opportunities.

 

Colin relocated from the UK at the end of 2001 to become the Innovation Centre’s founding CEO, starting with an empty building on a green field site.  Just 18 months into operations, the Innovation Centre was recognised as ‘Regional Business Incubator of the Year’ for Australia and has gone on to support the start-up and growth of 83 businesses creating over 350 direct jobs in sectors such as ICT, Clean Technology, Health Technology and Creative Industries.  In July 2010, the Centre was recognised as an ‘Innovation Hotspot’ by CNBC, a European business magazine with 650,000 monthly readers.

Under Colin’s leadership, the Innovation Centre has grown from just three businesses in 2002, to over 30 client companies this year and is increasingly recognised as an entrepreneurial hub with over 6,000 people attending the Centre’s program of business networking and education events to date.

 

The Innovation Centre was established as a company of the University of the Sunshine Coast - with the support of all three levels of government and the private sector - to support the diversification of the regional economy and to create much needed jobs in new industries on the Sunshine Coast.

 

Over the last ten years, Colin and his team have worked hard to raise the profile of the Sunshine Coast as an innovation hotspot, by encouraging networking and learning, helping client companies to raise over $24m in investment capital, and providing opportunities for many hundreds of USC students to learn from leading entrepreneurs, gain valuable work experience and employment.

 

Prof Mike Hefferan, Chairman of the Innovation Centre and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Engagement) at USC commented:

“Colin has been with the Innovation Centre from the beginning, almost ten years now and all of us, including our Board and the University as a whole, owe a huge debt of gratitude to Colin who, with our previous Vice-Chancellor, Professor Paul Thomas, transformed what was just a pioneering idea into the remarkable success that Innovation Centre has become.  On behalf of the Board and University, I would like to thank him for his outstanding contribution to the Centre, the University and the region and he leaves with our best wishes and hopefully with opportunities for further involvement with us into the future.”

 

Colin Graham commented:

“I am still very excited and positive about the opportunities for this region.  I believe it has all the ingredients for success as a great place to live and work and to do things a bit differently in business. We have achieved some remarkable results so far but there are still amazing opportunities out there and these will hopefully keep the IC team and the next CEO, or two, busy for the next 10 or 20 years as the Sunshine Coast matures into the dynamic, innovative and sustainable region that I know we can be.

 

Now is the right time for me to enjoy my long service leave, some travelling and get started on my own innovative business again.”

 

Colin will finish up at the Innovation Centre at the end of September and the Innovation Centre Board has commenced the search process to find the Centre’s second CEO.

 

Colin Graham:  Summary bio

 

Irish born, Colin attended University in Scotland before working as International Product Manager for Dulux in London and then setting up his own business, Yellowbrick Training and Development, back in Scotland and in the USA.

 

He went on to work as a Project Director with the Career Innovation Company in Oxford publishing, ‘ePeople – engaging talent in the entrepreneurial age’, the Times Newspaper review of this research report said  ‘All CEOs should read this and heed this.’

 

Immediately before relocating to Australia in 2002, Colin set up and ran Business Incubator for the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen and ran their MBA Entrepreneurship program. The Incubator program was awarded the ‘UK’s Best Business Development Program’ in 2000.

 

Since moving to Australia at the end of 2001, Colin has led the development of the Innovation Centre, a company of the University of the Sunshine Coast, supporting the start-up and growth of over 80 businesses.

 

He has also contributed to the development of entrepreneurship education at USC, the planning and early development of Sippy Downs as a University town, and other regional economic development priorities such as the Clever Networks Project ($12.25m broadband project) and has been a member of the Sunshine Coast University Hospital Business Industry and Development Opportunities taskforce.

 

Colin is Deputy Chair of the Sunshine Coast branch of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Comment




Captcha Image

Go Back