BUILD Oakland to Hold Business Plan Competition May 22nd

OAKLAND, CA (May 1, 2010) – BUILD, the nation’s largest entrepreneurship-focused college access program, will celebrate its 4th Annual Youth Business Plan Competition for high school students on Saturday, May 22, 2010, at the U.C. Berkeley Haas School of Business. BUILD is a non-profit organization that offers a youth development program in partnership with high schools across the Bay Area to help underserved youth start their own businesses, graduate high school, and get accepted into college.

At the Oakland Youth Business Plan Competition, teams of ninth-grade students will present unique business models to a prestigious panel of judges from the business communities. The judges include:

• Beth Gibson Sawi, Board Member, Schwab Fund for Charitable Giving (Retired CAO Charles Schwab, Inc.)
• Victoria Jones, Vice President of Government Affairs and Community Relations for the Clorox Company
• Bruce Katz, Founder of Rockport Shoes
• Mark Lewis, President of the Content Management and Archiving Division of EMC Corporation
• Bill McLeod, Co-Head of Investment Banking at Thomas Wiesel Partners
• Hilary Newsom, President of the PlumpJack Group
• Dan Whalen, President of the Whalen Family Foundation


4th Annual BUILD Oakland Youth Business Plan Competition
Saturday, May 22, 2010, 12:30 pm – 3:30 pm
UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, Arthur Andersen Auditorium
2220 Piedmont Avenue, Berkeley, CA


About BUILD:
Founded in 1999, BUILD is a four-year college preparation program whose mission is to provide real-world entrepreneurial experience that empowers youth from under-resourced communities to excel in education, lead in their communities, and succeed professionally. By helping students develop and run their own small businesses, BUILD supplements traditional school with real-world business experiences and critical skill-building for the future. BUILD currently serves nearly 600 students and operates high school programs in Oakland, the San Francisco peninsula, and Washington DC. For more information see: www.build.org

CONTACT:
Elizabeth Gordon
408-840-9883
elizabeth@gordonpr.com