The course consists of fifteen, interactive, three-hour long sessions in English. The last regular session is January 24th and the presentations will be held on Thursday, February 7th. Participants will prepare a Strategic Business Plan to be presented in a competition to a panel of expert investors in the last sessions. Participants are required to have a business or NGO or to have a strong interest in starting a business in the near future. The course will include speakers with actual experience in the week’s current business planning issue. Some speakers from the last course: Peter Fodor (FINEXT Startup), Peter Árvai (Prezi.com), Istvan Alpek (Primus Capital).

Please note that applicants who miss the deadline or turn in an incomplete application package will not be considered for 2012 Autumn. The course is free of charge.

Minimum requirements:

Four completed years of college
Advanced English language knowledge
Interest in business and entrepreneurship
Sufficient time for necessary research and team meetings on the weekends or other nights during the week
Hungarian citizenship

Desirable:

Alumni of U.S. high school, university or other professional exchange programs, with a preference given to RETURN Alumni Association and Fulbright alumni association members
Own business or business idea
Demonstrated experience in community service

The interviews are going to be conducted the week of September 2nd.

The deadline for application is Wednesday, August 22nd, 5:00 p.m. Please send your résumé and motivation letter to StrategicBPAC@gmail.com

Personal Profile, Edward H Sanborn IV

Born in the United States of America, I received my Bachelors degree from Dickinson College in 1968. I then spent the next ten years with Xerox Corporation as a salesman and then as a manager with profit and loss responsibility. My first experience in the world of finance was through the investment bank Morgan Stanley in San Francisco. Beginning in institutional sales--placing large investments with banks, pension funds and insurance companies -I ultimately moved to the corporate finance side of the business.

Returning to Golden Gate University I completed my MBA with a minor in legal studies and soon formed my own investment advisory firm in 1984. Sanborn Capital Management was successful in raising funds for corporate venture capital projects and real estate primarily in California. That success led to a move to Hungary at around the time of the transition in 1990. First serving as an advisor in privatization, I began making direct investments into real estate and corporate opportunities in Central Europe with a primary focus in Hungary. Notable among a couple of dozen transactions was the founding and expansion of Euronet, a pan European ATM operator, and its eventual flotation on the NasDaq exchange in America; also, the founding of the thriving internet portal- Index.hu Rt.

As an experienced “Angel” investor I have continued to nurture promising young companies such as IND Group, a leading European banking software developer founded in Miskolc, Hungary.

Source: U.S. Embassy Budapest