DATE: March 7, 2006

It’s a long way from the rugged steppes of Mongolia to the UW Business School’s stately Douglas Forum. But the trek paid off for Batjargal Purevdorj, a Mongolian graduate management student at South Korea’s KAIST University whose solo presentation won the second-annual UW Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition (GSEC).

Purevdorj impressed and moved the judges with his plan to manufacture inexpensive hand-cranked AM radios for nomadic Mongolians who have no access to electricity. To the estimated one million rural Mongolians who roam the vast expanse between China and Russia, he explained, widely broadcast AM state radio provides a lifeline – news, education, entertainment, culture. To demonstrate the enormous potential social impact of such a simple venture, Purevdorj had only to tell his own family’s story. He recalled visits with his nomadic grandmother, who treated her ramshackle receiver like a family treasure, and rationed batteries as if they were food or water. "Radios bring education to rural children," he said in his final-round presentation, "and education brought me here."

From 44 entries, the GSEC pitted 10 teams from the UW and universities in the US, South Korea, India, Japan and China, all presenting innovative business plans that address the problems caused by poverty in the developing world.

Second prize went to the team from China’s Shanghai Jiao Tong University with its plan to introduce FERLAND, a business that would harness a new technology that can turn domestic sewage into a gravity-based fertilizer system to address China’s growing demand for food and clean water.

The other finalists included UW graduate students in public health and civil and environmental engineering who plan to sell a low-cost ultraviolet home water treatment system in Vietnam; and a team of UW graduate students in management, molecular & cellular biology and international studies, along with a Chinese horticulturist, that devised a plan to combat Beijing’s air pollution through installation of "green roofs."

The John Hoover Award – honoring the UW Business School undergrad who died only months after his team reached the finals of the 2005 GSEC – was granted to Baylor University’s World of Light team, planning to provide wind-generated electricity to poor neighborhoods in Nairobi, Kenya. Proceeds for this special award of $2000 were contributed from Hoover’s teammates.

The GSEC awards ceremony featured a keynote by Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, known for his philanthropic work and attention to ending poverty in third world countries.

But it was the jubilant Purevdorj who left perhaps the most indelible message: "There is a saying that we are the sum of all people we meet," he told the GSEC crowd. "And I think that is true. I return to Mongolia with a piece of each of you in my heart."

The Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition was hosted by the Global Business Center, in partnership with the Business School's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and UW's Marc Lindenberg Center for Humanitarian Action, International Development and Global Citizenship. Additional support was provided by the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs and the Initiative for Global Development, a Seattle-based alliance of business and civic leaders.

Participating teams were awarded more than $20,000 in travel scholarships. Sponsors included Howard and Lynn Behar, Du Pont, Ivars, Mezza Café, Pioneer Human Services, Symetra Financial, the UW Business School and the University of Washington.