The founding director of Flinders University’s multi-award winning New Venture Institute Matt Salier has accepted a role at RMIT and will move on from Flinders in August.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Colin Stirling says Flinders is renowned for fostering bold, entrepreneurial thinking and its leadership in the business incubator space.

“The Asia Pacific’s top university-based business incubator, our New Venture Institute has in some six years established itself as an enterprise entity to which others aspire.

“Matt has done an exceptional job – under his enthusiastic and passionate leadership NVI has created more than 350 start-ups and upskilled thousands of students through to executives in entrepreneurship and innovation.”

The New Venture Institute was founded in 2013, and was one of just three initiatives of its kind within an Australian university. Over the past six and a half years the activities of the Institute have grown to deliver accredited topics to degree programs across Flinders, now covering 70% of the University. Simultaneously, the growth of acceleration and incubation activities has seen its reach expand into the Limestone Coast, Barossa Valley and surrounds, and Northern NSW regions.

Matt Salier says his time at Flinders has been unique. “It is rare to have the opportunity to build something so visionary from the ground up and I feel fortunate to have had the support of the current Vice-Chancellor, Professor Colin Stirling, and my first ‘boss’ here previous Vice Chancellor, Professor Michael Barber.”

Professor Stirling says the University will undertake a search for NVI’s next director in due course.