HEBRON – Bob Harkins of Maine Distilleries and Cold River Vodka will speak to Hebron Academy students and faculty on Tuesday, March 4, as part of the school’s entrepreneurship program.

Harkins’ presentation will explore his entrepreneurial adventures during the school’s community meeting from 10 to 10:45 a.m. in the Hebron Chapel. The public is welcome.

Harkins is a native Mainer and attended the University of Maine at Orono. After college, Harkins pursued skiing as a career and eventually became a coach for the U.S. Ski Team.

After living and training for several years in Park City, Utah, he returned to Maine in the late 1980s to take a senior management position at Sunday River Resort and the American Skiing Co. He remained there for 15 years until partnering with Donnie and Lee Thibodeau to launch Cold River Vodka.

“I look forward to sharing some of the realities – both highs and lows – of a start-up business with the students of Hebron Academy,” said Harkins.

The school’s entrepreneurship program focuses on entrepreneurial learning, teaching and practice. Students learn entrepreneurial skills while interacting with successful entrepreneurs, launching for-profit and not-profit ventures, and participating in business competitions.

The entrepreneurship program was created in 2005 through a gift from R. Eugene Whitman, a Wellesley, Mass., businessman and member of the Hebron Academy class of 1954. For more information about the program and future speakers, contact Susan Stephenson at [email protected] or call 966-5251.