Stephan Christgau is Investment director in Novo Seeds, the early stage investment arm of Novo A/S. Before joining Novo A/S in September 2007, Stephan was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Osteologix where he played a leading role in the development of the company, taking the lead candidate drug through all stages from lead identification to Phase II testing for osteoporosis treatment. He also played an active role in the company?s financing including a public listing in the USA on the OTC exchange through a reverse merger with a public shell company. Previously Stephan has worked in Nordic Bioscience, Osteometer Biotech and Novo Nordisk A/S.
I am happy and proud to have been elected as Chairman of Venture Cup?s Board of Directors, succeeding Mette M?nsted ? Chairman for the past 3 years. Mette has done a fantastic job to strengthen and focus the Venture Cup towards being the leading Danish entrepreneurship competition. The number of participants has increased steadily over the years, and the organization has ongoing efforts to professionalize and enhance the quality of assistance they give participating teams.
As new Chairman of Venture Cup, I look forward to continuing the development of both the organization and the competition. I am particularly glad that Adam T?nsberg has joined the organization as CEO. Adam brings with him the entrepreneurial experience and fresh competencies essential to realizing Venture Cup?s ambitious goals.
It is very important to me that the organization?s positive relationship with the Danish Universities is maintained and nurtured. A major focus for both Adam and me will be to expand Venture Cup?s reach within the business community. This is a key element for the future growth of the organization: both to increase sponsorship revenue for Venture Cup, and also ? perhaps more importantly ? to provide a larger network of contacts for participating teams, thereby facilitating their access to knowledge and skills.
In the past few years, Venture Cup has stepped up its efforts to support the best entries in the competition, so that they can actually become new businesses. In the more than 10 years that the competition has existed, hundreds of successful startup companies have emerged after participating in Venture Cup. Over a thousand jobs have been created by this initiative, and these companies have raised millions of dollars in capital.
I my role as Chairman, I will do what I can to help make Venture Cup even better in assisting successful teams with their ventures in the real world; and to make the achievements of the competition and the participating student teams visible to all stakeholders.
Venture Cup is a non-profit organization constantly striving to help and inspire young entrepreneurs through access to advisors, workshops, networks and competitions. For the past 12 years we have facilitated the creation and growth of more than a 190 startups and continue to do so every day.
Venture Cup | www.venturecup.dk | Tel +45 3815 3377 | [email protected]
