Canadian Kendal Netmaker to travel to the United Arab Emirates as finalist for global entrepreneurship award
TORONTO – (March 5, 2015) – This Friday, Canadian entrepreneur Kendal Netmaker is travelling to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as one of four finalists in Youth Business International’s (YBI) Young Entrepreneur Awards. Netmaker is the founder and CEO of Neechie Gear, a lifestyle apparel brand that also empowers youth through sports.
This year, Netmaker has already been awarded the National Youth Aboriginal Entrepreneur Award from the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business and the Indspire Award in the Youth First Nation Category.
The Young Entrepreneur Awards demonstrate how entrepreneurial youth from around the world are impacting their communities, through creating jobs and encouraging innovation. Netmaker is being recognized for successfully growing his business from a university project to a national name brand that donates a portion of its profits to help fund extracurricular sports for students from low-income families.
Netmaker was one of more than 80 young people entered into the competition from around the world. He was nominated by Futurpreneur Canada, a national non-profit organization that provided him with the financing and mentoring to start Neechie Gear. He will travel to the UAE with Futurpreneur Canada CEO Julia Deans and his mentor Denis Prud’homme, President and CEO of Prudhomme International.
“I am very grateful that Futurpreneur has nominated me for this award. It is a tremendous honour and an opportunity to showcase Neechie Gear on an international stage,” said Netmaker.
“Kendal has overcome adversity, built a widely recognized and profitable clothing business and given back tremendously to his community,” said Deans. “We are so pleased to see Kendal’s success and commitment recognized globally, and I’m excited to join him at the Young Entrepreneur Awards in the UAE.”
“Kendal is an extremely brilliant and resilient entrepreneur. He challenges himself to summit new heights and has an insatiable appetite to give back to those less fortunate. I’ve been very lucky to mentor a model young entrepreneur,” said Prud’homme.
The YBI Young Entrepreneur Awards, supported by Barclays, recognize the achievements of young entrepreneurs who are running businesses of all types and sizes from across the world, from multi-national companies with a million dollar turnover, to small environmental start-ups with great ideas. YBI is a global network of independent non-profit initiatives helping young people to start and grow their own business and create employment.
Futurpreneur Canada is a national, non-profit organization that offers financing, mentoring and support tools to aspiring business owners ages 18-39, and is the Canadian member of YBI. For more information about Futurpreneur Canada, visit www.futurpreneur.ca, like Futurpreneur on Facebook and follow @Futurpreneur on Twitter.
To see the impact of Futurpreneur Canada’s programs on young entrepreneurs, read the stories of small business success at Futurpreneur.ca/getinspired
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About Futurpreneur Canada
Futurpreneur Canada (formerly the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, or CYBF) has been fueling the entrepreneurial passions of Canada’s young enterprise for nearly two decades. We are the only national, non-profit organization that provides financing, mentoring and support tools to aspiring business owners aged 18-39. Our internationally recognized mentoring program hand matches young entrepreneurs with a business expert from a network of more than 2,800 volunteer mentors. Futurpreneur Canada is a founding member of the G20 Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance, the Canadian member of The Prince’s Youth Business International, and the Canadian host of Global Entrepreneurship Week. www.futurpreneur.ca. Facebook: Futurpreneur Twitter: @Futurpreneur
About Youth Business International
Founded in 2000 by HRH The Prince of Wales, Youth Business International (YBI) is a global network of independent non-profit organizations supporting under-served young people wanting to start and grow their own businesses but without the means to do so. YBI supports these young entrepreneurs with a combination of training, access to capital, mentoring, and other business development services.
YBI members have helped over 100,000 young people to create their own businesses and generate employment. An estimated 70% of these businesses are still trading after three years, with many going on to create significant levels of employment and further benefits for their communities.
In 2013, YBI members supported more than 14,000 young people to start in business with a combination of training, access to finance and mentoring, and entrepreneurship training was delivered to nearly 200,000 young people. The YBI network is active in over 40 countries around the world. More at www.youthbusiness.org.
For more information:
Meghan Paton
Futurpreneur Canada
416-408-2923 x 2207
mpaton@futurpreneur.ca