Press Release
Contact: Cassandra Cranston |
Phone: (919) 549-7500 |
Dennis Gillings, Quintiles CEO and Mark Heesen, NVCA President Will Be Featured Speakers at CED Venture Conference
25th Annual Conference Scheduled for April 16-18, 2008 in Durham, North Carolina
Research Triangle Park, N.C., April 3, 2008 – The Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) announced today that its 25th annual Venture conference will provide unique perspectives from both the entrepreneurial and venture capital side of the fundraising equation, with keynotes from Dennis Gillings of Quintiles and Mark Heesen of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA).
Mark G. Heesen, president of NVCA, will be the featured speaker on Thursday, April 17th. As a spokesperson for the venture capital industry, he will share powerful insight into venture capital trends, and how they can present opportunities and challenges for both entrepreneurs and investors.
“I look forward to speaking to such an amazing collection of entrepreneurs and investors that CED Venture is sure to draw,” said Heesen. “Knowledge is power and with today’s economic challenges and an ever-changing venture capital landscape, I hope these attendees will benefit from any additional information I might share.”
Dennis Gillings, chairman and CEO of Quintiles Transnational Corp., will be the featured speaker on Friday, April 19th. He will draw from his own experience leading Quintiles for more than 25 years; to share what he believes is important for other entrepreneurs and CEOs to learn. He will talk about the challenges and opportunities fellow entrepreneurs might face when developing new technologies or services, and even new market categories. He will also share insight into how he overcame competitive challenges from larger industry incumbents.
“I am honored to have the opportunity to share my experience with other entrepreneurs in my own back yard,” said North Carolina-based Gillings. “I hope that my life and the lessons I have learned can help these young entrepreneurs take advantage of exciting opportunities and avoid costly pitfalls.”
Additional information about both speakers is available at www.cednc.org/conferences/venture/2008/speakers/.
Scheduled for April 16-18, 2008, at Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club in Durham, N.C., CED’s 25th annual Venture conference will showcase the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic’s top investment opportunities to hundreds of venture capitalists and financiers from throughout the United States.
To learn more about CED Venture, or to register for this one of a kind industry leading event, visit www.cednc.org/venture.
About the Council for Entrepreneurial
Development
The
Council for Entrepreneurial Development,
headquartered in Research Triangle
Park, is a private, non-profit organization
formed in 1984 to stimulate the
creation and growth of high-impact
companies in the Research Triangle,
North Carolina and Southeast region.
Since 2001, CED has helped triangle-area
companies raise over $2.6 billion
in venture capital. CED provides
education, mentoring and capital
formation resources to new and existing
high-growth entrepreneurs through
annual conferences, seminars, workshops
and programs on entrepreneurial
management and finance. CED is the
largest and oldest entrepreneurial
support organization in the nation
with more than 5,000 members representing
over 1,100 entrepreneurial companies,
financiers and professional firms.
For more information, visit www.cednc.org.
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