World's largest student competition serves as engine of innovation for region and beyond

Dubai, 23rd February, 2015

After fielding a record 20,000 first round submissions, the Hult Prize Foundation announced its MENA finalists who will compete at a historic event hosted by Hult International Business School in Dubai next month.

More than 200 entrepreneurs from the region, making up 58 teams, will meet on March 14, where the Arab world's brightest will present their ground-breaking ideas for providing sustainable, early childhood education to the world's poorest.

The shortlisted teams of students are from colleges and universities across the Middle East, as well as some of the top business schools in the world.

The regional winner will go through to the global finals, competing for the first prize of US$1 million in start-up funding to turn their idea for a sustainable social venture into reality.

The acclaimed Hult Prize, named as one of the top five ideas changing the world by Bill Clinton and TIME Magazine, aims to identify and launch the most compelling social business ideas - start-up enterprises that tackle grave issues faced by billions of people. Run in partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), Hult Prize is the biggest student competition in the world.

Former President Bill Clinton set this year's challenge: to build start-ups to provide sustainable early education solutions for 10 million children in urban slums. About 20,000 teams of 3-5 students applied from more than 500 colleges and universities in more than 150 countries. Speaking on this year's challenge, President Clinton said: "The Hult Prize is a wonderful example of the creative cooperation needed to build a world with shared opportunity, shared responsibility, and shared prosperity, and each year I look forward to seeing the many outstanding ideas the competition produces."

Regional finals will be held in Boston, San Francisco, London, Dubai and Shanghai, with a sixth held online.

Entrepreneur Fadi Ghandour, who was on last year's judging panel, said the Hult Prize was encouraging the Arab world to "rethink how they bring value and poverty breaking solutions to those living in poverty."

He added: "It allows students to use all of their knowledge, expertise and creativity to help solve the world's ever-growing problems, while giving them great recognition and a strong step through the door to the business world."

This year's regional winner will be decided by a panel of 12 distinguished judges, all regarded as innovators and leaders in their fields. The list reads like a Who's Who of Middle East commerce and academia, and includes: Tariq Al Gurg, CEO of Dubai Cares; HE Shaima Al Zarooni, CEO of International Humanitarian City; Rahgu Malhotra, President (MENA) at Mastercard; and Mahmood Al Bastaki, CEO of Dubai Trade.

Seema Aziz, founder of CARE Pakistan, is also on the judging panel and will make the keynote speech at the regional final and award ceremony to be held at TECOM Auditorium, Knowledge Village.

The winning team, along with five other regional winners, will attend the Hult Prize Accelerator, a six-week programme of intensive entrepreneurial seminars hosted by Hult International Business School.

The six teams will then attend CGI's annual meeting in September, where Bill Clinton will host the Hult Prize Global Finals. Here, teams will pitch their ideas in front of a world-class audience, before a winner is chosen and awarded the $1 million prize.

Previous Hult Prize winners have gone on to create the world's largest distributor of solar lights and India's fastest growing loyalty and rewards program targeted at the poor.

Ahmad Ashkar, CEO and Founder of the Hult Prize Foundation, said: ""Solving our regions toughest challenges is as simple as providing Arab youth with an opportunity and a platform to have impact. Our pioneering innovation engine sparks movements by connecting bold ideas created by our future leaders with existing private, public and government stakeholders who collectively are in a position to rewrite history. We couldn't be more pleased by the support we have received from Dubai and the UAE and look forward to the many outstanding ideas the Hult Prize Dubai will produce."

For a full list of finalists, visit www.hultprize.org/en/compete/2015-prize/2015-finalists/

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About the Hult Prize Foundation
The Hult Prize Foundation is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to launching the world's next wave of social entrepreneurs. It encourages the world's brightest business minds to compete in teams to solve the planet's biggest challenges with innovative ideas for sustainable start-up enterprises. Annual Hult Prize winners can make their ideas reality with the help of USD1 million in seed funding.

About Hult International Business School
Hult is the world's largest global business school with campuses in Boston, San Francisco, London, Dubai, and Shanghai. The school offers MBA, Part-Time Executive MBA, Master's and Bachelor's degree programs. Hult's one-year MBA program is ranked #34 in the U.S. and #59 in the world by The Economist (2013).

For more information, visit www.hult.edu.

For further information please contact the Seven Media team:
Nick Cooper
+971 (0) 55 883 6715
nickcooper@sevenmedia.ae

Kathryn Cotsworth
+971 (0) 55 129 8689
Kathryncotsworth@sevenmedia.ae

© Press Release 2015