Twenty Global Entrepreneurs Chosen for an Intensive Summer "Incubator" Program at Santa Clara University

The Seventh Annual Program Imparts Silicon Valley Management Skills to Social
Entrepreneurs from South and Central America, Africa, India, and Asia
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(Business Wire)--
Teaching slum dwellers in Guatemala to sell worm byproducts as fertilizer.
Helping disabled Nigerians become business owners rather than beggars. Turning
weeds in India into fuel.

These are some of the noble ventures being undertaken by the 20 "social
entrepreneurs" who have been selected to join the seventh annual Global Social
Benefit Incubator (GSBI) at Santa Clara University.

The program, which received over 350 applications - triple last year`s total -
taps Silicon Valley veteran financiers, marketers, and executives as well as
Santa Clara University faculty to help promising but resource-starved
entrepreneurs with key business concepts: completing a cohesive business plan,
generating ideas for funding sources and investors, and finding ways to increase
their impact while maintaining positive cash flow.

The entrepreneurs get months of coaching from afar from Silicon Valley executive
mentors like Tim Haley and Jeff Miller. Then, in mid-August, they come to SCU`s
campus for a two-week "boot camp" of back-to-back classes, lectures,
business-plan honing, and cross-pollination with other entrepreneurs.

Members of this year`s class are working on businesses that improve the lives
and increase the economic self-reliance of their countries` poorest residents.
They are focused in four general areas: information and communication
technology; economic development; environmental or alternative energy; and
health and education. Among the businesses:

* Cosmos Okoli`s Mobility Aid and Appliances Research and Development Centre
helps otherwise-shunned, disabled Nigerians create a community and a livelihood
making and repairing wheelchairs and other mobility aids.
* Maria Rodriguez`s Byoearth helps the poor in Guatemala earn money by raising
worms that produce an organic fertilizer for sale to small-scale farmers.
* Yugandhar Mandavkar`s Grass Roots Action for Social Participation utilizes
"carbon credits" (fees from "polluting" companies in developed countries) to
manufacture affordable, ecologically friendly wood stoves for India`s rural
poor.

Businesses that have graduated from the GSBI program have gone on to
collectively serve or benefit millions of people. Alumni include the
micro-lending website Kiva.org, African solar-radio maker Freeplay Foundation,
and reading-glasses provider Vision Spring.

GSBI is funded in-part by grants from the Skoll Foundation, the Palo Alto-based
supporter of global social entrepreneurs created by eBay`s founding president
Jeff Skoll; the education-focused Robert N. Noyce Foundation, created in honor
of the cofounder of Intel; and Palo Alto-based Peery Foundation, a family
foundation established to empower youth, reduce poverty, and encourage social
entrepreneurship in the Bay Area and around the world.

"The online application process for the Global Social Benefit Incubator, taking
place every year on Social Edge, has become a unique learning experience for
social entrepreneurs who have a chance to refine their business model with the
help of Santa Clara University`s talented community," said Victor d`Allant,
executive director of Social Edge, the Skoll Foundation`s online community for
social entrepreneurs.

"We are gratified that each year the GSBI attracts interest from some of the
most gifted and promising social entrepreneurs in the world," said Jim Koch,
Bill and Jan Terry Professor of Management at SCU, who cofounded GSBI in 2003.

About the Global Social Benefit Incubator GSBI

The signature program of Santa Clara University`s Center for Science,
Technology, and Society and cosponsored by the Leavey School of Business, GSBI
was founded in 2003 by SCU Management Professors Jim Koch and Al Bruno, and
entrepreneur Patrick Guerra. The trio saw a need to "incubate" promising
businesses that were trying to address vital social needs of their home
countries. The program now attracts hundreds of applicants from more than 25
countries every year.

Additional Contacts:

Jim Koch, GSBI cofounder and program director, 408-551-6027 or jkoch@scu.edu.

Albert Bruno, GSBI cofounder and academic dean, 408-551-6027 or abruno@scu.edu.

Eric Carlson, GSBI associate director, 408-551-6027 or ecarlson@scu.edu.

About Santa Clara University

Santa Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university located 40
miles south of San Francisco in California`s Silicon Valley, offers its 8,758
students rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, and
engineering, plus master`s and law degrees and engineering Ph.D.s. Distinguished
nationally by one of the highest graduation rates among all U.S. master`s
universities, California`s oldest operating higher-education institution
demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice. For more
information, see www.scu.edu.

Santa Clara University
Deborah Lohse, 408-554-5121
SCU Media Relations

Copyright Business Wire 2009