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Young Entrepreneurs Close the Day at NASDAQ but Usher in the Future

Merrill Lynch and ICIC to Honor Young Entrepreneurs, Announce Nominations for the 2007 Growing Up CEO Program and Release New Research on Youth and Entrepreneurship

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The closing bell at NASDAQ today was sounded by a group of successful CEOs under the age of 21, whose companies are opening new opportunities for residents of America?s inner cities. Representatives from the Growing Up CEO program, a nationwide initiative, launched by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City and the Merrill Lynch Foundation, to identify inner city entrepreneurs, ages 13 to 20, participated in the closing-bell ceremony that recognizes Feb. 24 ? Mar. 3 as EntrepreneurshipWeek USA.

?These highly motivated young entrepreneurs are the next generation of business leaders, the people whose companies will one day lead the trading here at NASDAQ and other exchanges,? said Dorothy A. Terrell president and CEO of the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), a nonprofit economic development organization. In 2005, ICIC partnered with Merrill Lynch to launch the Growing Up CEO program, which each year recognizes the entrepreneurial accomplishments of 25 inner city CEOs, all of whom are under 21 and many are still in high school.

?Growing Up CEO showcases the power of entrepreneurship as an accessible tool for youth of all backgrounds to succeed in an increasingly competitive global marketplace,? said Eddy Bayardelle, President of Merrill Lynch Foundation. ?These young CEOs have demonstrated that business opportunities are available even in very challenging conditions across the US and around the world and Merrill Lynch?s goal is to recognize their achievements, connect them to tools for continued growth, and provide a platform to share their extraordinary stories.?

Among the participants in the closing ceremonies is Omar Faruk, CEO of Blue Stream Media Corp., a company that designs websites for small businesses. Faruk, one of 10 children, founded Blue Stream when he was 17 and was chosen for the Growing Up CEO award in 2005. His family immigrated to the U.S. in 1997, without money and only rudimentary English language skills.

Weina Scott, the co-creator of Switchpod.com, which gives users space to upload audio and video programs as pod casts is another participant and an applicant for this year?s Growing Up CEO program, which will be announced on May 2, 2007. Switchpod.com was purchased in July 2006 by publicly traded Wizzard Software (OTCBB: WIZD), an inner city Pittsburgh-based company, for stock worth $200,000. Scott and her partner, Jake Fisher, were each named CEOs with annual salaries of $40,000. Scott?s parents, formerly entrepreneurs in Haiti had to leave everything behind when they fled to the US in 1989.

?Weina Scott exemplifies true entrepreneurial spirit in everything she does for her company, Switchpod.com,? says Chris Spencer, CEO of Wizzard Software. ?She?s the first to sign on every morning and the last one to finish working at the end of the day, always thinking about growth. Acquiring her company was one of the best business decisions we?ve ever made.?

That young inner city entrepreneurs eventually become leaders of highly successful companies that provide jobs and economic opportunities for others is supported by evidence compiled over an eight-year period by ICIC. In each of the past eight years, ICIC and Inc. Magazine has published a list of the fastest-growing companies located in America?s inner cities, known as the Inner City 100. Of all Inner City 100 winners, the average age of the founder was 33. Of the winners since 2001, 113 were founded by entrepreneurs under the age of 30, and 45 under 25. The youngest founder of an Inner City 100 company was 18. (www.icic.org, Starting Young, Staying Strong ? research report starts on page 5).

Since the inception of the Growing Up CEO program, winners have been invited to participate in the annual Inner City 100 awards ceremony, a two-day event that includes business seminars at Harvard Business School, tours of inner city businesses and an awards ceremony at the gala banquet. The young entrepreneurs are introduced to executives of the Inner City 100 companies and mentorship relations are formed.

?Although Growing Up CEO winners are self-reliant, they will be the first to tell you they needed some help getting started,? added Terrell. ?Almost without exception, the winners received guidance either through a formal entrepreneurship program, from a teacher or by an older friend with business experience. By creating relationships between owners of Inner City 100 companies and the young entrepreneurs, we are telling them that we all have a stake in their success.?

Following the closing-bell ceremony, the young entrepreneurs attended a networking gathering in the Chairman's Gallery of Merrill Lynch?s downtown headquarters, where Ahmass Fakahany, Vice Chairman and Chief Administrative Officer Merrill Lynch, Bayardelle, and other senior Merrill Lynch executives hosted a reception to honor the young entrepreneurs. For many of the entrepreneurs, this was neither their first nor their last visit to Merrill Lynch. Their participation in a variety of Merrill Lynch Foundation programs, in addition to the Growing Up CEO initiative, is enabling them to round out their entrepreneurial expertise with financial literacy, business savvy, leadership skills, and board-room strategy sessions with Merrill Lynch senior executives.

Applications for the 2007 Growing Up CEO program are still being accepted until March 10, 2007, to apply please go to www.icic.org.