Head of Entrepreneurship Institute nominated for National Diversity Award

Anandana Bakshi, Head of Entrepreneurship, King's Entrepreneurship Institute, has been nominated for the prestigious National Diversity Awards. 

The Awards celebrate people who inspire others through their work, through their commitment to helping others, through their infectious personalities and through adversity. The awards aim to create positive role models and empower communities across the UK.

Nominees are judged on the quality and quantity of votes and by a panel of leading figures from The National Diversity Awards, PwC, Cisco, Roche,  RBS, ITV, Direct Line Group, BBC and the Bridgend Coalition of Disabled People.

The winners will be announced at a special gala evening in September 2017. 

Vote for Ana at https://nominate.nationaldiversityawards.co.uk/Nominate/Endorse/30892?name=anandana 

About Ana

Ana pioneered the development and creation of the Entrepreneurship Institute at King’s College London. A first for the university, the Institute serves King's 27,600 students, 6,000 staff and alumni, helping them gain practical entrepreneurial skills and experiences they wouldn’t receive elsewhere and build confidence and leadership. Within its first year, under Ana’s leadership, engagement increased 100% and the Institute incubated its first cohort of startups who went on to raise over £1m in funding.

Ana has attracted more than 65 world-leading entrepreneurs to King’s, including Rajesh Agrawal - Deputy Mayor of London for Business, leading businesswoman Cynthia Carroll, and an interview between Sir Richard Branson and President of KCL Business Club, providing King’s students with unparalleled access to unique entrepreneurial advice and inspiration to raise their expectations.

Ana has helped to bring together a team and scale the work of the Entrepreneurship Institute to include the university’s first accelerator, and helped the startups raise over £400,000 in the first 6 months through funding and scholarships. 

Ana has also helped develop innovative new co-curricular teaching methods, developed partnerships with leading educators in the US, India and Hong Kong and helped oversee the successful move of the Entrepreneurship Institute to the prestigious Bush House.

Ana is a passionate and inspirational figure at King’s whose tenacity and drive has created a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem in London and internationally. 

Ana is committed to supporting the futures of young adults from all backgrounds demonstrated by the diversity of the people she works with. The accelerator alone has students from 22 countries and the Institute prides itself on its inclusivity, accessibility and equality of opportunity.

Leading by example, Ana also works in a family-run Startup which has grown and contributed to UK jobs and the economy. Committed to the community she grew up in, Ana serves as a Board member, with a focus on enterprise, for Ascend, a charity based in South Oxhey, an area nationally recognised as a regeneration district with social deprivation issues. Ana works with Ascend to move people forward, challenge their perceived barriers to education and training; and provide them with more choice and control over their lives and Ana has raised over £2000 to provide meals and community spirit to local people.

Prior to King's Ana served as an elected Councillor; she also successfully completed and was accepted into the Fabian Women's network mentoring programme. Ana has previously worked in Parliament and in NGO’s within the UK and volunteered in Kenya & Rio. Ana has a BA in Political Science from Queen Mary’s University of London, and a Master’s degree in International Development - Poverty, Conflict & Reconstruction - from the University of Manchester.

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"Ana's support, alongside her enthusiasm and uplifting spirit, is the reason we've made so much progress. She's never said no to anything we've asked for or suggested, and always strives to accomplish what we see as practically impossible. Her dedication to the entrepreneurial atmosphere and to providing an environment for student ideas to grow and blossom has made an incredible impact in the King's community." Fares Alaboud, PhD student, King's College London & Founder of The Medic app

"Ana believed in us and our venture right from the start. As university students she introduced us to industry leaders we never would have been able to meet otherwise, gave us a platform to promote our startup and helped us at every stage of our journey. Hackajob has gone from strength to strength and we've now raised $1.5 million investment and employ people in multiple countries." Razvan Creanga and Mark Chaffey, King's alumni and Cofounders of Hackajob

"Anandana Bakshi is the creator of the Entrepreneurship Institute at King's College London. King's College London is ranked fifth in the UK and seventeenth in the world and is a research university with 27,000 students and 7,000 staff. King's has many specialisms including health, technology and defence/security. Ana began to build the Entrepreneurship Institute three years ago and has now established an organisation that supports students, staff and alumni to become entrepreneurial individuals. Ana has brought some of the world's best entrepreneurs to our audience at King's to inspire our entrepreneurial mindset including Richard Branson. She has created many ways to learn about entrepreneurship at King's. The Institute that she started will create jobs, wealth, impact and innovation for the UK and internationally. Ana is exceptionally entrepreneurial and is a role model for other entrepreneurial women and people from a minority ethnic background. " Julie Devonshire OBE, Director, Entrepreneurship Institute