{"id":541795,"date":"2026-04-20T22:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T22:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/541795\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T22:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T22:30:08","slug":"woodward-family-gifts-mun-half-a-million-dollars-to-foster-entrepreneurship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/541795\/","title":{"rendered":"Woodward Family Gifts MUN Half a Million Dollars to Foster Entrepreneurship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t&#13;<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/peter-woodward.jpg\" class=\"header-image\" alt=\"Woodward Family Gifts MUN Half a Million Dollars to Foster Entrepreneurship\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Peter Woodward (VOCM News)<\/p>\n<p>Memorial University is feeling the entrepreneurial spirit from the family of a man who breathed it.<\/p>\n<p>A $500,000 gift was announced Friday, compliments of the Woodward family, owners of the Woodward Group of Companies in Labrador. And it builds on the initial inception and success of the Mel Woodward Cup, named for company founder and family patriarch Mel Woodward Sr., who died in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>The Cup is a startup pitch competition among MUN business students, supported by local businesses and run through MUN\u2019s Centre for Entrepreneurship and Faculty of Business Administration.<\/p>\n<p>Woodward\u2019s son Peter, now president, CEO and owner of the company, said in the beginning The Cup seemed like a great legacy item for their father.<\/p>\n<p>But he said he never dreamed that 10 years later, it would be such a success.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo I wanted to thank Memorial so much for creating this legacy,\u201d he said. \u201cIt perpetuates the image that my dad had of, \u2018why would you want to work for somebody else, when you can work for yourself and do so much better?\u2019 And this whole thing perpetuates that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>High-profile, local success stories such as CoLab Software, BreatheSuite and PragmaClin began as student ideas grown within MUN\u2019s Centre for Entrepreneurship and business school.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis gift reinforces that Memorial is a place where students don\u2019t just learn about the world as it is, they actively shape what comes next,\u201d said MUN President Janet Morrison. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Woodward family\u2019s continued generosity demonstrates confidence in our students and in Memorial\u2019s ability to foster innovation that benefits Newfoundland and Labrador and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; Peter Woodward (VOCM News) Memorial University is feeling the entrepreneurial spirit from the family of a man&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[84,4203,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-541795","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-entrepreneurship","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}