A place for University of Guam students and island residents to help launch their dreams of becoming entrepreneurs was unveiled at the University of Guam last Thursday.
Bank of Guam and University of Guam leadership attended the unveiling of the Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, located on the second floor of the Jesus & Eugenia Leon Guerrero School of Business and Public Administration building at UOG.
The bank is committing $250,000 over five years to support the center.
The occasion stirred a special feeling for Joaquin “Kin” Cook, Bank of Guam president and CEO, and grandson of the bank’s founder Jesus Leon Guerrero, who spoke in front of a mural featuring a quote from his grandfather, which reads: “My philosophy has always been that a man is entitled to take at least one or two leaps in life in the pursuit of a challenging and difficult endeavor that will make a difference.”
Cook remarked that his late grandfather took the leap and then set the foundation for what is now Bank of Guam.
UOG President Thomas W. Krise thanked the bank, the UOG Endowment Foundation, the SBPA, the Small Business Development Center and others for the partnership.
The center can help UOG do a better job of serving the island community, Krise said.
“We also seek to diversify our revenue resources, and so having an innovation and entrepreneurship center helps us to think entrepreneurially,” Krise said.
James Ji, Ph.D., director of the center and assistant professor of management at SBPA, said, “We are truly thankful and honored to have Bank of Guam as our partner and title sponsor. We feel they are the perfect partner in supporting us to achieve our mission – to spur entrepreneurial ideas and innovation among our students and within the community.”
