Every year, the UC Davis Big Bang! Business Competition brings together interdisciplinary teams of students, researchers and faculty with mentors from the region’s business community. The event is sponsored by the Child Family Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
Andrew Barkett, MBA 09, has given the competition a five-year, $50,000 gift. Barkett has been involved in, and passionate about, innovation and entrepreneurship. His donation creates an endowment to provide long-term support and stability for the Big Bang! The donation will also provide current use funds to support annual planning and immediate costs over the next five academic years. The goal, says Barkett, is “to increase awareness, attract competitive participants and enhance student learning.
“The Graduate School of Management helped me to learn about business and to think about turning my ideas into action,” he explained. “The Big Bang! embodies that spirit. I want to help the competition become the premiere vehicle through which all members of the UC Davis community can take an idea, refine it, find collaborators, and ultimately get the help needed to realize their idea in the form of a successful business.”
Barkett was recently named the first chief technology officer for the Republican National Committee. His career has included employment at Facebook, in Google’s SRE department and IT management consulting for Nvidia, Adobe and Livescribe.
He is an involved volunteer with the Human Needs Project, which is attempting to build a platform to deliver infrastructure, education and sanitation services to some of the poorest areas throughout the world.