Stanford University's seed centre in Accra, Ghana. The upcoming research facility in Nairobi will be the second in the world. PHOTO | COURTESY
Top American university Stanford is hiring a manager to set up its Nairobi Innovation Centre set to be opened in June.
The California-based learning institution last month revealed plans of setting up an innovation hub in Nairobi to train entrepreneurs.
The Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies (seed) will be the second institution of its kind in the region after the university set up a similar facility in Accra in 2013.
Seed is a Stanford Graduate School of Business-led initiative that seeks to apply practical innovation and entrepreneurship to create jobs.
The university is looking for individuals with a masters of business administrations with more than 10 years’ experience in senior level business operations to recruit as its regional manager.
“The successful candidate will have responsibility to manage and oversee execution of all aspects of Seed’s Transformation Program (STP) based in East Africa and manage center support staff both in Kenya and throughout East Africa,” said the Stanford notice.
Nairobi has recently become an innovation hotspot for global companies including IBM, Samsung and Nokia.
Stanford had earlier said it selected Kenya as the home of its East Africa lab due to Nairobi’s global repute for tech innovation and enterprise, a young work force and relatively good infrastructure.
Stanford said it has slashed the fees for the programme to $1,500 per participant from the usual cost of $5,000 a person.
Seed targets start-ups and companies grossing between $150,000 to more than $15 million to help them scale quickly, create job opportunities, interact with peers and develop ideas into commercial enterprises.
The research institute will run an interactive six-month program for innovative and growth-oriented businessmen from small and medium-sized enterprises looking to grow their businesses.
Besides having access to local and regional peer networks during the raining period they will also be taken through the core business skills that the university teaches including strategy, marketing, organisational structure, operations, and finance.
Those who successfully complete the training will be eligible to apply to become Stanford Seed business coaches.
Applications for the manager position are open until end of January, with the successful applicant assuming office from April 1.
Seed was founded in 2011 as a Stanford Graduate School of Business initiative after receiving a $150 million (Sh15 billion) gift from an alumnus and venture capitalist named Robert King and his wife Dorothy.
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