Published: March 06, 2014
Two UT Alumni Honored with Entrepreneurship and Lifetime Achievement Awards
University of Tampa alumni and entrepreneurs Benson Riseman, president and CEO of BENSEA Enterprises, and Melanie Moore, co-founder of Elizabeth & Clarke, were honored at the UT Entrepreneurship Center’s fourth annual Business and Entrepreneur Alumni Awards event.
The event was held on Feb. 26, and approximately 150 people attended the ceremony to network and celebrate fellow alumni at UT’s Martinez Athletics Center. The purpose of the event was to recognize the accomplishments of UT alumni who have started their own companies.
Riseman, a 1978 UT graduate, was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award. He is the president and CEO of BENSEA Enterprises, an entrepreneurial think tank and consultancy established in 2009 to transform ideas into independent, free-standing businesses. Prior to founding BENSEA Enterprises, Riseman co-founded Green Dot Corp. — which invented and brought to market the reloadable prepaid debit card — and served as executive vice president of retail strategy until the company went public in 2010. Before co-founding Green Dot, Riseman had a 20 year career in radio broadcasting working in local, national and network managerial/sales positions.
Melanie Moore, a 2006 UT graduate, was presented with the Entrepreneurship Center's Young Entrepreneur Award. Moore is co-founder of Elizabeth & Clarke, an online retailer specializing in high-quality, affordable women’s shirts. After graduation, Moore worked briefly as an investment banker. Then, before co-founding Elizabeth & Clarke, she spent time at Bill Blass and started a fashion company called ToVieFor.
The event was sponsored again this year by UT alumnus Dr. Alan Shoopak, president of Orthodontic Specialists of Florida and previous winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award. The event traditionally precedes the student-run Southeast Entrepreneurship Conference (SEEC), which was held on Feb. 27. UT alumni, Ray Ingersoll of the Ingersoll Group, gave a keynote addresses at the conference.
The event was coordinated by the UT Entrepreneurship Center, which is currently constructing a new state-of-the-art home for its center, to be completed in Fall 2015.
On Friday, April 17, a panel of four industry professionals will present the obstacles and challenges faced in today’s business environment related to whistleblowing.
The panel will be held at The University of Tampa Sykes College of Business, Room 234, from 10:30 a.m. to noon. This “Hot Seat Event” is sponsored by UT’s Center for Ethics. The public is invited, and there is no charge for the event.University of Tampa film students will screen their work at the first annual Moon Dance Film Festival at UT’s Reeves Theater on Tuesday, April 14, at 8:30 p.m.
Aaron Walker, assistant professor of communication, said the festival is an opportunity for UT students both to screen their work and to curate the best work of their peers.“It’s fully student-run, so it shows how deeply the students care about celebrating the strong work of their peers, but also shows how much desire there is for our FMA students to create venues of success for one another,” Walker said. “It’s a terrific collaboration, and will be a terrific party for film. Plus, the movies are great.”
The Sustainable Business Coalition of Tampa Bay Inc. and The University of Tampa Center for Ethics is calling for nominations for their annual Sustainable Business Awards, which will be held on Wednesday, June 10, at The University of Tampa’s Vaughn Center.
Now in its seventh year, the Sustainable Business Awards, sponsored by the Sustany Foundation, recognize and honor for-profit businesses in the Tampa Bay area that engage in practices that increase economic opportunities and improve the environment and community.