Director for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Director for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, CSE at Copenhagen Business School

About Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship (CSE)

Since 2007 CSE has accumulated knowledge, experiences, and learnings on how to develop as a space for entrepreneurship. But in order to truly enable and unleash the transformative power of others we must be willing to transform ourselves. To explore across boundaries, to venture further, to connect, to share, to open.

Hence, CSE cannot work alone. We are connected to an entrepreneurial ecosystem of entrepreneurs, academics, employers and community partners (nationally as well as internationally). Together we must work to deliver transformational value through strengthening our learning environment, refining our pedagogical tools with academic research, broadening our portfolio of venture activities, and supporting personal development. 

At CBS, we have a great desire to transform society with business. We believe that entrepreneurship plays a critical role in solving the grand challenges that we face as individuals and in organizations and society. Thus, we see it as our business at CSE to energize the collaborative attention around transformational entrepreneurship and bring that into action.

Read more about CSE

Position

Are you a strong leader of people and administration with a passion for entrepreneurship and innovation? Are you motivated to support the next generation of business founders, innovators and leaders, through a world-leading entrepreneurship centre? Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship plays an important role in supporting CBS’ strategy in providing students and academics with the entrepreneurial tools to solve humanity’s challenges. 

As Director for Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship at Copenhagen Business School, the successful candidate will be responsible for the daily management and delivery of CBS’s innovation and enterprise agenda. Reporting to and working closely with the Vice Dean of Innovation and Impact, the Director will lead the process of defining, differentiating and shaping the institution through the direct management and administration of CSE, during its next phase of development.

Accountable to the Vice Dean of Innovation and Impact, the Director for Innovation and Entrepreneurship will be responsible for the execution of these following: 

Key responsibilities 

• To translate CBS strategic priorities into operational leadership and management for Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship .
• Envisioning, creating and leading an inclusive, integrated entrepreneurship effort at the campus, and ensuring this supports the overall CBS entrepreneurship and innovation strategy.
• Mentor, support and oversee personnel performance within CSE towards achieving personal and organisational goals. 
• Maintain robust financial and operational practices in line with CBS policies including managing budgets with internal and external financing. 
• To provide strategic input for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in practice across the University. 
• Provide direction for the development of new programs and external partnerships to bolster CBS’s transformative innovation and impact strategy. 
• Drive research commercialisation strategy and academic impact within a social science and humanities context. 
• To further bridge CSE’s offerings with CBS curriculum supporting Nordic Nine capabilities across CBS.
• To ensure the ongoing development of CSE’s incubation, acceleration, education, academic and case solving programs with a focus on delivering to CBS’ strengths of sales, marketing, finance, business models and leadership. 
• Provide guidance for strategic partnership matters including fundraising strategy, procurement of new external partnerships knowledge exchange, pro bono partnerships and vendor assessment. 
• Represent CSE and CBS at appropriate committees, events and conferences.
• Ensure innovative CBS students and academics, and their projects are showcased in the greater arena to strengthen CBS reputation as a site for innovation, leadership and transformational business.   
• Maintain strong relationships with university partners through mutually beneficial collaborations (Denmark, the Nordics and internationally). 
• Maintain solid operations within public institutions, working closely with colleagues in HR, Legal, Procurement and Communications to ensure smooth, compliant operations. 
• Further integrate research with the entrepreneurship centre through research-based teaching and partnering on research projects to strengthen the understanding of issues and practices within university incubators in the Nordics.
• Oversee scoping and implementation of major projects in new program development, capital works or investment vehicles. 

The portfolio of tasks may be adjusted after onboarding of the incoming Vice Dean expected in fall 2023.

Key attributes / Your experience and qualifications

• Experience in higher education administrative leadership (business school or social science and humanities preferred) with an understanding of entrepreneurship and innovation in curricular, co-curricular and extra-curricular formats. 
• Prior experience in operational management of physical entrepreneurship/innovation centre. 
• Experience managing complex teams of administrative and knowledge employees, including hiring, performance management, HR practices and workplace health and safety.  
• Background working with research commercialisation in a social science and humanities environment. 
• Experience in fundraising, partnerships and development in a not-for-profit, public sector and/or corporate setting. 
• Proven experience managing budgets. 
• Have deep knowledge of starting a business or organization, fundraising, and the founder journey.
• Strong ability to engage in stakeholder management across a matrix organisation.  
• Agile and responsive to changing needs within the entrepreneurship centre setting, in line with public organisation operating constraints. 
• Strong communicator in both written and spoken, comfortable with public speaking and presenting at large events. 
• Relevant academic education, experience as an educator advantageous. 
• Proven ability to lead and facilitate design thinking and innovation frameworks in classrooms and practice. 
• Excellent command of English and knowledge of Danish.

Salary and terms of employment

Employment and remuneration take place in accordance with the applicable agreement between the Danish Ministry of Finance and the relevant organization with classification and remuneration depending on qualifications and experience. Upon employment, it will be possible to negotiate personal allowances.

The recruitment process

Copenhagen Business School invites all qualified candidates to apply for the position as Director of Director for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, CSE. Under the leadership of the Dean of Research, an appointment committee will review the applications and invite a selection of qualified candidates to an interview.

One of CBS’ strategic goals is to promote diversity in our organisation. For this reason, we aim to plan the recruitment process that minimises potential bias. Applicants are therefore kindly encouraged not to include photos or more personal information than absolutely necessary in their application.

To minimise group bias in the selection process, applicants invited to the first interview will not be interviewed by the entire recruitment committee but by individual committee members via brief online conversations.

More information

If you have any questions or wish to know more about the job, please contact Søren Hvidkjær, Dean of Research, at +45 3815 2020 or [email protected] . Interviews are expected to take place in week 22 and 23.
Please apply for the position online by opening the link "apply online". Fill out the application form and attach your application with information about previous employment, copies of relevant educational qualifications and CV.

Closing date: 29 May 2023.

Apply online

CBS is a globally recognised business school with deep roots in the Nordic socio-economic model. We have a broad focus on business and societal challenges of the 21st century. As such we have a full portfolio of high-quality disciplinary and interdisciplinary research and education that has equipped generations of professionals and leaders in the private sector and beyond.

Located at Frederiksberg, Denmark, the school has approx. 21.000 full and part-time students, 760 full-time faculty members, 210 PhD students and 680 administrative staff, and a full portfolio of Bachelor, Master’s, MBA/EMBA, PhD and Executive programmes delivered in English and Danish.

Our global profile carries the obligation to develop the transformational capabilities of students, graduates and business leaders via our educational activities and opportunities for lifelong learning. Complex challenges call for joint action, and therefore our strategy focuses on strengthening current and starting new partnerships with other sciences, the business community, authorities and civil society.

CBS is working continuously on becoming a diverse and inclusive organization, and we encourage all regardless of gender identity and expression, ethnicity, religious beliefs, LGBT+ status, cultural background etc. to apply.
Reach out to us if you need assistance in the application or recruitment process, if there is something we should know, or if as a person with disability you wish to make use of your preferential access.