UT Student Entrepreneur Invited to Attend Global Entrepreneurship Summit

Phil Michaels, a UT alumnus and CEO of the educational startup Tembo, has been selected as one of 100 entrepreneurs in the world to attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) 2016.

The summit, which is hosted by President Obama, will be held at Stanford University June 22–24. The summit is intended to put innovative global entrepreneurs together with each other and with entrepreneurs from throughout the Silicon Valley and the United States in numerous workshops and hands-on sessions.

Michaels graduated from UT in 2010 and received an MBA and Master of Science in marketing, also from UT, in 2015. His enterprise, Tembo, consists of four other UT students and alumni, and was a finalist for the 2015 Clinton Global Initiative Hult Prize. It provides high quality early childhood education to the slums of the world through mobile phones.

Tembo is part of the accelerator and incubator programs at the John P. Lowth Entrepreneurship in the Sykes College of Business at UT. This program provides support and assistance to help founders grow their companies. The program is open to UT student companies as well as selected companies from the Tampa Bay region.

Rebecca White, director of the Lowth Entrepreneurship Center and James W. Walter distinguished chair of entrepreneurship, said Michaels and the Tembo team represent a new wave of entrepreneurs who do well by doing good and who immerse themselves in the marketplace to better understand how to make such a difference.

“Their innovative educational platform is transforming early childhood education in Nigeria and beyond," White said.

Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Rick Stengel said discussions at the summit will focus on "ideas that benefit society, not just trying to become the next Silicon Valley billionaire," Stengel said. It is an opportunity for "synergy" across different borders and countries and industries, he added.

Last summer, more than 600 entrepreneurs from 120 countries attended the GES in Nairobi, Kenya. The State Department announced that it already has received some 4,500 applications from more than 150 countries for the 2016 summit.