SURREY - Simon Fraser University is launching a high-tech entrepreneurship initiative, thanks to a $210,000 donation from SFU alumnus Ken Spencer and a matching contribution from the province through the B.C. Innovation Council (BCIC).

"My primary mission was to start a company, but I always had a secondary mission, having grown up in B.C., to help B.C. develop its knowledge-based economy," Spencer said at SFU's Surrey campus Thursday.

"This project is one more piece in the jigsaw puzzle. I try to make little contributions here and there to make B.C. develop its knowledge-based economy."

The new Ken Spencer Entrepreneur Incubator, a component of the entrepreneurship@SFU initiative in partnership with BCIC, will accept third- and fourth-year business and applied sciences students. The program will provide skills, mentorship and resources to help build innovative ideas and develop successful new ventures.

Students will take a variety of courses and have access to mentors, scholarships and a product design studio. They will also produce business plans, design and prototype their products or systems, complete steps to launch a successful business and secure lead customers.

Daniel Shapiro, dean of SFU's Beedie School of Business, said Spencer is a perfect example of the type of go-getter the new program hopes to yield.

"He is the prototype of the next generation of entrepreneurs that we want to create," Schapiro said.

Spencer co-founded Creo Products in 1983, which grew to become one of B.C.'s largest technology companies, with more than 4,000 employees in the province, North America, Europe and Israel.

For the past 15 years, Ken has served as an investor, co-founder, chair or director of numerous B.C.-based technology companies, not-for-profits and educational institutions.

And it's no accident this program will be located in Surrey, Shapiro said.

"This campus, as those of you have taken a look around, is breaming with entrepreneurial energy. You can feel it in the air. And it mirrors the kind of energy which exists in the community outside the walls of this building."

SFU students have designed and developed numerous innovative products, such as diagnostic tools to aid in tumor detection, the use of new designs and smart materials to improve helmet safety and the development of fuel-efficient "smart" tires.

That's the type of learning and initiative the university hopes to continue fostering through the new program.

SFU will begin with a pilot project in 2012, accepting 20 to 25 students for each of the next seven years with the goal of producing six potential companies or products annually.

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