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Cranfield Alumni Go Ape For Entrepreneurship Awards

Cranfield alumni have snapped up an entrepreneurship award for their adventure-day business Go Ape, which has swelled to around 30 locations across the UK.

By  Seb Murray

Mon Mar 10 2014

BusinessBecause
For four Cranfield University School of Management graduates, their entrepreneurial venture has culminated in a tree-mendous award on behalf of the school.

Tristram Mayhew, Jerome Mayhew, Rebecca Mayhew and Will Galbraith, who manage Go Ape, the successful outdoor adventure company, snapped up Entrepreneur Alumni of the Year at the 2014 Cranfield School of Management Awards.

The awards, held last week at the Royal Society in London, are run annually by Cranfield to celebrate the achievements of its high-calibre alumni. 

The four are among the speakers confirmed for this year’s Cranfield VentureDay, the School’s annual conference and networking event for entrepreneurs, taking place on 8 May.

Go Ape’s managers are all alumni of the Business Growth and Development Programme at Cranfield. They regularly return to the business school to share their experiences.

“It feels tree-mendous to be awarded the Cranfield School of Management Entrepreneur Alumni of the Year, as many of the previous winners have been inspirational to us on our journey,” said Go Ape co-founder Rebecca.

“We are very conscious that whilst we founded Go Ape, the recipients of this award should include our much larger team, who have embraced the entrepreneurial spirit that we hope will drive Go Ape forward to new adventures in the future.”

Since launching, the company now has 29 Go Ape adventures around England. Professor Andrew Burke, Director of the Business Growth and Development Programme at Cranfield, praised the team’s entrepreneurial ability.

“They are exemplars of all that is great about entrepreneurship: from their attention to detail, creativity and self-belief at start-up through to the creation and realisation of a hugely ambitious growth strategy that has resulted in a very successful business, that has created over 700 jobs,” he said.

Other award-winners included the Group Chairman and CEO of the Azibo Group Mayank Patel OBE, who was named Cranfield’s Distinguished Alumnus of the Year. 

Professor Andrew Burke added:  “Mayank’s ambitious, tenacious and skilled approach to realising a major growth strategy makes us very proud to have him among our successful alumni.”  

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