Georgian College’s Henry Bernick Entrepreneurship Centre recognized as a top business accelerator in UBI Global Recognition Awards

March 6, 2018

UBI Global recognized Georgian College’s Henry Bernick Entrepreneurship Centre (HBEC) as a top business accelerator as part of the UBI Global Recognition Awards held recently at the World Incubation Summit in Toronto.

UBI Global is a Stockholm-based research and advisory firm known for its regional and global studies that map and evaluate the world of business incubation. These awards recognize programs that have made exceptional contributions to the progress of regional, national or global innovation ecosystems. They celebrate and support entrepreneurship across the world, with five incubators/accelerators in Ontario earning six honours. Award recipients are based on a worldwide benchmarking survey that identifies business accelerator/incubator performance across postsecondary institutions.

HBEC received awards in two categories:

• Most Promising – Young Program: This award recognizes a business incubator or accelerator that stands out from its peers due to its impressive overall achievements relative to its young age or with regard to a particularly relevant socio-economic impact metric.
• Top Challenger in North America: This award is a university-linked incubation program that stands out from its peers due to its impressive overall impact and performance achievements relative to its respective regional peers.

John Pickard, Executive Director for HBEC, and Sara Bentham, Programs and Partnerships Manager, were in attendance to receive the awards.

Over 1,300 institutions from 53 countries applied for ranking in the benchmarking survey; only 259, including HBEC, were certified for inclusion in the survey. Georgian was the only Canadian college recognized with an award.

“This award is a tribute to our donor Henry Bernick, a growing ecosystem of community entrepreneurs, and the amazing talent of HBEC staff and mentors,” says MaryLynn West-Moynes, President and CEO, Georgian College. “Through their work we are developing students and graduates who will drive more job growth and social innovation.”

UBI Global also presented The Honourable Minister Reza Moridi, Ontario’s Minister of Research, Innovation and Science with the inaugural UBI Global Innovation Ecosystem Impact Award. UBI presented the award on behalf of the Government of Ontario for establishing a world-class entrepreneurial support ecosystem.