Hult Alumni Magazine Issue 4 | Page 18

HULT PRIZE FINALS Hult Prize Global Finals 2013— The Winning Team is Chosen Monday September 23rd saw the long-awaited global finals of this year’s Hult Prize with hundreds of guests, including global leaders, attending the ceremony hosted by the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers. Over 80 Hult alums were in attendance and saw former U.S. President Bill Clinton award USD1 million in seed capital to the winning student team from McGill University, for their innovative insect-based solution to the global food crisis. Founded by Hult MBA 2010 alum Ahmad Ashkar, the Hult Prize is dedicated to helping budding social entrepreneurs realize their innovative solutions to global challenges. Fresh from intensive mentoring at the Hult Prize Accelerator, the six groups of finalists from the London School of Economics, Asian School of Management, ESADE Business School, University of Cape Town, McGill University, and our very own Hult team from the San Francisco campus, presented their innovative solutions to an Executive Jury of luminaries. Judges included Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director, World Food Programme; Kathy Calvin, President and CEO, United Nations Foundation; Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize Winner and Founder of Grameen Bank; and Peter Sands, Group CEO, Standard Chartered Bank. The winning team’s ‘Aspire’ solution focuses on spreading sustainable insect farming techniques to slum dwellers by distributing “micro-livestock” growing kits. Although only one team could win the coveted USD1 million startup seed money, all finalists did receive a full, one-year membership to the Clinton Global Initiative. Next year’s Hult Prize challenge is already underway, with applications being accepted at hultprize.org. The 2014 Hult Prize President’s Challenge, as selected by President Bill Clinton at the CGI Annual Meeting is “Healthcare: Non-communicable Disease in the Urban Slum.” After this year’s unique insect-eating solution, who knows what kind of innovative approach to healthcare the next wave of social entrepreneurs will think up! 18