Post by The IDEA Center at the University of Notre Dame

The upcoming McCloskey New Venture Competition will bring together innovators to pitch solutions. In advance of the final competition on April 24th, The IDEA Center at the University of Notre Dame is recognizing the alumni and mentors who power the ecosystem behind the entrepreneurs. Congratulations to these awardees! Gary Gigot '72 received the McCloskey Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes a career's worth of institution-building that created the conditions for thousands of students and alumni to pursue entrepreneurial lives. In celebration of their work to shape and refine entrepreneurship at Notre Dame, Alex Yurkowski ‘14 & Justin Hintz ‘13 have been honored with the McCloskey Program Builder Award. Mike Haarlander ’99 received the Amy Hirsh Guarino Force for Good Award, which recognizes a member of the Notre Dame family who is leveraging technology to address grand challenges aligned with Catholic Social Teaching: the vulnerable family, the planet, and the Catholic Church. The award is funded by the Amy Hirsh Guarino Technology Endowment, created in memory of Amy Hirsh Guarino '83: a tech industry leader, IDEA Center Advisory Council member, and connector who spent her career showing up for founders and job-seekers alike. The McCloskey Mentor of the Year Award went to Chris Sinclair, ’06, whose mentorship has had a profound impact on Notre Dame student founders during the past year. More than 100 alumni and industry experts will come to campus April 23-25 to serve as judges for the McCloskey semifinals and finals — more than four times last year's judge participation. They will not only evaluate 16 semifinalist ventures, but rally around them through fireside chats, mentorship sessions, and curated networking designed to accelerate each team's trajectory. Discover more about these award winners and the forthcoming competition: https://lnkd.in/givHDZ-b