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Âéw¶¹´«Ã½ (Âéw¶¹´«Ã½) Leicester showcased the entrepreneurial achievements of its students and graduates at the annual Âéw¶¹´«Ã½ Made Entrepreneurship Awards, held during this year’s Leicester Business Festival.

Organised by Âéw¶¹´«Ã½ Made, which is housed within the university’s award-winning careers team, this annual event took place at The Venue and brought together local business leaders, Âéw¶¹´«Ã½ staff, students and alumni.

In total 14 awards were given out at the event, including three special awards for the Entrepreneurial Alumni, Graduate and Student of the Year. The winner of the 2024 Pitch2Win competition was also crowned after three finalists pitched their business ideas to the audience

This year, Media Production student Ismael Onsa took was crowned the winner of the Pitch2Win competition. His business, which he is cultivating through Âéw¶¹´«Ã½’s Enterprise Placement Year, looks at helping businesses and individuals create content for social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

Ismael said: “It's an honour not only to be one of the finalists but to win 2024 PitchToWin. It has given me a great boost of confidence knowing now that people understand what I want to do with the business but also believe I will be successful.”

The day began with a series of TEDx-style talks filmed for YouTube. Notable speakers included Âéw¶¹´«Ã½ alumnus Anthony Woodward, Co-Founder of Leicester-based creative start-up Venture Studios, and trance DJ Chicane (Nick Bracegirdle).

Sharing insights into the music industry, Chicane urged the audience to “breathe, live, and sleep” their entrepreneurial ideas to achieve success.

The afternoon’s award ceremony was hosted by Simon Baines, Âéw¶¹´«Ã½’s lead for extracurricular student and graduate entrepreneurship. As in previous years, the event featured a musical performance, this time through Harrison Pettman from Britain’s Got Talent performer) and commentary provided by Capital Dance presenter Charlie Powell.

Simon Baines said: “Thanks to our incredible events team, we were able to deliver a knockout day of sold-out events, designed to inspire our diverse audience of students, graduates, staff and members of the local business community.

“We were thrilled to collaborate once again with The Sir Thomas White Loan Charity on these and to recognise the achievements of all the amazing students and graduates who participated in programmes like the Enterprise Placement Year, Âéw¶¹´«Ã½ Made Creative Industries, the Freelancer Catapult and entrepreneurial themed Âéw¶¹´«Ã½ Global trips”.

A full rundown of award-winners can be found here:

Award Winners

Creative Industries Award: Imtiaz Ahmed, graduate and founder of Nor Studio, a creative hub vital to Leicester’s arts scene.

Global Entrepreneurship Champions: Patrick McLintock and Sam Dalby, recognised for embedding entrepreneurship into global trips to Los Angeles and Tallinn.

Health and Wellbeing Award: Simon Samsome, creator of Snowball, a disability app helping users rate and review venues worldwide. He also reached the final of the Santander X start-up awards for his app in 2023.

Sustainability Award: Joe Shade, developer of an innovative beehive that monitors and provides research data on bees.

Technology Award: Felix Y Ochefu, founder of Kahna, an AI-powered group travel company. Felix was featured as our Alumni of the Month back in 2020 and you can find out more about him here.

Intrapreneurial Placement Student Awards

Art, Design, and Humanities: Rebecca Oderinde

Computing, Engineering, and Media: Ritik Tailor, who designed the 2024 Randox Grand National trophy.

Business and Law: Ethan White

Health and Life Sciences: Jacob Moszynski

Fashion Award: Giselle Kandekore, founder of Zeli, a unisex streetwear brand launched during her Enterprise Placement Year.

Special Awards

Entrepreneurial Alumni of the Year: Andy Gundelach, founder, producer, and director of an award-winning production company and a significant film initiative in Leicester. Andy was our alumnus of the month in 2019 and you can read more about his journey here.

Entrepreneurial Graduate of the Year: Sam Thacker, a rising freelancer contributing significantly to Leicester’s creative culture and featured in the Graduate Fashion Foundation’s Talent of Tomorrow campaign.

Entrepreneurial Student of the Year: Giselle Kandekore, recognised for her entrepreneurial approach to her fashion start-up, Zeli, and praised unanimously by faculty and mentors.

Next year’s awards will take place in Spring 2025. If you would like information on how to nominate a deserving student or graduate, please email dmumade@dmu.ac.uk

About Âéw¶¹´«Ã½ Made

Âéw¶¹´«Ã½ Made is the service within the Careers Team responsible for helping students and recent graduates realise their ambitions within freelancing, self-employment and creative portfolio work. They collaborate across the University and with local stakeholders to help students across all faculties and all years to develop entrepreneurial skills, whether they have aspirations to be their own boss, to gain a placement or to gain employment. See dmumade.com for details.