Empowering faculty and students through scalable entrepreneurship support.
Mr Gavan Drohan, Head of Entrepreneurship and Mr Zaur Samadov-Unsizade, Student Entrepreneurship Programme Manager, Trinity Innovation & Enterprise
This presentation shows evidence of how entrepreneurship education fosters innovation by integrating creative thinking into faculty curricula. By introducing an AI mentor, which was designed to support students in building and refining their ideas, we will share how technology-driven mentorship can democratise entrepreneurship education, equipping students with the tools to transform their ideas into reality.
Presentation: Empowering faculty and students through scalable entrepreneurship support.(Download)
Mr Gavan Drohan is responsible for the delivery of a full programme of activities to encourage and support innovation, including incubation and acceleration programmes such as LaunchBox for students at the start of their entrepreneurial journey, through to later stage pan European startups programmes supported by EIT.
His background encompasses telecomms, innovation management and as a startup founder. Prior to joining Trinity, he was a co-founder of Red Planet, an innovation consultancy which was acquired by Deloitte in 2017.
Zaur leads innovation initiatives that empower students across all disciplines. With a background in ecosystem building, innovation policy, and startup support from his previous role at the Innovation Agency Azerbaijan, Zaur now focuses on creating inclusive, interdisciplinary programmes like the Open Incubator (openincubator.ie).
He’s passionate about integrating entrepreneurship into non-traditional faculties, scaling support with AI mentorship tools, and helping early-stage founders turn ideas into real-world impact.