I had the opportunity to ask this student entrepreneur some questions about his winning product and company, which gives some great insights into his mindset, persistence and innovative spirit.

CR: What is DryBath and what problem does it solve?

LM: DryBath is the world’s first and only bath-substituting skin gel…you apply it to your skin, then you don’t need to bathe.

I invented it to benefit people from the poorest communities in the world, and also for people in the developed world. For people without water, DryBath provides empowerment as an affordable tool to achieve lifesaving personal hygiene without having to be dependent on stagnant community water infrastructure development. For wealthier communities, it offers a convenient way to save time and decrease their unhealthy practice of unnecessary daily bathing (which is proven to cause continuous drying of the skin), while achieving adequate personal hygiene. In both situations, precious water is saved, which can be put to better use.

CR: How did the idea for DryBath come about?

LM: The idea came to me in the 11th grade in 2007. It was a cold winter’s day; I was sunbathing with some friends of mine, when one of my best friends had to go bathe. After we nagged him to hit the shower, he eventually said, “why doesn’t someone invent something you can just put on your skin and avoid the need to bathe?”

A light bulb went on as I realized that I would be willing to pay money out of my pocket to buy such a product. Bear in mind that we were in the middle of the rural Limpopo province, with almost non-existent resources. I went home that day and used my web-enabled basic cellphone to research if such a product existed. My research showed that the product didn’t seem to exist, and there was a huge market of 2.5 billion people in the world without proper access to water who were in dire need of such a product (that number doesn’t include the billion more like my friend, who were lazy to bathe). Coming from a poor background myself, I felt compelled to create the product. It took 6 months and endless time on Google & Wikipedia to do it.

CR: Tell us a bit about your background.

LM: I am the only child of Stanford Malatji and the eldest of 2 sons to Lovemore Marishane. My dad achieved financial freedom and has been able to provide me with great schooling and the ethic of always pushing myself to do more; while my mom is lives on the economic margin of society and has provided me with the emotional development necessary to seek improvement for the poor community I spent half my life growing up in.

My dad ignited my entrepreneurial passion in my first year of high school, and my love of science allowed me to indulge my curiosities of coming up with inventions for different opportunities I saw. In 9th grade, I formulated my own biodiesel fuel, invented a healthy cigarette; and in 10th grade I authored a mobile dictionary and attempted to publish a nationwide security magazine.

CR: What is the pricing of the product and how many units have you sold to date?

LM: We’re selling DryBath sachets to corporates at around USD1.5 per sachet (1 sachet contains 25ml and replaces one bathe). For each sachet that corporates purchase, we provide a free sachet to our charity partners for distribution through their humanitarian work. We sell DryBath sachets on the retail market in poor communities for USD 0.50 each, with an aim of lowering this price in half when we reach economies of scale. We have sold 162,000 sachets to date.

CR: How did you decide to participate in the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards?

LM: I heard about the competition in 2009 during my first year of university, I entered and lost the South African regional. In 2010, I entered again and made it to the global finals; and in 2011 I gave it one last shot, and I’m glad to have brought it to African soil.

Read entire interview at [HuffingtonPost.com].

The 21-year-old “opportunity obsessed” Ludwick Marishane founded Headboy Industries in 2007 to create products that solve the world’s most difficult problems and make them available to everyone. Its flagship product, DryBath, is the world’s only bath substitute lotion for the whole body. First designed for sleepy college students too lazy to shower, its greatest application is for the millions people worldwide who have no daily access to clean water. This year, Marishane was also named one of 12 “Brightest Young Minds in the World” at the annual Google Zeitgeist event and was the youngest person ever to speak at the event. Currently in his last year at the University of Cape Town, Marishane is majoring in accounting and finance and plans to continue to develop and commercialize products that are profitable and have a global impact.

“Participating in the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards was a game-changing experience for my personal and professional growth, and winning is proof that crazy high school dreams can go on to bring about real change in the world,” said Ludwick Marishane, founder of Headboy Industries and student at the University of Cape Town. “All of the finalists in this competition work incredibly hard every day, balancing student life and their businesses. Meeting them and the distinguished entrepreneurs that made up the judges’ panel was a humbling and re-invigorating experience. I went for the competition but came back with a global board of peer advisors and lifelong mentors through the Entrepreneurs’ Organization.”

“This year’s GSEA competition coincides with the 25th anniversary of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization and really symbolizes how young entrepreneurs are making their mark: creating employment, changing the world and in Ludwick’s case, saving lives,” said Kevin Langley, Global Chairman of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization. “Like Steve Jobs and Michael Dell in their day, EO continues to be the place where young entrepreneurs on every continent come to learn and grow their business and themselves.”

Runners Up and Honorable Mentions

Runner Up: Garrett Gee, sophomore at Brigham Young University and founder of Scan.me, providers of custom QR codes and other cutting edge software solutions that help drive online traffic. In 1999, Garrett became the youngest inductee into the Utah Top 100 Entrepreneurs and was the Guinness Book of World Records holder for Tetris, until he was dethroned 2007.

Lessons from the Edge Award: Jake Jorgovan was also named second runner up, is a Belmont University recent graduate and founder of Rabbit Hole Creative, a provider of custom-design video and production services for tours and events. Pushing the limits of video and sound technology, Rabbit Hole Creative offers all-inclusive, turnkey solutions to take events to the next level. Jorgovan majored in audio engineering and entrepreneurism.

Innovation Award: Dinesh Wadhwani, Babson senior and founder of ThinkLite LLC, provides customized, energy efficient green lighting solutions provider. Wadhwani, who is a second-time global finalist, founded ThinkLite in 2009 after learning of the lack of choice available in the green lighting industry. Dinesh is also the co-founder of three other companies including Slick Stick, Wadhsoft Inc. and Turn the Campus.

Social Impact Award: Matias Daniel Doublier is the founder of Electryalg and student at Colegio Marianista in Argentina. Electryalg creates custom, algae-based green energy solutions, turning algae into energy to provide low cost, environmentally sustainable electricity to homes, farms and other areas of Argentina that do not have or cannot afford traditional electricity solutions.

GSEA Graduate and High School Award Winners

This year’s GSEA high school winner is Dino Zaharakis, founder of zlabs and creator of the DZDock, a one-size-fits-all dock for electronic devices. Dino designed the product when he was just 11 years old in his home in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, after his father challenged him to create an iPod stand and an e-commerce Web site to sell it, to get his own cell phone. Mike Wahl, the GSEA graduate winner, is a Ph.D. candidate at Memorial University of Newfoundland in the Faculty of Medicine and the founder of Definitions Wellness Safety Services and Definitions Fitness and Lifestyle Studio. Definitions provides science-based, fitness training for individuals, as well as major industrial and corporate clients in Canada and the United States at worksites – whether an offshore oil drilling site or an office settings – to improve the wellness and safety culture of the organization.

As a featured event of Global Entrepreneurship Week, the GSEA Global Finals had 30 finalists competing more than eight hours of presentations and judges’ questions at the New York Stock Exchange – the first time the Global Finals has been held in New York City. For more information on the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards, visit www.GSEA.org

About The Global Student Entrepreneur Awards

As the premier global competition for undergraduate student business owners, the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) inspire students to adopt entrepreneurial endeavors by bringing global visibility to student business owners who are innovative, profitable and socially responsible. Since 1998, the GSEA, a program founded at the John Cook School of Business at Saint Louis University, has honored outstanding students who juggle a full course load while running their own businesses. The Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) took on leadership of the GSEA in 2006 to offer student entrepreneurs access to a global network of mentors, resources and connections from the most influential community of entrepreneurs in the world. The GSEA is generously supported by major foundations, including the NYSE Euronext Foundation the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Ernst & Young and the Be Great Organization. To nominate a student entrepreneur or to get involved, go to http://www.gsea.org.

About the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO)

The Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) is a dynamic global network of more than 8,000 business owners in 40 countries. Founded in 1987 by a group of young entrepreneurs, the year 2012 marks EO’s 25th anniversary. With its transformative experiences and unparalleled peer network, EO transforms the lives of the entrepreneurs who transform the world. EO is the catalyst that enables entrepreneurs to learn and grow from each other, leading to greater business success and an enriched personal life. Membership in one of EO’s 120 chapters is by invitation only; the average member is 41 years old with annual revenues of US $17.3 million. For more information on EO, visit www.eonetwork.org or call +1.703.519.6700.

Contact

Julie Kaviar

Emerging Media

212-922-5885/917-849-9436 (mobile)

Julie@emergingmediapr.com

From 20-22 June 2010, the EO delegates joined the international delegations in Toronto, Canada, to identify and examine the issues challenging young and emerging entrepreneurs around the world. In the discussion on how best to ensure future prosperity, it is evident that the world has evolved into a knowledge-based economy, in which entrepreneurial education and innovation will be the drivers of growth and success.

“We were thrilled to collaborate with other entrepreneurial leaders at the G20 Young Entrepreneur Summit,” said Matt Stewart, Global Chairman of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization. “To meet the challenges of the 21st century economy, meaningful partnerships between leaders in the entrepreneurial community must be cultivated. The world’s leaders, both private and public, must follow through with substantial actions to foster and support the next generation of entrepreneurs.”

To that end, the representatives from all of the G20 countries worked together to draft a communiqué that will be officially submitted to the G20 Business Summit (B20) for deliberation. The delegation’s recommendations are planned to be the focus for a discussion of entrepreneurship at the B20 Summit on 25-26 June 2010.

EO is recognized globally for its thought leadership in the entrepreneurial community, as well as its experience in fostering young and emerging entrepreneurs through its Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) and Accelerator programs.

The GSEA is the premier global competition for undergraduate and graduate students who own and operate businesses while attending college or university. Nominees compete against their peers from around the world. EO also operates the Accelerator program, which is aimed at empowering first-stage entrepreneurs with the tools they need to grow their business and to provide them with the skills to make them better entrepreneurs and leaders.

Attending the G20 Young Entrepreneur Summit on behalf of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization were members of EO’s global leadership as well as leading members of the Accelerator program and current GSEA finalists.

“If education and innovation are to be the currencies of this century, it is imperative that the leaders in the entrepreneurial community work together to foster the next generation of business leaders and innovators,” said Kevin Langley, President, U.S. Delegation. “Bringing the world’s entrepreneurial leaders together for this conversation is a great and necessary first step toward the promise of our future.”

About the Entrepreneurs’ Organization
The Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) – for entrepreneurs only – is a dynamic global network of more than 7,300 business owners in 42 countries. Founded in 1987 by a group of young entrepreneurs, EO is the catalyst that enables entrepreneurs to learn and grow from each other, leading to greater business success and an enriched personal life. Membership in one of EO’s 116 chapters is by invitation only; the average member is 40 years old with annual revenues of US$17.3 million. For more information on EO, visit www.eonetwork.org or call +1.703.519.6700.

About the CYBF G20 Young Entrepreneur Summit
The Canadian Youth Business Foundation will host the G20 Young Entrepreneur Summit in Toronto, Canada, from June 20 to 22. The Summit will bring together more than 200 young entrepreneurs (aged 18 to 40) and leaders of entrepreneurial organizations from G20 countries to exchange ideas and establish international networks and partnerships that will help drive sustainable global economic growth. For more information, visit www.cybf-g20.com.

Keeley and eight other leading entrepreneurs were named winners of selected categories by an independent judging panel made up of regional business, academic and community leaders. Keeley was name the winner of the “emerging” category at a gala event on Thursday, June 10th in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

About College Nannies & Tutors
College Nannies & Tutors is the nation’s largest resource for customized nanny and tutoring services and was founded by Keeley in 2001 while earning a degree in Entrepreneurship from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN while being a nanny himself for two boys and a little girl during school. College Nannies & Tutors is now operating over 65 locations on both coasts and in the Midwest and has been featured in such media outlets as Newsweek, USA Today, CNN, NPR and others. In addition to being named the “Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year” in 2010, Keeley was named the “Global Student Entrepreneur of the Year” in 2003, one of the “Top 25 under 25 to Watch” by Business Week Magazine, one of the “20 under 30 Who Will Change the World” by Citizen Culture Magazine, and one of theMinneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal’s “Young Entrepreneurs” and “40 under 40” all by age 29.

About Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur Of The Year® Awards Program
Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur Of The Year® is the world’s most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs. The award makes a difference through the unique way it encourages entrepreneurial activity among those with potential and recognizes the contribution of people who inspire others with their vision, leadership and achievement. As the first and only truly global award of its kind, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® celebrates those who are building and leading successful, growing and dynamic businesses, recognizing them through regional, national and global awards programs in more than 135 cities in 50 countries.

Ernst & Young refers to the global organization of member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young LLP is a client-serving member firm of Ernst & Young Global Limited located in the U.S.

After about nine months in business, a New Haven start-up firm that pays consumers to recycle unwanted electronics is expanding the concept to companies, aiming to help the area business community while at the same time growing its own reach and work force.

YouRenew.com, launched in March, is a Web site that promotes recycling old or unwanted electronics. With a staff of about 15 workers, the company is preparing to move from its Yale Entrepreneurial Institute incubator space, at 282 York St. in New Haven, into about 4,000 square feet of space at 25 Science Park in January.

As the company grows physically, into bigger space and a larger staff, it also is expanding its offerings, according to co-founder Rich Littlehale.

The company recently was touted on a worldwide scale when Littlehale, 23, was honored at the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards. Last month he was chosen from an original pool of 1,500 applicants worldwide as the second-place student entrepreneur in the word — the top finisher among applicants from the United States.

“That was a cool experience,” he said of the competition, in which he told the story and business approach of YouRenew to judges on first a regional level, at a competition in New York City, and then on a global scale at the worldwide competition in Kansas City, Mo.

Here’s how YouRenew works: visitors to the site are asked to identify the type of device they want to sell — an iPod, BlackBerry, cell phone or laptop, for example — and answer several questions about it, such as whether it has been damaged.

YouRenew.com then generates a price offer to buy the item, which the user may accept or reject. Users who accept the price offered by the site can print a prepaid shipping label and send the item to the company. In return, the company will pay the user by either check or through an online PayPal account, depending on the user’s preference.

That concept is now being broadened to reach a business customer base with the new site CorporateRenew.com. The site, which functions similarly to YouRenew, aims to make it easier for companies to unload and recycle unwanted devices.

“We’re really trying to make this happen in Connecticut and Greater New Haven,” said Littlehale, a senior at Yale University who founded the company with friend and fellow Yale student Bob Casey. The effort will focus on this region initially before potentially spreading to other areas.

“We really do think this is a service that helps companies,” Littlehale said.

At this point, CorporateRenew — which like YouRenew is part of a broader company called TwigTek LLC — can recycle companies’ cell phones and certain laptops. However, the company works with another firm called We Recycle that can handle all other types of business’ electronics.

Littlehale and Casey derived the concept for the Web sites from their own daily lives.

“We had a bunch of old stuff and didn’t know what to do with it,” said Littlehale, adding there are few cost-effective options for people looking to recycle devices. “It was a highly inefficient market and it wasn’t convenient for people.”

At the same time, Littlehale knew he wanted to start a “green” business, one with an environmental focus.

“Rich has a sense of optimism and a vision for the scale and scope of YouRenew that is contagious,” said Jim Boyle director of the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute. “Rich’s entrepreneurial accomplishments and the growing success of YouRenew has been a tangible example to students of what can come from just a simple idea.”

The upcoming move to Science Park will allow YouRenew and CorporateRenew to grow further. Littlehale said the company is seeking to hire additional business development specialists as well as workers with technological knowledge.

The Science Park community has a heavy presence of newer companies and Yale affiliations.

“There are other companies like us, who are either start-ups or in their growth phase,” Littlehale said, adding YouRenew hopes to learn and gain insight from fellow tenants in the building. “(The move) will allow us to grow quicker and provide a better process to take on more devices.”

Littlehale said he has long been interested in entrepreneurial endeavors. He previously founded Party for a Cause, a nonprofit — which he no longer runs — that encouraged college students at Yale and other schools to throw parties to benefit charitable causes.

Recently, with both Littlehale and Casey focusing some of their effort on finishing their education, the company hired a chief executive officer to help manage the business.

“We’re youthful and energetic, but experience and wisdom is always very helpful,” Littlehale said.

Guy Minetti first got involved with YouRenew as an advisor to one of the company’s investors. Upon learning more about the business, he became a part-time consultant for it before more recently becoming CEO.

“I’m impressed by the social conscience of the effort,” Minetti said, adding the company has considerable growth potential. “There will be a growing need for businesses, consumers and manufacturers to be more in touch with the life cycle of electronic devices.”

Before coming to YouRenew, Minetti ran a consulting company that advised businesses on corporate finance and strategic planning issues.

He was drawn to YouRenew, he said, by “the vision, the passion and the energy of the founders and the employees here.”

Cara Baruzzi can be reached at cbaruzzi@nhregister.com or 203-789-5748.

The GSEA Finals brings together aspiring and inspiring high school, university and graduate student entrepreneurs from around the world to compete for the title of “Student Entrepreneur of the Year,” $150,000 in cash and in-kind business services, and access to the Global Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) Network to grow their businesses and skills as business owners.

“We are honored to once again host the world’s next generation of aspiring entrepreneurs who represent the economic drivers of the future. They are the quintessential GEW role models,” said Carl Schramm, president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation. “The student finalists are some of the most creative young people on the planet and inspire us all.”

The Global Finals will unite 30 “dorm room entrepreneurs” from across the globe for a head-to-head competition judged by panels of some of the world’s top business luminaries, national media and EO member CEOs.

“We could not be more excited for GSEA to be part of Global Entrepreneurship Week for the second year, and to have the support of the Kauffman Foundation, a globally recognized leader that is as dedicated to entrepreneurship as EO,” said Kevin Langley, EO global chairman elect. “EO’s 10-year partnership with the Kauffman Foundation inspires our student business owners when they realize that there are people, well beyond their dorm rooms, who want nothing more than their success, and who have the resources and networks to support them. We’re honored to feature these outstanding young business owners during GEW.”

GSEA finalists hail from as far away as Zimbabwe, Singapore, Australia, Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka, with businesses generating revenues in some cases upwards of $3 million annually. These business owners, who remarkably manage their competitive careers while being full-time university students, already have competed to win local, regional and virtual competitions. The Global Finals also provide an opportunity for students to attend critical workshops on presentation training, public relations and marketing while networking with their peers from around the world, established business leaders from EO and Kauffman Foundation leaders.

For more information about the GSEA, visit http://www.gsea.org/. To learn more about Global Entrepreneurship Week, visit www.unleashingideas.org.

About The Global Student Entrepreneur Awards
As the premier global competition for undergraduate students, the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) inspire students to adopt entrepreneurial endeavors by bringing global visibility to student business owners who are innovative, profitable and socially responsible. Since 1998, the GSEA, a program founded at the John Cook School of Business at Saint Louis University, has honored outstanding students who juggle a full course load while running their own businesses. The Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) took on leadership of the GSEA in 2006 to offer student entrepreneurs access to a global network of mentors, resources and connections from the most influential community of entrepreneurs in the world. The GSEA is generously supported by major foundations, including the NYSE Foundation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Ernst & Young and the Todd Thomas Foundation. To nominate a student entrepreneur or to get involved, go to www.gsea.org.

About EO
The Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) – for entrepreneurs only – is a global community that enriches members’ lives through direct peer-to-peer learning, connections to experts and once-in-a-lifetime experiences. EO is the catalyst that enables entrepreneurs to learn from each other, leading to greater business success and an enriched personal life. EO is comprised of more than 7,000 members in 38 countries, with an average member age of 39 and average annual revenue of US$14.4 million. The organization is committed to building the world’s most influential community of entrepreneurs. For more information, go to www.eonetowork.org.

About Global Entrepreneurship Week
With the goal to inspire young people to embrace innovation, imagination and creativity, Global Entrepreneurship Week will encourage youth to think big and turn their ideas into reality. From November 15-21, 2010, millions of young people around the world will join a growing movement to generate new ideas and seek better ways of doing things. Tens of thousands of activities are being planned in dozens of countries. Global Entrepreneurship Week is founded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and Enterprise UK. For more information, visit www.unleashingideas.org, and follow @unleashingideas on Twitter.

About the Kauffman Foundation
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a private nonpartisan foundation that works to harness the power of entrepreneurship and innovation to grow economies and improve human welfare. Through its research and other initiatives, the Kauffman Foundation aims to open young people’s eyes to the possibility of entrepreneurship, promote entrepreneurship education, raise awareness of entrepreneurship-friendly policies, and find alternative pathways for the commercialization of new knowledge and technologies. In addition, the Foundation focuses on initiatives in the Kansas City region to advance students’ math and science skills, and improve the educational achievement of urban students, including the Ewing Marion Kauffman School, a college preparatory charter school for middle and high school students set to open in 2011. Founded by late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman, the Foundation is based in Kansas City, Mo. and has approximately $2 billion in assets. For more information, visit www.kauffman.org, and follow the Foundation on Twitter at @kauffmanfdn and Facebook.

GSEA Media Contact:
Susan Lindner
Lotus Public Relations for GSEA
(212) 922-5885
Susan.Lindner@lotus-pr.com

Kauffman Media Contacts:
Barbara Pruitt
Kauffman Foundation
(816) 932-1288
bpruitt@kauffman.org

Matthew Hantz
M Booth & Associates
(212) 481-7000
matthewh@mbooth.com

CollegeFitness.com is the fourth venture for the Cleveland, Ohio native. His inspiration for the company came after he stopped playing baseball and left the rigorous training regimen behind. Skoda saw there was a deep need among college students for greater access to health, nutrition and fitness information and was determined to create a company that could do just that, while studying at TCU. He launched his business in his sophomore year and in 2009, Skoda was selected as a finalist at the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards. This year his increased focus, renewed vision and plan for the future convinced the more than 40 CEOs and executives judges that he was worthy of the title.

Skoda’s company, CollegeFitness.com is now a $2.4 million internationally acclaimed resource for nutritional data and online video workout training programs. The company has cemented partnerships with Google and the University of Oklahoma, and has successfully utilized state tax credits to raise $3.5 million from investors. The 22 year old senior is now serving thousands of students in the US and abroad.

“I am unbelievably honored to have won, but even more humbled to be included in a group with such incredible fellow student entrepreneurs,” said Brent Skoda, CEO and founder of CollegeFitness.com. “I know that every business owner going through this competition faces immense challenges in balancing student life and business life. I now feel that there is a community of other student entrepreneurs and EO member mentors that I can reach out to, rely on to share my successes and failures, and they will understand.”

Runners Up and Specialty Award Winners
Daniel Gomez Iñiguez: Chemical engineering student Daniel Gomez Iñiguez, is this year’s runner up and is the co-founder of Solben, a biodiesel fuel company in Monterrey, Mexico and co-founder of the first Mexican renewable energy cluster. Gomez also won the Social Impact Award for his work with his Youth Society Foundation. The 20-year old came to the competition through his university, the Tecnológico de Monterrey, which this year nominated over 50 students to the competition—more than any other university in the world. Mexico’s regional competition, held at the Mexican Stock Exchange, raised national attention to the issues of entrepreneurship and economic development.

Hassan Hamdan: This year’s second runner up and winner of the Lessons from the Edge Award, Palestine native Hassan Hamdan, an engineering student at Modern Science and Art University in Saudi Arabia, is the owner of Optimal Technology Solutions, a mobile messaging, e-marketing and business solutions provider. From his dorm room, Hamdan runs operations in five Middle Eastern countries, and continues to grow his presence in the region.

Matti Niebelschütz Winner of the Innovation Award, is a law student at Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin in Germany whose company MyParfeum makes it possible for customers to design and order their own custom perfumes online.

“The Global Student Entrepreneur Awards represent our greatest hopes for our youth, our economy and our communities,” said EO Chairman Elect Kevin Langley. “These students are leveraging their own creativity and innovation to bring new ideas into the marketplace and create new jobs.”

This year Canadians took top honors at both the high school and graduate level. High School Student Entrepreneur of the Year was awarded to Donny Ouyang, a Toronto native and founder of Kinkarso Tech Ltd, a web consulting company that offers Internet consulting services through its developers in five different countries. The 2010 Graduate Student Entrepreneur of the Year honor went to Vincent Chueng, a Ph.D. student in Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto.  Chueng is the CEO of Shape Collage Inc., a software company that enables user to assemble online photo collages in seconds.  More than 2.5 million people from over 200 countries have downloaded the patent pending software. Cheung has won over 35 scholarships, two Governor General Academic Medals and eight business plan competitions. He is also the reigning Canadian 2010 Student Entrepreneur National Champion a program operated by Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship (ACE) and proudly presented by CIBC.

In 2010, nearly 2000 students from 44 countries were nominated to the GSEA. Over the course of 5 months, the students participated in rigorous regional competitions that brought the field down to the top 30 “dorm room entrepreneurs.” These students converged at the GSEA Global Finals at the Kauffman Foundation during Global Entrepreneurship Week in Kansas City, MO last week. Spanning all industry sectors, these student-run companies earned annual revenues ranging from $20,000 to $3 million.

To enter the 2010 Global Student Entrepreneur Awards Competition, visit www.gsea.org

About The Global Student Entrepreneur Awards
As the premier global competition for undergraduate students, the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) inspire students to adopt entrepreneurial endeavors by bringing global visibility to student business owners who are innovative, profitable and socially responsible. Since 1998, the GSEA, a program founded at the John Cook School of Business at Saint Louis University, has honored outstanding students who juggle a full course load while running their own businesses. TheEntrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) took on leadership of the GSEA in 2006 to offer student entrepreneurs access to a global network of mentors, resources and connections from the most influential community of entrepreneurs in the world. The GSEA is generously supported by major foundations, including the NYSE Euronext Foundation the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Ernst & Young and the Todd Thomas Foundation. To nominate a student entrepreneur or to get involved, go to www.gsea.org.

About EO
The Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) – for entrepreneurs only – is a global community that enriches members’ lives through direct peer-to-peer learning, connections to experts and once-in-a-lifetime experiences. EO is the catalyst that enables entrepreneurs to learn from each other, leading to greater business success and an enriched personal life. EO is comprised of more than 7,000 members in 38 countries, with an average member age of 39 and average annual revenue of US$14.4 million. The organization is committed to building the world’s most influential community of entrepreneurs. For more information, go to: www.eonetowork.org.

Related Links:

• GSEA: http://www.gsea.org
• Twitter: twitter.com/gseacompetition
• Facebook: http://tiny.cc/Nb3al
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f53_SLkSPn0