BYU-Hawaii's Mark and Laura Willes Center for International Entrepreneurship (CIE) is getting a new home between the Ke Alaka'i office and the Post Office in the Aloha Center, and is moving forward with distance learning and mentoring programs.
CIE Director Gregory V. Gibson, J.D., said he's thrilled with the new facilities and the extra visibility they will give the program. Upon completion the new CIE headquarters will include offices for him, the visiting Entrepreneur in Residence, "and also all of our support systems. We'll probably move in the beginning of September," he said.
He also announced that Stephen W. Gibson [no relation] "will be our new Entrepreneur in Residence. Steve is a well-known entrepreneur and founder of ACE — the Academy for Creating Excellence — in the Philippines. He has been on campus quite a few times, and he will teach Entrepreneurship for Non-business Majors this Fall. It's a great class open to all majors, and there are no pre-requisites."
In other CIE news, Director Gibson said earlier this summer he traveled to several international destinations "to follow up with past BYU-Hawaii business plan competition winners."
In Mongolia he met with Adiyabold Namkhai [photo, upper left] who, along with his partner Sainbayar Jajian, won the $4,000 first-place prize for developing nations this past February. Adiyabold and Sainbayar's plan called for improving their existing business of conducting special interest tours to explore the countryside and lifestyles of Mongolia. Along with the Smithsonian Institute and renowned film production companies this year, one of his clients in May was the BYU-Hawaii Concert Choir tour group. Adiyabold provided their transportation, food, and accommodations while in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, and then took the group on a cultural excursion outside the city.
The CIE director assisted in the transfer of funds to Adiyabold's business, New Milestones, from the newly created Mentor Venture Capital Fund so that the company could buy a vehicle and excursion camping equipment to service their clients this summer. The venture fund was created to mentor and assist in helping finance projects such as this. A board of advisors comprised of successful entrepreneur donors, BYU-Hawaii School of Business and CIE personnel administer the fund.
While in Mongolia, Director Gibson worked with the Latter-day Saint missionaries in charge of employment training to have them teach the distance learning entrepreneurship program the CIE developed with the BYU-Hawaii Center for Instructional Technology and Outreach (CITO).
"They're going to do a feasibility study to see if there are enough returned missionaries who understand English, because we don't have the program translated yet into Mongolian," said Gibson. He also mentored several local students who are trying to start their own businesses.
In the Philippines, Director Gibson worked with Jomel Villanueva, head of the Church Employment Resource Center (ERC) in Makati City, "to teach our distance learning entrepreneurship course. We've put one group through, and now we're teaching another group to get more feedback."
"We're working with two graduates — Golden Wong-Gaviola and Giselle Dupitas — who are helping proctor the course. These are people affiliated with Devin Moncur's company, and he's making them available. Devin is a BYU-Hawaii graduate who helped us with our initial testing in the Philippines."
"We already feel we have a success story: Brother Costales, one of the first members to take the course, stated it really helped him in his negotiations with Deseret Book. Brother Costales has opened an LDS book store [right, with LDS youth in front] across from the temple in Manila providing Church books, periodicals and authorized editions of the scriptures to the Filipino Saints."
Director Gibson said he also met with the ERC directors in Suva, Fiji, as well as the principal of the LDS Technical College [a high school]. "They're very interested in providing the course and having it become part of their curriculum," he added.
"Salote Malani, a BYU-Hawaii graduate, is there teaching at the school. We're working with her to become a proctor for the distance learning course; and we expect to get all of the necessary approvals within the next six months to start it up. That's the same process we had to go through in the Philippines," said Gibson.
The director reported the CIE worked as well with Ronald Gounder, a BYU-Hawaii alum in Fiji who's completed the mechanics course. "He bought his first car and is fixing it up," said Gibson. "He's almost finished. He just has to get it detailed, and then sell it. In addition, he's working very closely with Devin Moncur as a mentor."
"Otherwise, Gounder's a full-time teacher at the LDS school, but he's trying to branch out into his own business. He hopes to hire graduates from the school's automotive class."
Director Gibson reported the CIE is working with the Yamagata Group, which has sponsored two Japan Business Plan Competitions in Tokyo, to possibly expand the competition to another nation. "We're looking at the Philippines or Taiwan," he said. "They're interested in expanding, so we're doing feasibility studies in both of those nations right now. We're just trying to find the best place to go to."
The next annual Business Plan Competition is set for the first week of March 2008 and that registration and all the particulars as to conference events and dates are available at the CIE website, www.cie.byuh.edu.
