Director of Entrepreneur Development

Located at Enterprise Square in downtown Edmonton, TEC Edmonton is a joint venture between the University of Alberta and the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation (EEDC). This partnership provides TEC Edmonton with the opportunity to expand its services into the larger community to seek innovation partnerships. TEC Edmonton delivers entrepreneur services and programs in a collaborative, cost effective manner, in seeking novel approaches to link academic research and innovation with commercial opportunities. For further information, please visit www.tecedmonton.com. 

The Entrepreneur Development (ED) group is a broad-based, diverse, long-standing and core program of TEC Edmonton with the goal of fostering and nurturing entrepreneurship.

As a member of TEC Edmonton's executive management team and reporting to the CEO, the Director of Entrepreneur Development will develop strategic initiatives for the ED Group. This includes directing and managing operations of all programmatic areas in development of knowledge and skills related to starting, operating, and growing a successful business, and taking a lead role in fostering collaboration among the service providers in the innovation ecosystem to empower inventors and entrepreneurs.

Major areas of responsibility for this position include:

• Determining and developing the direction for the ED Group’s programs
• Securing funding and forming strategic alliances to effectively deliver the programs
• Developing a ‘best in class’ accelerator framework contributing to the organization’s strategic goals by adapting best practices of programs from other global networks and tailoring them for the region
• Ensuring TEC Edmonton’s services are widely understood in the Edmonton region and that appropriate inventors and entrepreneurs benefit from them
• Determining entrepreneur’s business maturity levels and needs to place them in the appropriate skills acumen development, training and educational program
• Leading the organization’s intake process to ensure stakeholders’ accountabilities
• Developing and implementing a robust program to recruit experienced ‘C’ level entrepreneurs to mentor newer entrepreneurs
• Measuring successful new business creation and growth arising from TEC Edmonton’s entrepreneur development programs
• Leading and supervising the activities of 2 staff members
• Serving as a point of contact for TEC Edmonton program managers, entrepreneurs and inventors, and other regional service providers referring clients
• Maintaining occupancy levels at target amounts, providing deal flow of new business, and managing department budget

The ideal candidate will have the following qualifications: 

• Graduate degree in Business Administration or equivalent; MBA preferred; equivalent combinations of education and experience may be considered
• Minimum of 10 years' experience working with entrepreneurs
• Proven private industry experience working in a small to medium sized company; prefer candidate who has started their own company
• Proven experience with the challenges of starting a new business in order that they can address critical issues and see the ‘big’ picture
• Experience managing staff, marketing products or services and ideally will have had exposure to raising capital
• Ability to effectively assess business needs and skill set of entrepreneurs and companies
• Ability to provide strategic business advice regarding new company development
• Knowledge of different types of business models, business plan development, market research and analysis, and early stage financing
• Knowledge of technology commercialization process and Alberta’s innovation system would be beneficial
• Ability to establish strong working relationships with other service providers, consultants, funding agencies and industry associations
• Self-motivated, proactive, energetic, creative and goal oriented
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; strong public speaking and presentation skills
• Experience using social media
• Proven analytical and problem solving skills
• Ability to work independently, be well organized and manage multiple concurrent projects
• Excellent interpersonal skills 

In accordance with the Sessional and Other Temporary Staff agreement, this position is for a term length of one year with a possibility of extension and offers a comprehensive benefits package which can be viewed at www.hrs.ualberta.ca with an annual salary commensurate with experience and qualifications.

Please submit your curriculum vitae, cover letter, and the names of three references.