Syracuse, NY—Upstate Venture Connect (UVC) announced that Le Moyne College has signed on as the third Founding Partner to support its efforts to accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship in Upstate New York.
UVC is a non-profit organization focused on creating thousands of high-tech, high-growth, private capital backed companies in Upstate New York that will provide entrepreneurial opportunities for a new generation of highly educated and highly skilled talent. UVC is building an online social network (VConnect) that will link Upstate NY venture entrepreneurs to sources of talent and support across the region and its vast alumni and expatriate resources. UVC was formed in January 2010.
Under the terms of the partnership, UVC and Le Moyne will coordinate resources to develop the VConnect platform, expand alumni engagement with Le Moyne and Upstate entrepreneurs, and pursue new opportunities for funding that will sustain regional entrepreneurial growth. As a founding member, Le Moyne will also help support the new social network by leveraging the Jesuit College’s alumni network and tapping into the intellectual and creative resources available on campus.
“Le Moyne’s decision to partner with UVC is a natural extension of our commitment to both our students and the community,†said Le Moyne President, Dr. Fred P. Pestello. “Like all Upstate academic institutions, we want to do our part to educate the next generation of leaders and to find ways to retain high potential individuals in Upstate. UVC’s platform offers Le Moyne the opportunity to share our student and alumni entrepreneurial achievements with the larger community. At the same time, Le Moyne students seeking to work with entrepreneurs will have access to a large number of opportunities nearer to home.â€
“UVC is delighted at Le Moyne’s decision to become a founding partner,†added UVC’s CEO Nasir Ali. “This level of partnership is reserved for a handful of institutions that are determined to be on the forefront of creating a new entrepreneur-driven economy for Upstate and willing to leverage their student, faculty, and alumni resources in pursuit of this vision.†“We are seeing tremendous growth in many different programs from basic sciences to business management,†said Le Moyne’s Provost, Dr. Linda LeMura. “Many of our students are drawn from Syracuse and other Upstate communities, and their preference is to seek meaningful opportunities closer to home.
UVC’s network will make visible opportunities across Upstate’s academic and population centers that are too often invisible to our graduates. At the same time, we will be able to view Le Moyne’s entrepreneurship programs in the context of what other institutions are doing, a practice that is likely to increase the quality and effectiveness of student entrepreneurial training across all institutions.â€
According to UVC Chairman Martin Babinec, “Le Moyne’s leadership is both visionary and nimble, which makes them a highly desirable founding partner for UVC. The College’s emerging commitment to student entrepreneurship is an opportunity for integrating best practices that leverage the school’s global alumni pool and creating new high-growth ventures within the surrounding community.â€
UVC’s mantra of “1,000 startups, 2,000 days†reflects its founders’ belief that Upstate New York has vast entrepreneurial reserves within its corporate, research, and higher education institutions. UVC’s VConnect platform will serve as the foundation of an ecosystem linking Upstate NY venture entrepreneurs to sources of talent and support across the region and its vast alumni and expatriate resources. Interested parties can learn more about UVC’s goals and get connected to Upstate New York’s entrepreneur community by registering online at http://www.uvcdevelopment.wpengine.com and following UVC on Twitter (@UVConnect), Facebook (Upstate Venture Connect), and Linked In (Upstate New York Start-Up
Forum).
Contacts
Nasir Ali
Co-Founder and CEO
Upstate Venture Connect
Nasir@UVC.org
Joe Della Posta
Director of Communications
Le Moyne College
dellapjb@lemoyne.edu
