Entrepreneurship

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Wittenborg's latest group of graduates could not walk across the stage last Friday to collect their diplomas or even throw their caps in the air. What they did get, however, was some sound advice from this year's keynote speaker, Marc van Gerrevink – a young, successful business owner from Apeldoorn, who shared some of the tough lessons he learned on the road to having a thriving company.

How many CEOs do you know would swallow their pride and start selling cookies door-to-door when their thriving business takes a temporary hit due to COVID-19? This is exactly what Israeli entrepreneur Tal Zilberberg did the past year, and in the process learned many lessons which he recently shared with students from Wittenborg's Munich partner, New European College, as part of a Project Week guest lecture.

A European expert on migrant entrepreneurs, Dr Issac Acheampong, recently gave a guest seminar to undergraduate and MBA students at Wittenborg Amsterdam. Acheampong is the Program Manager of the European Regional Development Funds Program (ERDF) at the Amsterdam City Council. He has more than 20 years' experience working with migrant entrepreneurs in areas that have been targeted by the EU for urban renewal. The seminar was for the course Entrepreneurial Behaviour in Amsterdam Zuidoost.

Dutch warehouse expert, Emiel van Gijzen, shared his tricks of the trade with entrepreneurial students from Wittenborg Amsterdam during a recent Procurement and Production seminar in the capital city. Van Gijzen has worked for big logistics companies like DHL, XPO and Panalpina, and has 25 years' experience in warehouse management.

During her ongoing journey as an entrepreneur, MSc student Pahal Nopani has learned many lessons - including that failure is an important element to growth and that "a start-up might fail, but an entrepreneur never does".

Indonesian student Bertha Tanaem launched her company at the recently held International Fashion Week in Amsterdam. She was one of several Wittenborg students involved in the event.

Norwegian Student, Hanne Garnvik, has grown up learning all the beauty secrets of Norwegian women. Now she wants to share the Scandinavian skin-care routine with the rest of the world by starting a franchise business with exclusive rights to sell all-natural skin-care products in the Netherlands and Belgium from award-winning Norwegian brand Marina Miracle.