St. Mary’s University Student to Represent Canada at the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards
Six student entrepreneurs from across Canada competed in the national qualifiers
Toronto, Canada (30 January 2020) – The Toronto chapter of Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), the world’s leading peer-to-peer network of successful business leaders has announced Ross Arsenault, a student of St. Mary’s University in Halifax as the champion of the national round of the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA).
GSEA is EO’s premier awards program for students who own or operate a business while attending college or university. The national qualifier hosted by EO Toronto this year saw a record number of participants with six presenters. Student entrepreneurs competed against peers and were judged by a panel of prominent entrepreneurs from the fields of education, finance, marketing, science, technology and innovation. Ross now makes his way to the global finals taking place in Cape Town, South Africa from 26 – 28 April 2020.
Sharing his enthusiasm about the win, Ross said, “The GSEA experience with the local and national qualifiers has been amazing. Representing Canada at the global finals this year is an honour and I look forward to the next leg of the competition. It has been particularly inspiring to meet other student entrepreneurs on similar journeys and the global finals in April will expand my view of the problems student entrepreneurs are trying to address across the world.”
Ross Arsenault is the Co-Founder and COO of Ashored Innovations a company that develops sustainability-enabling technologies to address marine entanglements, ghost fishing, and gear-loss in commercial fishing.
EO member and the GSEA Canada National Chair, Faizal Javer said, “GSEA is a leading global competition for student entrepreneurs. This year's cohort continues a long tradition of representing Canada's best and brightest; we are truly humbled to support such determined and impactful entrepreneurs." Speaking about the national winner he further added, "Ross embodies EO's core values, we wish him and the Ashored team continued success as they boldly forge forward and make a mark proliferating sustainability in the fishing industry with their innovative technologies."
Ross earned CAD10,000 in prize winnings from the national competition while Buhle Mwanza, OnTheStep in second place received CAD3,000 and Anka Chan, Hempact in third received CAD2,000. Other student entrepreneurs participating in the Canada nationals this year were Ryan Doel, Paintabotics; Francois Gouelo, Enso Connect and Yamila Franco, Nyoka.
National rounds of the GSEA competition are currently underway across the world with over 1,200 student entrepreneurs competing in total. In addition to networking and mentorship, global finalists stand a chance to win US$25,000 in cash if they achieve first place, whilst 2nd and 3rd place runners up will take home US$10,000 and US$5,000 respectively. The competition also recognizes special efforts towards Social Impact, Innovation, and Lessons from the Edge. To know more about the GSEA competition and participants, please visit: http://gsea.org/
The 2020 EO Canada GSEA Champion 