Contact:
Jaime Szegvary
Communications Consultant, ACE
416.619.8994
jaime@acecanada.ca  

TORONTO, ON (Thursday, December 3, 2009) - Andrea Belvedere, former SIFE Ryerson President and fourth-year student studying Business Management at the Ted Rogers School of Management - Ryerson University, is the recipient of a Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Award in the Future Leaders category. This prestigious honour is presented annually by the Women’s Executive Network and has become one of Canada’s most recognizable awards for the country’s highest achieving women leaders in the private, public and non-for-profit sectors.

Andrea was named one of 100 “Canada’s Most Powerful Women” because of her direct involvement with SIFE as the past President as well as her role as Vice-President, Business Development and Co-Founder of the Ryerson Entrepreneur Institute (REI). Under her two year leadership, SIFE Ryerson directly impacted over 7,900 individuals; created over $20,000,000 in new economic opportunity; had an operating budget of over $500,000; became active in 15 countries; grew to 104 active members that ran seven programs, 34 projects and over 80 events in 2008/2009 alone; and received the support of 57 strategic partner organizations. Andrea also led her SIFE team to win 15 awards including two National Topic Competition Championships and three Regional Topic Competition Championships.

“We are very proud to have a SIFE student be named one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women”, comments Amy Harder, ACE President. “Andrea’s dedication to entrepreneurship and involvement with SIFE is outstanding; we can’t wait to see what’s next for this rising star.”

Now only one month from graduation, Andrea is faced with determining which opportunities she would like to pursue, including the possibility of one day owning her own business.

ABOUT ACE
Founded in the mid-1980s, ACE is a national charitable organization that is teaching and igniting young Canadians to create brighter futures for themselves and their communities. Working in partnership with business and higher education, ACE provides post-secondary students with the opportunity to gain entrepreneurial and leadership skills, outside of the classroom, through a team based program, Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) and an individual based program, Student Entrepreneur. Due to direct involvement with ACE, students move on to become entrepreneurs and business leaders who will make a meaningful contribution towards a better Canada.

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