2020 vision: tomorrow’s stars

Edie Lush

Who will be the rising stars of the business world by the end of the next decade? We set out to find the Richard Bransons and Charles Dunstones of the next generation – under-25s who already have a track record of business start-ups and social entrepreneurship. Edie Lush talks to ten of them

Victoria Lennox, 24, president of Oxford Entrepreneurs

Oxford Entrepreneurs is the largest entrepreneurial organisation in Europe, boasting more than 4,500 members. As its first female president, Lennox is focusing the society’s sights on social enterprise, clean technology and an enterprising women speakers’ series. Within Oxford Entrepreneurs she’s started the Ideas2Market Programme, which will roll out to universities across the UK in 2009, and the UK Student Entrepreneurship Council, a nationwide entrepreneurial network that fosters collaboration and knowledge sharing and is developing an incubation/hot-desking facility for OE start-ups in partnership with the Oxford Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. She is the founding director of Oxford Women in Business, a founding patron of Oxford Students in Free Enterprise, sits on the UK StartingBloc Board, and is currently the managing director of GENIE Camera Motion Control Systems, a media tech start-up. Originally from Canada, Lennox graduated summa cum laude from the University of Ottawa two years ago. Besides finishing second in her year she won every award, scholarship and prize issued by her faculty in recognition of academic excellence, extracurricular involvement and community engagement. While at university she founded three successful ventures. Aging in Place is a social enterprise connecting university students with aging individuals. The Council of Women in Politics and Public Policy is a group that inspires, educates and connects young women interested in politics and public policy and advocates for the increased representation of women in decision-making structures. It has since evolved into the youth wing of Equal Voice Canada, a national organisation. The Ottawa Dance Works is a dance procurement service and affiliated dance troupe (Ottawa Dance Fusion) with revenues used to provide underprivileged children with free dance classes.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 Next page