UW CIE 20th Anniversary Celebration

Cathi Hatch with Connie Bourassa-Shaw

Yesterday afternoon, I stopped at Andy Sack's Tech Stars Demo Day at Showbox SoDo  and had a chance to connect with a few people and see several of the featured entrepreneur pitches before I headed to the University of Washington campus to help celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE)  The celebration was held in the common area of the beautiful, new Paccar Hall.
The highly respected and well-loved CIE Executive Director, Connie Bourassa-Shaw was there to lead the celebration along with Michael G. Foster School of Business Dean, Jim Jiambalvo and CIE Advisory Board Chair, Bill McAleer of Voyager Capital.

In addition to overview remarks from Connie, Jim and Bill, Connie had brilliantly decided to ask some of the people who have been involved with CIE over the years to each give brief one-minute remarks about various aspects and experiences related to their experiences with CIE.

Celebrating 20 years of CIE

I was pleased to be included as one of the speakers in an impressive group of supporters including one of the original founders, Bud Saxberg who discussed the launch of CIE and Ed Lazowska who spoke about the rise of entrepreneurship on campus.  There were several current CIE students and Business School Competition and CIE alums including Sara Weaver, Brian Glaister, Jeff Chamberlain, Claire Koerner, Amber Ratcliffe, Josh Binder, Keith Vernon, and Dan Price.  Another alum that spoke about drinking the entrepreneurial Kool-Aid was Daniel Rossi, who is now the Executive Director of NWEN. 

Brian Glaister of Cadence

I am on the CIE Advisory Board along with of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati who talked about why his firm is a sponsor of CIE.  And Fran Bigelow of Fran's Chocolates talked about why she is willing to serve as a judge in the Business Plan Competition each year (also one of my favorite activities).

We all toasted the success of the first 20 years of CIE and though Connie wasn't absolutely sure she should drink to the next 20 years (perhaps some reluctance on agreeing to her continued role for another 20 years?), we all toasted the next 20 anyway.  Happy anniversary, CIE!