The New York Angels Announce The First New York City OPEL Award Winner At The New York Tech Meetup

NEW YORK, Aug. 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The first OPEL Award is a tribute to the NYU Stern School of Business, Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation Leadership Team, a group of extraordinarily hard working administrators and faculty who have consistently given their time, talent, intellectual expertise and good warm counsel to over 8,000 aspiring NYU students, including undergraduate, graduate and alumni entrepreneurs while building an expansive NYU network of dedicated mentors.

Supporting entrepreneurs and teaching entrepreneurial skills necessary to start new businesses has been central to the Center. The competition was first started in 1983 and ran as a one-day event with five competing teams. In 1999 with the growing interest in entrepreneurship, the competition expanded to an eight month program with workshops, mentoring, networking and expert advice. Over the last 11 years, 1200 teams entered the competition with 37 winners. In total more than $1.5M has been awarded.

The first annual 2011 OPEL Award recognizes the leadership and altruistic giving of the New York startup community and will be presented by Brian S. Cohen, Vice Chairman, New York Angels, at the September 6, 2011 New York Tech Meetup, to be held at the NYU Skirball Center For The Performing Arts, 566 LaGuardia Place, NY, NY, commencing at 7:00 p.m.

"I am so honored on behalf of all my seventy-five colleagues at the New York Angels, and the rest of the wonderful NYC startup community, to be presenting this award to Dr. Jeffrey Carr and his team," said Brian Cohen. "This first OPEL Award actually glows in their presence."

"The word OPEL means 'jewel,' and according to mythology, the gemstone enhances one's innate characteristics, leading to personal creativity and true spontaneous action which best describes the talented faculty at NYU Stern Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation," Cohen continued.