Posted on 26 January 2010
University of Wales is delighted to announce that our commercial initiative, ‘Awen Cymru Ltd’, is now in business!
Awen means ‘Inspiration’ in Welsh and was selected because the University’s motto is, ‘The Best Inspiration is Truth.’
Awen will be run as a completely separate entity from the University of Wales with its own staff, board and decision making procedures. The reason Awen has been created is to encourage and cover a wide range of commercial activities for the University. University merchandising and the already established display certificates will fall under Awen’s responsibility and it will also provide key support for the University’s successful programme, The Global Academy , which brings the private sector in Wales together with the brightest graduates in the world. Knowledge Enterprise and venturing will form a fundamental focus for the future of Awen.
Stephen Owen, the newly appointed Director of Business Development for University of Wales, has been appointed as the Managing Director of Awen. Stephen has come to the University from a business background in Structural Engineering software. As a chartered Civil and Marine Engineer, Stephen ran the International arm of the American parent Research Engineers (acquired by Bentley Systems) for the last twenty two years. His work included being a board member in the USA of the Nasdaq listed company as well as being responsible as a director in France, Germany and the UK. Territory included everything outside the USA, Canada and the parts of Asia.
Stephen has been nurturing the new initiative through its development and is very excited by its possibilities:
“It was always my intention to return to Wales and utilise the valuable business experiences that I had encountered in the past, to help promote Wales to the world. This opportunity has given me exactly that remit and I believe that the scope for the future will be an exciting, challenging and rewarding one where I see support of the University and business being paramount to our success. “
Marc Clement, Vice-Chancellor for University of Wales, explained why business smarts are essential for an organisation such as the University to continue to thrive as well as survive in the current economic climate:
“This is a very special and significant time for the University of Wales. Our first POWIS Scholar has just been named, and there are many more exciting announcements to come! The Awen initiative is fundamentally important for future developments, with the University embracing business as a platform to support the creativity and success of its students. Recent meetings with various companies have shown just how delighted they are by the new emphasis being put by the University on the business factor, and on partnership work with their own internal innovation plans.”
Awen has also just employed its Technology Transfer Manager, Dr Marcus Heuberger, originally from Baden-Baden, Germany who is now based in Swansea.
Marcus is an expert in Intellectual Property (IP) commercialisation and management, particularly in IP arising from the academic environment aimed at high-tech businesses. Until recently he was responsible for the commercial management of Swansea University’s consultancy and intellectual property via its commercial arm ‘UWS Ventures Ltd’. As a trained physicist he has a good working basis to quickly understand the principles of new technologies. He has also worked for an internationally operating company’s development department, the Weizmann Institute in Israel and the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland.
Marcus will be responsible for Awen’s close links to the University’s business partners and companies in Wales. The current schemes and initiatives that exist are wide ranging and the skill set that Marcus brings will encourage the future liaison with companies in maximising value and potential growth within the various sectors. The close links to academia promotes a highly sophisticated skill set to companies which it is hoped will be used ‘smartly’ to return benefit while promoting Wales.
Marcus commented:
“I’m delighted to be involved in the start up phase of this spinout from the University of Wales and to be able to help shape and direct its future success. It is a pleasure to be part of this creative team with the aim of making a substantive impact on the knowledge economy here in Wales. I am looking forward to the variety of new business activities, challenges and approaches geared to driving the economy and fuelled by academia, forward.”
/Ends
For press and media information, please contact Joanna Davies, Head of Communications, University of Wales: mediawales.ac.uk| or call 07534 228754.
For general information about the University of Wales please visit: www.wales.ac.uk|