Kent Law School alumnus James Buckley-Thorp is one of 60 speakers who will be inspiring students with their business success story at a national enterprise conference to be held at Kent in February.
James, the founder of fashion brand Rupert and Buckley, will be speaking at the 10th annual NACUE (National Association of College and University Entrepreneurs) Student Enterprise Conference to be hosted by Kent Business School on Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 February.
James started his business in 2011 (the same year in which he began his Law LLB studies at Kent) after buying a sock knitting machine on Ebay to produce varsity socks for his rowing team. The socks attracted attention from other teams and the requests started coming – in one week he made around 600 pairs of socks. Today, James’ brand is a £3m business with stores in Bath and Durham. The firm has also begun expanding into the US market after signing up with a sales agency in California in July.
The conference, which will be held in the Sibson building from 10am – 5pm, has a theme of Change Makers. It will bring together students from across the UK to explore entrepreneurship through talks, practical workshops and networking opportunities.
Other speakers announced so far include Robert Forkan, co-founder of ethical fashion brand, Gandys. Robert founded the firm with his brother, Paul, after narrowly surviving the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004, which killed their parents. The brothers wanted to ‘start something with real purpose’ so saved up enough money to start Gandys. A percentage of the sales profits helps to build orphanages, through its charity the Gandys Foundation.
On the Sunday, the keynote speaker is Jonas Huckestein, co-founder of Monzo Bank, a UK start-up which has no physical banks, instead using Android smartphone apps.
NACUE is a national non-profit organisation with a thriving national network representing over 200 college and university enterprise societies.
For details of free and discounted tickets, contact Rebecca Smith via ASPIRE@kent.ac.uk
