Students from Simon Fraser University’s Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) group had a strong showing at the Association of Canadian Entrepreneurs (ACE) national competition in Toronto, which ended today.

SFU economics student Jordan Gutierrez, creator of librerialeo.com.mx, an online medical bookstore, was named runner up in the 2011 Student Entrepreneur of the Year contest. SFU SIFE’s Sonam Swarup, who oversees the group’s thriving Banner Bags project, was named national project manager of the year. And the SFU team’s main presentation group advanced to the semi-finals.

The SFU team moved into the semi-finals against teams from Acadia University, St. Lawrence College and Ryerson University, which, of the three, advanced to the top five in the final competition. That was won by Memorial University.

SFU SIFE’s outgoing president Kyle Krystalowich says the caliber of teams was high. “I was blown away by the quality of presentations, they were all really strong this year,” he said from Toronto.

While at the annual event, Krystalowich also participated in a roundtable with national academic and business leaders. “The emphasis of this event is on building strong entrepreneurs and leaders for the next generation,” he says. “All groups were strong this year. The energy in the room leading up to competition was electric.”

Krystalowich says students will take what they learned from the experience and work towards making next year’s national contest in Calgary.

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SIFE students place high in nationals