Press Release: 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit Youth and Women Day

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The Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) Youth and Women Day will convene 150 established youth and women entrepreneurs along with investors, speakers, and leaders in the entrepreneurship space. The select group of youth and women entrepreneurs will have an opportunity to share their success stories, take part in skills trainings, participate in a pitch competition, and hear from dynamic speakers including hip hop artist Akon, world renowned chef José Andrés, Fubu Founder Daymond John, Miss America 2014 Nina Davuluri, and UN Youth Envoy Ahmad Alhendawi.

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PAGE Video Series: GoldieBlox’s Debbie Sterling

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In 2012, Debbie Sterling asked, “Why is it that girls play with dolls and ponies and tea sets and boys build with construction sets and have super heroes and action figures?” Ever since then, she has been on a mission to inspire a new generation of young girls to think beyond the “pink aisle.”

Debbie Sterling is the CEO and Founder of GoldieBlox, an award‐winning toy company that introduces girls to the joy of engineering at a young age. An engineer and entrepreneur herself, Sterling seeks to tackle and remove the gender gap in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Sterling was named TIME's “Person of the Moment” and is regarded as one of the leaders of the movement toward getting more girls interested in engineering and technology.

GoldieBlox has been named one of the “Most Audacious Companies of 2014,” by Inc. Magazine, one of the “World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2014” by Fast Company, and “People’s Choice Toy Of the Year 2014” by the Toy Industry Association. In January 2014, GoldieBlox beat out more than 20,000 businesses in a contest run by Intuit to become the first‐ever small business to air a commercial during the Super Bowl.

Sterling’s vision of rethinking cultural stereotypes by empowering future entrepreneurs led to her appointment as a Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship (PAGE) initiative member this past year. In her signature PAGE initiative, Debbie will work to introduce girls to STEM through a variety of mechanisms, including the production of a video series focused on the need for more female innovators and highlighting the exciting opportunities STEM provides for girls. She will also partner with organizations like Alex's Lemonade Stand and the Girl Scouts of America, which provide platforms for exposing girls to their first experience as entrepreneurs.

Watch Debbie Sterling share her story on empowering young women with PAGE here.


PAGE Video Series: Pinnacle Technical Resources’ Nina Vaca

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Over the past 19 years, Nina’s leadership as the founder and CEO of Pinnacle Technical Resources has propelled the company to become one of the largest IT Services firms in the country. Her own professional success places her in a unique position to provide support to potential entrepreneurs who are integral to the American economy. She thinks that “a lot of people have no idea that entrepreneurs are responsible for 65 percent of the vast new jobs in America in the last two decades. People don’t know that there are 10.6 million women-owned businesses in this country that generate over $1 trillion and employ 19 million Americans.”

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American Entrepreneurship on Display at Global Entrepreneurship Summit

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Entrepreneurship is one of America’s greatest assets and exports. Empowering young people and innovators worldwide to pursue their dreams and start new businesses has been a priority for President Obama and the Department of Commerce from day one of this Administration – and for good reason: when entrepreneurs bring new products and services to market, they create avenues of economic opportunity for people in their communities and beyond.

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PAGE Video Series: Kiva’s Julie Hanna

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New to the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship (PAGE) program this year, Julie Hanna understands how important it is to inspire and provide support to potential entrepreneurs around the globe. As an immigrant from Egypt, Julie says that she would not have become the successful businesswoman she is today without the access she was given to new technology and other business resources.

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U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker to Attend Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Kenya

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U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker will attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES), which will take place July 25-26, 2015 in Nairobi, Kenya. As the Administration’s point person on entrepreneurship, Secretary Pritzker will help lead a U.S. delegation to the Summit, demonstrating the U.S. government’s continued commitment to fostering a culture of innovation around the world. 

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The Rise of the African Angel Investor: It’s More Than Just the Money

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Like most entrepreneurs, growth is difficult to achieve without appropriate access to resources --  not just financial, but business development support and mentorship. Unfortunately, the existing financial infrastructure simply does not meet these needs. But a new type of resource does: meet the rise of the African angel investor -- the business professional closing the financing gap between $10K and $1 million, as well as the mentorship gap by providing hands-on business acumen that takes these startups to the next level.

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Ambassador Catherine Russell To Travel to Asia and Africa

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Ambassador Russell will then travel to Kenya from July 23 – 25 to participate in the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, which will include a day focused on youth and women entrepreneurs. While in Kenya, Ambassador Russell will meet with entrepreneurs, investors, and members of civil society to discuss how to economically empower women and address the unique challenges women often face in starting and growing a business.

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Entrepreneurship Has a Gender Problem, But It's Not What You Think

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Posted by Catherine Russell

Is gender discrimination standing in the way of entrepreneurship?

Recently researchers at MIT asked this very question and found a disturbing answer: "Both professional investors and nonprofessional evaluators preferred pitches presented by male entrepreneurs compared with pitches made by female entrepreneurs, even when the content of the pitch was the same."

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Remarks by Vice President Joe Biden to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit

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Thank you very much.  To all the Excellencies, and to all the nearly 3,000-plus investors and inventors, businesspeople, government officials, leaders from over 50 countries, it’s good to be back at this summit.  I had the opportunity on the third summit to address it in Turkey.  And it’s a delight to be back here today, and I feel even more enthusiasm in the room today than I did then.  And it was full of enthusiasm then

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Remarks As Prepared for Delivery by Dr. Jill Biden at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit Women’s Day

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This summer, I traveled to Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and to Sierra Leone. The trip, in preparation for the US Africa Leaders Summit, focused on the importance of girls’ education and women’s participation in government, the economy, and civil society. Each time I have traveled to Africa, I have had the opportunity to meet with doctors and nurses, political leaders and entrepreneurs, teachers and students – all of whom share a common purpose: to give back, to build a stronger community, and to move their countries forward. And I have seen what a difference these individuals are making. Today, I would like to share a few stories from this trip that inspired me, stories of hope and opportunity, stories of a new Africa.. 

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REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT ON A NEW BEGINNING

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We meet at a time of great tension between the United States and Muslims around the world -- tension rooted in historical forces that go beyond any current policy debate.  The relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of coexistence and cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars.  More recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations.  Moreover, the sweeping change brought by modernity and globalization led many Muslims to view the West as hostile to the traditions of Islam.

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