Interim Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking opens for business

With its growing international reputation for producing a steady, eclectic stream of entrepreneurial innovation in health care, energy, science, arts and other sectors, the University of Calgary has long been ready for a space where students can develop ideas, integrate knowledge, find mentors, and collaborate with faculty, staff and the wider community.

Described as a dynamic, tech-savvy, “collision space,” such a resource officially opened for business on Dec. 6. The pilot location for the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking is a major step in an institution-wide vision fuelled by the Hunter Family Foundation’s recent $40-million gift to the Energize campaign. The Hunter gift dramatically broadens and diversifies the popular, successful programs rooted in the Haskyane School of Business’ Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurial Thinking, established in 2013.

• Pictured above are University of Calgary President Elizabeth Cannon, right, and Dani, Doug, Diane and Derrick Hunter at the opening of the interim space for the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking.

“We’re so excited about the opening of this space,” said Diane Hunter, BA’67, MA’69, who attended the launch event with her husband, Doug, and son, Derrick, MBA’90, as well as student innovators, faculty, community members, and UCalgary President and Vice-Chancellor Elizabeth Cannon. “It’s tangible evidence of our commitment to the university, and of the university’s commitment to the concept of entrepreneurial thinking and their desire create trans-disciplinary idea exchange.”

When a university is committed to removing silos and to discovery, creativity and expression, Hunter said, “anything can happen.”

The 2,500-square-foot interim location is adjacent to the bookstore in the MacEwan Student Centre. Its open, inviting design and interdisciplinary programmatic focus are intended to engage and challenge students, faculty, staff, alumni and the community with a new and bold approach to teaching, learning, discovery and knowledge-sharing. The hub will provide opportunities for the UCalgary campus community and the public to explore what entrepreneurial thinking means and how it can be used to enrich work and play, expanding networks between the university and the wider entrepreneurial community.

Already home to a Student Innovators Circle and regular Student Entrepreneur Advising Sessions, the Hub will serve to develop and deliver programs that enhance the student experience; offer funding sources to faculties to facilitate experiential, boundary-spanning academic and co-curricular initiatives; and create a network of nimble, resourceful entrepreneurial thinkers and innovators who are able to work together to solve global challenges in all sectors.

Danielle Whittier, a second-year PhD student in biomedical engineering, served as emcee at the opening. She recently co-founded Innovation4Health, a student-led initiative that connects aspiring innovators with real-world challenges and facilitates solution design; she sees the Hub as a catalyst for innovation.

“It’s a forward-thinking space with the right support, technology and tools to fearlessly develop our ideas,” Whittier said. “The Hub isn’t just a space — it’s physical proof that a movement has already caught fire across campus and in the community.”

A permanent location for the Hub within the MacKimmie Block is now under construction.

The Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking is the University of Calgary’s new multidisciplinary initiative to engage and immerse students, faculty, staff, alumni and the community in a culture of entrepreneurial thinking, challenging them with a new and bold approach to teaching, learning, discovery and knowledge-sharing.