Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Issues Statement of Support for Global Entrepreneurship Week 2009

Quoting President Barack Obama's Inaugural Address, Secretary Clinton reconfirmed the administration's commitment to boosting entrepreneurship both in the United States and in other countries, where talent is widespread, but opportunity often is not. Secretary Clinton also praised the Kauffman Foundation, a co-founder of the Week, for its efforts to foster growth and opportunity during a difficult economic time.

"The Kauffman Foundation is committed to fostering growth and innovation through entrepreneurship," said Carl Schramm, Kauffman's president and CEO. "Secretary Clinton's support for Global Entrepreneurship Week sends a powerful message to the world that entrepreneurs are key to creating the innovations, jobs and growth that will lead us out of this recession and on the road to economic recovery."

As the world's largest foundation devoted exclusively to entrepreneurship, the Kauffman Foundation co-founded Global Entrepreneurship Week along with Make Your Mark, a business-led government-backed campaign in the United Kingdom, to harness the power of entrepreneurship in young people and prepare them to be innovators, business owners and skilled workers through various initiatives, events and competitions. This year, Global Entrepreneurship Week will be celebrated by more than 3 million people and 8,800 organizations in 85 countries.

A video of Secretary Clinton's testimony is available here: http://www.kauffman.org/entrepreneurship/global-entrepreneurship-week-2009.aspx.

Secretary Clinton joins an impressive list of world leaders and successful entrepreneurs who support the Week. Notable supporters include: Charles, Prince of Wales; Yukio Hatoyama, Prime Minister of Japan; Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group; Prince Abdelaziz Ben Abdullah, Saudi Arabia; Gordon Brown, UK Prime Minister; Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France; John Atta Mills, President of Ghana; Mohammed VI, King of Morocco; and, Princess Maxima, Netherlands.

Organizations supporting Global Entrepreneurship Week include Global Sponsor NYSE Euronext; Global Partners Endeavor, Junior Achievement Worldwide (JA), Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO), DECA, the Prince's Youth Business International, Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), UK Department for Business Innovation and Skills, MIT Enterprise Forum, the European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs, and Youth Enterprise and Sustainability.

To view a complete list of participating countries and organizations, or to learn more about the Week, visit www.unleashingideas.org.

About Global Entrepreneurship Week

With the goal to inspire young people to embrace innovation, imagination and creativity, Global Entrepreneurship Week will encourage youth to think big, turn their ideas into reality, and make their mark. From Nov. 16-22, 2009, millions of young people around the world will join a growing movement to generate new ideas and seek better ways of doing things. Tens of thousands of activities are being planned in dozens of countries. Global Entrepreneurship Week is founded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Make Your Mark campaign. For more information, visit www.unleashingideas.org, and follow @unleashingideas on Twitter.

Kauffman Foundation

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a private nonpartisan foundation that works to harness the power of entrepreneurship and innovation to grow economies and improve human welfare. Through its research and other initiatives, the Kauffman Foundation aims to open young people's eyes to the possibility of entrepreneurship, promote entrepreneurship education, raise awareness of entrepreneurship-friendly policies, and find alternative pathways for the commercialization of new knowledge and technologies. It also works to prepare students to be innovators, entrepreneurs and skilled workers in the 21st century economy through initiatives designed to improve learning in math, engineering, science and technology. Founded by late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman, the Foundation is based in Kansas City, Mo. and has approximately $2 billion in assets. For more information, visit www.kauffman.org, and follow @kauffmanfdn on Twitter.

Make Your Mark

Make Your Mark is a national campaign to create an enterprise culture among young people in the UK. It does this by giving people in their teens and 20s the inspiration and opportunity to turn their ideas into reality, whether through starting businesses or social enterprises or by making an idea happen at work. It is funded by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and was founded by the four main UK business organizations -- the British Chambers of Commerce, CBI, Federation of Small Businesses and Institute of Directors. Make Your Mark leads a campaign coalition of 25 national organizations from education, the voluntary sector, business and government.