Win £1000 for your idea for a business, social enterprise or other project! Students (singly or in teams) will compete to win £1000 by pitching to our panel of top entrepreneurs in this exciting event. View our video of last years' winner! […]
Two of Royal Holloway’s most successful entrepreneurs will share a stage for the first time on Thursday 28th January 2010. Surinder Arora and Tej Dhillon will be interviewed by Jack Lenox in the Windsor Auditorium. The event begins at 6pm, with a networking reception afterwards.
Surinder Arora is an Honorary Fellow of Royal Holloway. He is Chairman of his own hotel chain, Arora International, which runs hotels at Heathrow and Gatwick and in Manchester. He is listed on The Sunday Times Rich List and has an investment and managerial interest in the Wentworth Club.
Tej Dhillon studied Geography and graduated in 1987. He is now Managing Director of the Dhillon Hotel Group, a chain of six very individual hotels which he owns with his sister. The Dhillons own the Grade II listed Victorian Gothic-style Paragon Hotel in the centre of Birmingham, which has 250 rooms and the Liongate Hotel in Hampton Court amongst others.
Billed as the ‘Battle of the Heavyweight Hoteliers’ the evening will contrast the stories of the two entrepreneurs. It will be ‘refereed’ by Jack Lenox, a student at Royal Holloway and President of Royal Holloway Entrepreneurs. Jack said ,”This is an exciting opportunity to get close to two of the leading entrepreneurs in the hotel trade who will be together at Royal Holloway for the first time. It looks to be our biggest event of the year so far.”
For more information about the event, email John King, Entrepreneurship Careers Adviser, at john.king@rhul.ac.uk . Tickets for the event are not required for current students and staff. Alumni and friends of the College may book a place at the event via the Development Department.
Mike is a senior consultant and published author, specialising in consumer- led marketing and innovation. He calls this new area of endeavour “Behind The Line”.
He has advised some of the world’s leading brands, media companies and international stars, including Nokia, Diageo, Telefonica, Fremantle Media, Bacardi Global Brands, Sky, BT, Sony BMG, Sony ATV, Ogilvy & Mather, Robbie Williams, Dido and Simon Cowell.
Mike is the co-author of the seminal work on consumer-led business strategy, Promiscuous Customers: Invisible Brands – Delivering Value in Digital Markets (Capstone, Oxford, 2002), and has written regularly for publications as diverse as The Wall Street Journal, Design Week, The Design Management Journal and New Media Age. His blog, The Strategy Review, (www.thestrategyreview.com) covers current and future marketing and strategy issues.
Mike is a popular and exciting speaker on current issues such as post- Internet brand strategy, consumer culture, digital marketing, and branded entertainment. Among many successful speaking engagements, he has delivered brand and entertainment strategy master classes at Midem, AdTech London, The Marketing Society and the IESE Business School in Barcelona.
After a successful international career in music, including 7 years in the US, Mike was an early entrant into digital media in 1992, and worked in interactive publishing and branding, e-business strategy and management.
Since 2001 and the publication of Promiscuous Customers, he has specialised in consumer-led marketing and innovation, working recently with global brand leaders such as Telefonica’s O2, Nokia and Diageo on “post-Internet” marketing and advertising, social media, mobile applications and brand entertainment.
In this capacity, Mike has won accolades from industry leaders including Tim Clark, manager of Robbie Williams, Rory Sutherland, Vice-Chairman of Ogilvy and President of the IPA, and Mark Selby, VP Industry Partnerships, Nokia.
Of course, there will be networking opportunities and refreshments served, as usual. Like John has mentioned in a previous post, he is an amazing guy! This talk is a must for anyone who’s an entrepreneur or studies marketing!
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Two of Royal Holloway’s most successful entrepreneurs will share a stage for the first time on Thursday 28th January 2010. Surinder Arora and Tej Dhillon will be interviewed by Jack Lenox in the Windsor Auditorium. The event begins at 6pm, with a networking reception afterwards.
