Hampden-Sydney announces center for entrepreneurship and innovation

Hampden-Sydney College has established the Flemming Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

The center is the result of a $1 million gift from the Flemming Foundation and 1985 alumnus Todd Flemming of Orlando, Fla., a college trustee and chairman of Infrasafe.

The center, which is named in memory of Mr. Flemming’s father, Harry S. Flemming, will incorporate the programming of the college’s former Center for Entrepreneurship and Political Economy.

The college said the new center will encourage student and faculty creativity and strive to equip students with the skills and knowledge necessary to pursue entrepreneurial ideas.

Plans for the center includes a full-time director, an endowed “entrepreneur-in-residence,” and the establishment of a Tiger Venture Fund. The fund would support student entrepreneurs, enabling them to develop prototypes and explore the commercial viability of their ideas.

The center’s plans also includes the creation of a “flex office” that will provide a professional base for visiting entrepreneurs who accessible to students and faculty.

The center will be housed in the new Brown Student Center at Hampden-Sydney, $11 million project made possible by seven individual gifts of $1 million or more.

In addition to the Flemming Center, the Brown Student Center will house the college post office, the Tiger Inn café, lounge and activity areas, student affairs and student government offices, and the Ferguson Career Education Center.