2015 Grand Prize Winner

Galen Welsch (Jibu co-founder, CEO Africa) lives in Kampala, Uganda and leads all of Jibu’s activities in Africa. He received his B.A. in International Relations from Wheaton College and is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) who served as Health Educator in Morocco ’10 – ’12 where he was awarded multiple project grants (including USAID and World Connect). Further experience in development includes working with HEAL Africa in Goma, DR Congo ’07. Business experience includes being a lead fundraiser for Colorado’s Fund for the Public Interest as well as launching a successful landscaping and lawncare LLC. Galen has been awarded social entrepreneurship fellowships / recognition from the Unreasonable Institute, GSBI, Sankalp, and SOCAP.

2015 Grand Prize Winner

Jennifer Beall Saxton is the Founder & CEO of Tot Squad, an eco-friendly cleaning service for strollers and car seats. Professional safety technicians reinstall car seats after they are cleaned. Tot Squad currently operates in Southern California and New York City, and the first franchise opened in Washington, DC in June 2016.

Jen received her MBA in 2010 from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University where she focused on Marketing and Entrepreneurship. Tot Squad was created through her MBA coursework. Prior to business school, Jen worked in Management Consulting, as well as strategy for a food & beverage company. Jen now lives in Los Angeles. Her work with Tot Squad has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine, Fast Company, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and Forbes, among others. Read more about Jennifer and Tot Squad on our blog.

2015 Grand Prize Winner

A multitude of factors have seasoned John Evans into a formidable entrepreneurial force. His mother had a knack for sales and marketing, and his father taught him that passion, honesty and sacrifice are the keys to success in building your own business. John grew up in Brockville, ON on the St. Lawrence River, which is located between Ottawa, ON and Toronto, ON, so it was like having a small town life with the perks of being close to the big city. He was always the one among his peers to come up with new ways for looking at obstacles, and he often challenged the norm in how solutions could be implemented.

His first few years of being in business for himself was as a franchisee with College Pro Painters. It was there that he sharpened his skills as an entrepreneur and lead to the development and successful growth of EverLine Coatings and Services – a parking lot line maintenance business based in Calgary, AB. The unrelenting drive for success is what keeps John growing and he is finding new ways to expand his business and himself through personal development. Read more about John and EverLine on our blog.

2015 Grand Prize Winner

Eduardo Navarro is from Guadalajara, Mexico. Before university, he spent a year in Ireland learning English. Then for college, he studied International Business, even participating in an exchange program in Thailand.

He loves traveling and has been to 25 countries. He has always dreamed of owning a successful franchise. But before he would start to franchise, he wanted to know the world. He believes everybody feels very proud when you are aboard and you see a brand from your country.

He started Le Mime Ice Cream Rolls 2 years ago. Wanting to do something very different in the market, he combined his passions for Volkswagen and mimes (Charles Chaplin) to build the branding and spirit for his company. Luckily, people have liked his concept and they are becoming very famous.

2015 Grand Prize Winner

Alexander Walzl is a final year law student (LLB) at the University of Warwick (UK) and was raised in Tretino – Alto Adige, an autonomous and bilingual region in norther Italy. He is fluent in German, Italian and English, and speaks Fresh, Dutch and Spanish. Alex spent a year in Utrecht (NL) as part of his degree and undertook two summer internships in India. In his free time he enjoys long-distance running, cooking and playing the piano.