Ljubica Matek is the eightieth student who has successfully defended her masters’ thesis at the Graduate Program in Entrepreneurship. Master’s thesis entitled “Recognizing Business Opportunity as the Precondition for Starting a Business Venture” was defended on July 14, 2009 at the Faculty of Economics in Osijek, before the committee of professors consisting of chairman Slavica Singer, Ph.D., Sanja Pfeifer, Ph.D., and Željko Turkalj, Ph.D., (committee members). We congratulate Ljubica and wish her a lot of success!

Slavica Singer, PhD presented the paper “From ignoring to leading changes – which role universities play in developing countries?”, which she co-authored with Sunčica Oberman Peterka, PhD at the prestigious research conference Triple Helix VII “The growth of Triple Helix in global agenda of innovation, competitiveness and sustainability” held at University of Strathclyde in Glasgow on June 17 – 19, 2009. The conference, which was attended by more than 300 participants from 40 countries, was lead by Henry Etzkowitz, PhD from Newcastle University, author of the Triple Helix concept. It is our great pleasure that Mr. Henry Etzkowitz accepted the invitation to participate in our doctoral program Entrepreneurship and Innovativeness.

At the meeting of partner universities held on 11-12 June, 2009 at Durham University, UK, longtime mentor, professor and friend of Graduate Program in Entrepreneurship, Allan Gibb, and Dinah Bennett, director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Learning, have presented a module (on entrepreneurial learning), that will be part of the doctoral program, as Durham’s contribution within this joint doctoral program. Because of a completely new approach in organizing the doctoral study (modular, interdisciplinary, international) but also because of its intriguing content (entrepreneurship and innovation) new professors and world-renowned institutions are showing interest for cooperation in development and implementation of the doctoral program in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. We will publish more about this in September of 2009, for when the start of enrollment is foreseen.

On Saturday (May 30, 2009), Paola Radovan, student of the 8th class of Graduate Program in Entrepreneurship successfully defended her masters’ thesis. Thesis entitled “Development Venture of “Concenttino” Bakery – Entrepreneurial Marketing Approach” was defended before the committee of professors consisting of chairman Željko Turkalj, Ph.D., Mane Medić, Ph.D., and Drago Ružić, Ph.D. (committee members). We congratulate Paola and wish her a lot more entrepreneurial successes!

The first part of the article titled “Change is an opportunity for all of us” was just published in the latest issue (April 2009) of “Slavonski poduzetnik” monthly (Slavonian Entrepreneur). The article is about the executive seminar that was held by Dr. Ichak Adizes in February at the Faculty of Economics in Osijek. The seminar was jointly organized by GPE, Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Incubator BIOS. In the entrepreneurial story column of the same issue of the magazine, you can also read an interview with Jadranka Krmpotić, principal of Open University Obris in Požega and a student of the 13th class of Graduate Specialist Program in Entrepreneurship.