Adam Smith Business School

Running from October 17th - 21st, Women Entrepreneurship Week 2022 is a global network of events that celebrates women in entrepreneurship. The Adam Smith Business School is hosting a networking session for women entrepreneurs, bringing together industry, with students, alumni and University colleagues. This is the fifth year that the Adam Smith Business School has supported this event, bringing together inspiring females involved in entrepreneurship, either as entrepreneurs or in support of entrepreneurs. This year’s focus is on women-led technology-based businesses.

This year we are delighted to welcome University of Glasgow alumna Dr Carla Brown, Game Doctor Ltd., Professor Norin Arshed, University of Dundee, Gillian Fleming, Mint Ventures and Carolyn Currie, Women's Enterprise Scotland. During this event, we will hear presentations from each speaker, followed by a panel discussion and networking session. This event is open to all and free to attend. 

 

Dr Carla Brown, Founder of Game Doctor Ltd. 

Carla completed her PhD in microbiology at the University of Glasgow which focused on developing novel antibiotics from gut bacteria. Following her PhD, Carla worked at several universities and museums designing interactive games and then went on to found Game Doctor Ltd, a mobile game development studio for health and behaviour change. Game Doctor received Innovate UK funding to develop a data-driven game for COVID-19 education, and developed over 20 titles for universities and government organisations across U.K. Carla now works at Antibody Analytics, a biotech research firm and is a trustee for charity Antibiotic Research UK.

Professor Norin Arshed, Marketing & Management, University of Dundee

Professor Norin Arshed joined the University of Dundee in October 2017 and is Chair of Entrepreneurship and Associate Dean of Research in the School of Business. She is an economist by background, with professional experience in both the public and private sectors. 

Norin’s work focuses on enterprise policy, especially the role and contribution of those linked to enterprise policy formulation (ministers and civil servants) and policy implementation (national, regional and local economic development agencies). She is also interested in how entrepreneurs and SMEs experience and use such policy initiatives. Her work also explores women’s enterprise policy, scale-ups, the entrepreneurial ecosystem and contextual entrepreneurship. Norin was appointed as an Independent Government Advisor to the Scottish Government’s Minister of Business, Fair Skills and Work (2019-2020), and was awarded a Scottish Parliament Fellowship (2020-2021) to undertake a Scotland-wide research project on how women entrepreneurs coped in the Covid-19 pandemic

Norin has published in highly rated journals such as Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Regional Studies, Small Business Economics and International Journal Management Reviews. In addition, she has edited two books on entrepreneurship and research methods. She holds appointments as a subject expert on the external Peer Review Group at the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy; is Research Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 89Initiative, a think tank created by the London School of Economics; and was an Impact Assessor for REF 2021 Sub-panel 17: Business and Management Studies. She is also a member of the advisory board for Innovation Caucus (ESRC and Innovate UK) and Innovate UK’s strategy working group.

Gillian Fleming, CEO of Mint Ventures

Gillian is an Advisor, Non-Exec Director and Investor to start-up and spin-out companies, with 20 years experience in the entrepreneurial ecosystem advising and nurturing early-stage ideas and projects to successfully transition through to company creation.

Specialising in technology commercialisation her expertise includes energy, oil and gas, infrastructure, engineering, biotech and food & drink sectors. With a background in sales and marketing for the energy and engineering sector, her expertise also includes oil and gas, infrastructure, manufacturing, biotech and food & drink sectors.

With a keen interest in democratising access to finance Gillian is Co-Founder, Director and CEO of Mint Ventures (Syndicate) Ltd, a women-led angel group focused on investing in women-led and diverse teams with an environmental, ethical or social purpose. She also represents Kero Developments Ltd, a VC that invests in early-stage engineering-related spinout and start-up companies. Gillian is an Entrepreneurial Scotland Saltire Fellow, a voluntary mentor for Women’s Enterprise Scotland (WES) and an active angel investor.

Carolyn Currie, CEO of Women's Enterprise Scotland

Carolyn has enjoyed an extensive career with positions including Head of Women in Business at RBS where she co-designed, launched and expanded the women in business proposition to international acclaim. As the first woman to be Head of Business Lending, she managed the multi-billion-pound lending book and delivered new digital operating platforms. A practitioner of ethical, data-led innovation, Carolyn achieved industry recognition and awards for her work on new product development.

Now, Chief Executive of Women’s Enterprise Scotland, she has guided the development of global-leading standards for business support and for digital platform content. Carolyn gives evidence to Parliamentary Committees on entrepreneurship and economic matters and comments in the media. She is a founding member of the UK Women’s Enterprise Policy Group and of Mint Ventures, the business angel syndicate creating more women investors and more investment for women-led companies. Carolyn is a member of the T20 (the think-tank aligned to the G20 group of Governments and central banks) and Entrepreneur in residence at Queen Margaret University where she is working to establish a women’s business centre model. She chairs the Board of the Productivity Institute in Scotland and is a member of the Strategic Advisory Board of the University of Glasgow Adam Smith Business School.