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Vance Brown Receives Entrepreneurship Award
Vance Brown, 1985 Wake Forest Graduate, has been successful leading companies from startup to maturity – including both for-profit software ventures and various social enterprises. On April 16, 2009, Vance Brown received the 2008-2009 Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award. He also shared a bit of his entrepreneurial story and delivered an inspirational address to the audience.

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Vance is founder, Chairman and CEO of Cherwell Software, a fully-integrated service management software solution for service desks, help desks and customer call centers. He graduated summa cum laude from Wake Forest University in 1985 with a concentration in Economics and Computer Science before graduating from law school, with honors, from the University of North Carolina.

Vance began his career as a lawyer at one of the largest firms in North Carolina, and he is still licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia. However, Vance quickly realized that practicing law was not and would not become his life’s passion, a point he addressed in speaking to the banquet audience. He recalled his early days as a lawyer, and remembered working on a brief thinking that he was not living, as he puts it, “the life he was created for.” He realized that he what he felt compelled to do was to become an entrepreneur.

In the early 90’s, Vance served for 5 years as President and CEO of UFAB, Inc. of Research Triangle Park, N.C. He lead this company, with its “BuildSoft” product line, from two employees and an unknown product into a multi-million dollar company rated in a national survey at the time as having the leading integrated software system for the building industry.

From 1996 to 2000, he was President and CEO of GoldMine® Software Corporation. The company was a leading, worldwide developer of software solutions for customer relationship management and support management solutions. During Vance’s tenure, the company grew from $12 million in annual revenue to approximately $65 million with consistent profitability, and the company was recognized as one of the top 100 software companies in the United States.

Vance’s current company, Cherwell Software, is named for the River Cherwell, a river which flows through the Midlands of England and is a major tributary of the River Thames. During his address, Vance explained that authors C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien often walked along the River Cherwell, discussing the imaginative worlds they were building in their fiction. Vance was inspired to make this his company’s moniker as a tribute to the authors’ creative dialogues, recognizing that the same creativity and imagination fuel the aspiring entrepreneur. Vance is also committed to social enterprises as a founder of both the Band of Brothers’ Ministry and The Classical Academy, the largest charter school in Colorado.

During his address, Vance paid tribute to Dr. John Moorehouse, who was in attendance, one of his professors while he was a student at Wake Forest, and a continuing inspirational force in Vance’s life. “Dr. John Moorehouse introduced me to the ‘fabric of American society called entrepreneurship,’” Vance said. Vance never forgot the support he was given from Dr. Moorehouse, and movingly described the fulfillment he felt from “being mentored” and “knowing the power of being believed in.”

Citing the many struggles facing the aspiring entrepreneur, Vance said, “Don’t do it if you’re not compelled.” However, while Vance talked about the “costs” of being an entrepreneur, he also stressed what the failures in life can teach and give a person. “There are times when the scars are not in vain.”

Entrepreneurial skills also involve seeing the gifts in others and recruiting people who are essential to the cause. To emphasize this point, Vance delivered the soliloquy given by King Henry of England in Shakespeare’s Henry V to motivate and rally his tired army, which was being called upon to enter a relentless battle. Vance’s adoption of Shakespeare’s words, “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers,” reminded members of the audience of the reward of committing and sometimes sacrificing together with others for noble causes.
 

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