The Alba hub for entrepreneurship and development

AHEAD, Alba’s Hub for Entrepreneurship and Development, drives innovative venture creation and celebrates entrepreneurial knowledge through cutting-edge training, outreach, and scholarship.

AHEAD - The Alba Hub for Entrepreneurship and Development is the hub that brings together all activities dedicated to entrepreneurship at Alba Graduate Business School. We strive to live up to Alba's vision of "Business Unusual" through the highest possible quality of innovative training, outreach and scholarship in entrepreneurship.

The Alba Hub for Entrepreneurship and Development (AHEAD) was established in 2009 with the mission to advance innovative venture development by the creation, communication and celebration of entrepreneurial knowledge and activity.

Entrepreneurship at AHEAD includes all forms of venturing, such as:

Start ups and New Venture Creation
Family Businesses
Social Enterprises
Intrapreneurship and Corporate Venturing

Our work is based upon the following pillars:

Innovation – Ethics – Tradition – Sustainability – Inclusion

Celebration Of Entrepreneurship

AHEAD organizes, facilitates and promotes entrepreneurship awards and competitions, such as the “Stelios Award for Young Entrepreneur of the Year – Greece” sponsored by Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou (2008-2010) and the Kouros Awards for young entrepreneurs by the Hellenic Entrepreneurship Association.

In 2014 AHEAD adapted the “Beyond Silicon Valley: Growing Entrepreneurship in Transitioning Economies” Massive Open Online Course for the Greek audience in co-operation with Metavallon and the US Embassy in Athens. The key outcome was a series of 9 short documentaries depicting entrepreneurial activity throughout Greece.

Topical events with local and international speakers are organized by AHEAD, while we also support and host events organized by other organizations and teams.

Support Services for Alba Students & Alumni

AHEAD supports Alba Students and Alumni by providing the expertise, support and connections needed to become effective entrepreneurs. #AlbaEntrepreneurs have access to the following exclusive services:

1 to 1 consultation meetings
Tailored events
Tailored events
The promotion of Alba entrepreneurs

Community Outreach

In order to support enterprises with up to 9 employees, AHEAD offers the “AHEAD Scholarships for Micro-Enterprises” with the objective to help these businesses grow.

AHEAD also manages the “Next Generation Family Business Scholarship” that aims to support succession in Greek family business. Other scholarships are also offered to entrepreneurs via the co-operation with key partners.

We also support the wider entrepreneurial ecosystem in several ways:

MBA and MSc student consultancy projects
Knowledge sharing
Participation in exclusive events
Tailored workshops and classes for a variety of incubators and accelerators

The VentureGarden educational and mentoring program for aspiring entrepreneurs is offered for free, in co-operation with The Hellenic Initiative and Anatolia School of Business in Thessaloniki. The program is based upon an intensive training period followed by several months of mentoring. More than 100 entrepreneurs go through the program each year. At the same time, regional 3-day workshops are held for entrepreneurs that can’t attend the program due to the distance.

Education & Research

AHEAD co-created the MSc in Entrepreneurship offered by Alba and supports all educational activities related to entrepreneurship, such as consulting projects and case studies.

Following Alba’s vision “to become one of the leading research-driven Graduate Business Schools in southeastern Europe” AHEAD promotes academic and applied research on entrepreneurship, such as the global research project “Successful Transgenerational Entrepreneurship Practices – STEP Project for Family Enterprising”.

The AHEAD Team

TEACHING FELLOW

Alexis Komselis

Alexis is the Director of AHEAD, the Alba hub for entrepreneurship and development, and a taching fellow at Alba. His work focuses on teaching, supporting and researching entrepreneurship and family businesses. He is experienced in instructional design for both academic and non-academic programs related to his fields of interest. He works with entrepreneurs and family business stakeholders in the areas of business modelling, family business sustainability and governance. Alexis holds a bsc in business administration from Deree - The American College of Greece, an MSc in Entrepreneurship from the University of Aberdeen and a PgDip in research methods from Aberdeen business school.

Zoi Agathangelidou

Project Coordinator

Zoi Agathangelidou

AHEAD Trainers, Coaches and Mentors

Alexandra Karapidaki

Trainer, Co-founder, Bizrupt

Alexandra Karapidaki

Alexandra is a professional marketer with more than 15 years of experience in this field, specializing in marketing strategy, branding and digital marketing. She is a technology enthusiast, due to her previous role as Marketing Manager in one of Greece's largest technology companies. Alexandra has shared her knowledge in dozens of workshops and lectures related to entrepreneurship and startups. For the last 3 years, Project Management has become her new passion since she works as a Project Coordinator/Manager for Bizrupt's projects and speaks about PM in many events. Furthermore, she is the Co-founder of Bizrupt, an NGO located in Crete, working with Alba Graduate Business School - The American College of Greece to implement the VentureGarden Heraklion program.

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Stella Printezi

Trainer, Lead Partnership and Program Manager, Ashoka

Stella Printezi

Stella accompanies leading social entrepreneurs from across the globe in their journeys to develop their systems change & impact scaling strategies, manages partnerships with corporates and designs employee engagement programs. She has joined various local, European and global programs as a trainer, coordinator, assessor, coach and mentor. Her background is in Psychology (UOA, UCL) and Entrepreneurship (Alba Graduate Business School).

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Vassilis Kassimatis, MBA

Trainer, Coach, Business Consultant

Vassilis Kassimatis, MBA

Vassilis Kassimatis is a Professional Business Consultant, Certified Trainer & Coach. His educational background includes a Professional MBA (ALBA) and a Bachelor of Science, in Computer Information Systems (W.I.U). He has domestic and international experience, which derives mainly from two decades of work at IDEAL GROUP of COMPANIES and COSMOTE, holding managerial positions and presenting extraordinary results. Moreover, he’s co-founder and COO of Inagros, a startup company that specializes at precision agriculture systems and applications. Since 2012 he works as a freelancer, aiming at development and optimization of businesses and organizations.