Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship Names: 2011 Champions

By Exequiel Octavio Bertaina, Staff Writer

Sourced from Sifeo Kanagan

Founded in the mid-1980s, Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship (ACE) is a national, charitable organization that helps young Canadians create a brighter future for themselves and their communities.

Through a program called Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE), which consists in implementing outreach projects and business ventures, young entrepreneurs are given the chance to not only win the coveted and prestigious regional championship titles, but to have even more influence in the business world.  During a two day gruelling competition, teams representing different universities expose projects dealing with different business scenarios to a live judging panel composed of industry professionals who, in the end, crown the regional champions.

The Western Regional competitions were held in Calgary with Mount Royal University and Okanagan College nominated as champions in the TD SIFE Entrepreneurship Challenge. In the Scotiabank & SIFE Go Green challenge, Simon Fraser from Bradon University was the winner. In the Financial Education Challenge, Okanagan College and British Columbia Institute of technology were crowned the winners. Also, the Student Entrepreneur champions were Jordan Gutierez, CEO of liberialeo.com.mx, and Jordan Siemens, Owner of Siemens Farms.

Moving to the Atlantic Regional Competitions, in Halifax, the Memorial University of Newfoundland took the belt in all of the different challenges: St. Francis Xavier University must have been happy to win the TD SIFE Entrepreneurship challenge; the Scotiabank & SIFE Go Green challenge was dominated by Acadia University; and College North Atlantic won the SIFE Financial Education Challenge.  Mike Wahl, the co-owner of Definitions Wellness Safety Services and Remi Boudreau, owner of Remi Boudreau-Magician/Illusionist were the 2011 Student Entrepreneur Competition champions.

In the Central Canadian Regional competitions held in Toronto, Ontario, the University of Toronto, Loyalist College and Ryerson University were the TD SIFE Entrepreneurship Challenge champions.  The Scotiabank and SIFE Go Green Challenge went to St. Lawrence College and University of Toronto, while Ryerson University and George Brown College took the titles for the SIFE Financial Education Challenge.  The 2011 Entrepreneur Competition champions from the region were Donny Ouyang, owner of Kikarso Tech Ltd .and, Adam Haroun, President of The XFactor Agency.

The winners of the regional titles will move to the national level of competition that will be held from May 9th to the 11th at the 2011 ACE National Exposition in Toronto.

Industry professionals such as Keith Ashfield, Canadian Minister of National Revenue, said of the competitions that, “Our government is proud to support initiatives that inspire the next generation of business leaders.”

This event means a lot to the Canadian economy, since ACE students created 540 jobs, logged 273,000 volunteer hours and directly impacted 114,000 people in the past year alone.  Also, in the past three years, students have generated over $80,000,000 in economic opportunity!

Due to their hard work, these students will help build a better Canada and ensure the future of this country is in good hands.

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