Every year the University of Auckland draws up a 40 under 40 list to highlight the exceptional personal and professional achievements of alumni. The alumni shine in one of the six categories: entrepreneurs, disruptors and innovators, business leaders, humanitarians, influencers and performers.
This year, ten of the named alumni are former participants of programmes run by the Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) such as the Velocity (formerly named Spark) entrepreneurship development programme.

Surrounded by technology, machines whirring in the background and the smell of melted polylactic in the air – this is where Petr Bublienko feels most at home. Watching him confidently navigate Kura Matahuna Unleash Space, you are bound to think that Petr is an engineering student. But far from it - while Petr works at the makerspace as a Creative Technologist, supporting other students in completing various projects and delivering technology trainings, he is actually a business student.

Darsel Keane is CIE's Director. Darsel first got involved in the entrepreneurship education space through Velocity, which at the time was called Spark, as a student in the Business School. She has been foundational in building Unleash Space from the ground up - first in the role of Special Projects Manager, later Centre Manager, and eventually Director. As CIE Director she is responsible for leadership of the team, strategy, and stakeholder engagement - both internally and externally. Her role also includes programme design, some delivery and keeping abreast with what is happening in this space nationally and internationally.

Honor Browne never saw herself as an 'innovator' or 'entrepreneur.’ In her mind, those labels were for engineers or business owners, not someone dedicated to improving health outcomes. However, Honor’s university journey and openness to new opportunities have opened her eyes to the potential for innovative thinking for social impact. At the recent Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland Blues Awards, Honor was recognised for her role in winning the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) x United Nations (UN) Social Innovation Competition that enabled her team to attend advanced prototyping training and UN sessions in Thailand earlier this year.

The second cohort from the Doctoral Entrepreneurial Leadership Programme has enjoyed a truly transformative experience.

Discovering their entrepreneurial potential and valuable skills for future careers – whether within or outside of the academia – are two of the major learnings for participants of the Doctoral Entrepreneurial Leadership Programme, a unique programme delivered for University of Auckland doctoral candidates by the Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE).

One year ago, Neurofanos was announced as the overall winner of the 2022 Velocity $100k Challenge and the entrepreneurial journey for this multidisciplinary team of biomedical engineers, neurosurgeons, researchers, and academics was launched. Their winning innovation is a revolutionary AI-driven tool capable of measuring and analysing the structure of the brain in real time. It is a technological advancement with the potential to support neurosurgeons to perform more accurate surgeries, leading to improved patient safety.

Dr Serena and Gerald Naepi took out third place in the University of Auckland’s $100k Velocity Challenge with a tailored project management software system, designed to support the unique needs of academics and researchers.

The University of Auckland I Waipapa Taumata Rau, has been recognised for the outstanding achievements of its Velocity entrepreneurship development programme by the Global Entrepreneurship Network New Zealand (GEN NZ). Velocity recently was awarded for Academic Initiative of the Year at an event held at GridAKL’s Future Lab.

Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland has returned another string of successful results in the annual SCOPR report, including coming out first for the number of active spinout and start-up companies for 2022.

Two spinouts from the University of Auckland Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) have formed a collaborative relationship, resulting in both start-ups participating in the 2023 New Zealand Aerospace Summit.