Contact:
Michael Cheng, 604.897.9896; mike@wittycookie.com

Marianne Meadahl, PAMR, 778.782.9017; Marianne_Meadahl@sfu.ca

Photos on Flickr

There’s no stopping Surrey’s Michael Cheng. The young Simon Fraser University entrepreneur has been named to the 2013 cohort of The Next 36, a national initiative aimed at transforming Canada’s most promising post-secondary students into leading entrepreneurs.

Earning the spot comes on the heels of a series of awards for the 23-year-old, including the Student Entrepreneur of the Year award (2012) at SFU and for the City of Surrey, which earlier named him one of the city’s top 25 under 25.

The 36 cohorts were selected from a shortlist of 70 finalists who were flown to Toronto to compete for a spot in the program. Canadian students from 51 universities had applied for the chance to participate.

“It’s an absolute honour to be selected as one of 36 top student entrepreneurs across Canada to be given the opportunity to learn and work with the most brilliant business leaders of our country,” says Cheng, founder of WittyCookie, a Vancouver web design company. Earlier he established TEDxSFU, modeled after the popular TED talks series.

Cheng is a student in SFU Surrey’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SIAT) and a client of SFU’s Venture Connection, which helped him hone his ideas.

The Next 36 cohort students work in teams to conceive and develop ideas. Each team receives up to $80,000 in seed capital to research, develop, prototype and pilot a new venture in the mobile environment.

They are also exposed to some of the country’s key entrepreneurial leaders as they pursue their goals, including CEO-level mentorship, with tailored workshops led by world-class faculty from Harvard, MIT and more.

Organizers say the task of selecting students for the third year of the initiative was made difficult by a record number of applicants - more than double that of last year.

The group includes social and serial entrepreneurs, academic award winners, campus leaders, accomplished artists, scientists, engineers, and a former National Ballet dancer.

Cheng follows in the footsteps of Jessica Fan, another SIAT student, studying jointly in the Beedie School of Business, who was part of the 2012 The Next 36 cohort.

Simon Fraser University is Canada's top-ranked comprehensive university and one of the top 50 universities in the world under 50 years old. With campuses in Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey, B.C., SFU engages actively with the community in its research and teaching, delivers almost 150 programs to more than 30,000 students, and has more than 120,000 alumni in 130 countries.

-30-

Simon Fraser University: Engaging Students. Engaging Research. Engaging Communities.