Consulting & Entrepreneurship: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Winter Quarter 2013 Entrepreneurship Seminar Series

Featuring Neil Sahota, IBM Certified Consultant and Senior Project Manager, IBM - Global Business Services

Free and open to the public

Neil Sahota is a Thought Leader Consultant in IBM Global Business Services. He has over 15 years of experience in business, and he is responsible for the sales and execution of large, complex programs spanning business strategy, new product development, revenue optimization, process improvement, and business and system integration. His work experience spans multiple industries including healthcare, life sciences, retail, travel and transportation, energy and utilities, automotive, telecommunications, media/communication, and government. Moreover, Neil is one of the few IBMers selected for IBM's Corporate Service Corps leadership program that pairs emerging leaders with NGOs to perform community-driven economic development projects. For his assignment, Neil lived and worked in Ningbo, China where he worked with Chinese corporate CEOs to create a leadership development program.



Neil is also an active volunteer in IBM’s Academic Initiative program that creates partnership opportunities between the IBM and the country’s top universities. He also serves as a recruiter and business mentor for IBM’s Extreme Blue summer internship program that functions as an incubator for new product development.



In addition to his professional work, Neil actively volunteers his time to help nonprofits and foundations with event management, fund raising, grant reviews, and site visits. Neil is also an active member of the UCI Alumni Association and currently serves on the Alumni Board of Directors and Executive Committee. As the VP of Programs, he has developed the Anteater MeetUps, Virtual Roundtables, and cross-school partnerships for joint events. Neil also serves on the Board of Directors for the Orange County Marathon and supports their work with the OC Kids program in fighting childhood obesity.

The Entrepreneurship Seminar Series provides a real-world introduction to the theory and practice of entrepreneurship.  Through a series of presentations by prestigious entrepreneurs and industry leaders, participants will explore the various organizational, strategic and financial challenges facing successful and unsuccessful entrepreneurs.  Topics include start-up strategies, business idea evaluation, business plan writing, and introduction to venture capital.



For a complete listing of Entrepreneurship Seminar Series guest speakers, please visit http://www.eng.uci.edu/events/entseminars.