Bengaluru: Kanara Entrepreneurs Global (KE) had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Christ University (Christ Univ) to nurture and mentor students of Christ University to become successful entrepreneurs.

This was signed during the biennial seminar 'Entreprenet 2014' on February 1, 2014. As a follow up to the MOU, a full day workshop was conducted at the Christ University campus on July 15, 2014 and also industrial visits were conducted to facilities belonging to Kanara Entrepreneurs.

To take this initiative further, a certificate course in family business was conducted by Kanara Entrepreneurs Global at Christ University. Members of KE contributed as guest faculty and provided practical insights to students and faculty of Christ Univ conducted theory sessions. Members of KE come with rich, hands on experience in operating businesses in 73 different industries like textiles, IT, transformers, hospitality, printing and publishing, consultancies in finance, legal etc. The classes were a combination of case studies, group discussions, project work and presentations. This course was coordinated by Anil Francis Rego, director mentoring and lead member of KE.

The closing ceremony was held to mark the successful completion of this joint initiative and also hand over certificates to the students. The dignitaries were Dr (Fr) Thomas C Mathew - vice chancellor of Christ University, Peter Anil Rego - president of KE Bengaluru, prof Suresh Pai - associate dean, Mark D’Souza - past president and members of Kanara Entrepreneurs.

The course was held over 45 hours and covered a wide range of topics from family ownership, importance of succession, professionalism in family business, scaling of family businesses, corporate governance, conflict resolution etc. The objective was to nurture the next generation to contribute to their family business and help take it to a new level.

Dr (Fr) Thomas C Mathew in his address thanked members of Kanara Entrepreneurs for spending their valuable time and sharing their perspectives with the students, which will go a long way in helping them contribute to their family businesses. Peter Anil Rego in his address, spoke of how change is often underestimated and gave examples of how various technology innovators themselves underestimated the impact of their innovations. He called on the students to become change agents. Certificates were distributed to 24 students who successfully completed the program