Interview with Jerry Engel, Chairman of the HiT Barcelona Conference

Interview by Emily Goligoski

This will be the second year that Jerry Engel, professor and chairman of UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, will be judging HIT Barcelona’s global entrepreneurship competition. Engel, who heads the university’s Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, is heavily involved with new venture creation and venture capital development both at Berkeley and internationally. “Government encouragement of tech ventures has been a passion of mine for the past five years,” Engel said in a conversation about returning to Barcelona and the core of his work, networks of innovation.

Q: What are you most looking forward to seeing in Barcelona this summer?

A: Barcelona is remarkable from the perspective of creative expression and great art going back hundreds of years. The home of Gaudi is a natural place for innovation. It’s the best host city I’ve ever seen between the community interaction and idea sharing. Barcelona is a transactions marketplace, and it’s a great privilege to be part of a competition that bring out the best in people interested in building companies and seeking community support.

Q: Are there major differences you’ve noticed between European and American students as far as perceptions and approaches to innovation?

A: I’m on the faculty of a business school that the Economist ranked number one but see Barcelona as a real cluster of innovation. Areas it’s showing leadership—and where Spain is a real leader and the US is a follower—are IT, media and clean tech. Government involvement has helped drive this growth, which has seen increases from user-generated content and ad-driven subscriptions on the media front.

Q: What separates the startups you’ve seen in Spain and Silicon Valley?

A: The thing about Spain is that it’s not different. It’s part of a global context. It’s rewarding innovation and venture development. I think the Silicon Valley model is dead. And now conferences like HIT help new companies be born global and think global.