News Item

The CEO club’s event calendar has been buzzing this academic year, with events taking place almost twice each week. The fall term’s speaker series brought us professionals from the media, technology, energy and consulting industries, including Bruce Chizen, CEO of Adobe Corporation.

CEO also launched the Start-Up 101 Breakfast Series, which provides students with education, support and networking opportunities. These monthly workshops focus on topics that play a key role in the evaluation, development and potential launch of new businesses; recent events touched on, “Dos and Don’ts of Starting Your Own Business,” governmental resources for launching businesses, and intellectual property and contract issues, led by business law professor David Robbins. The series builds community among entrepreneurs, complementing the events and services offered at the Lang Center and the entrepreneurship curriculum at Columbia Business School.

Spring events included “Entrepreneurs in the Midst,” featuring active student entrepreneurs, as well as the continuation of the Start-Up 101 Breakfast Series, featuring accounting Professor Ira Weiss on tax and accounting strategies as well as a workshop on marketing research. April’s seventh annual A. Lorne Weil Outrageous Business Plan Competition wraps up the academic year.

Last April, the Columbia Entrepreneurs Organization (CEO) membership voted to fund the first Columbia Business School incubator, a work space that is subsidized by CEO club dues. Incubator members pay a portion of their rent and other costs left over after the CEO subsidy. Eleven graduates of the class of 2005 were members of the first space, which was in Manhattan’s meatpacking district. Last year’s incubator was so successful that the CEO class of 2006 agreed to support the initiative.

Visit www.gsb.columbia.edu/students/organizations/ceo/ for more information.