Student Profile: JP Leroux

Entrepreneurship Student Ready to Take on the Business World

JP Leroux after receiving word that he was accepted into The Next 36 Program.

If the past 12 months are any indication, JP Leroux is on the fast track to personal and business successes. JP is a third year finance and entrepreneurship student at Saint Mary’s University, and has had quite a ride of late. Perhaps his most promising feat to-date is that he was chosen to take part in a mentorship program called The Next 36.

The goal of The Next 36 is to help launch the careers of 36 of Canada’s most promising and innovative undergraduates. Each of the 36 students selected for the program will receive a $25,000 scholarship. Additionally, in groups of four, the students are given a total of $50,000 to develop an app for mobile devices. The program is designed to offer personal mentorship from Canada’s top business leaders and entrepreneurs as well as unparalleled support for the development of their own ventures in the mobile environment. This unique combination of academic theory, business mentorship, practical entrepreneurial experience, and powerful peer network should help jumpstart JP’s career.

As co-president, JP has helped oversee the Trumped competiton, which raise $83,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS); the single largest donation from a third-party fundraiser for the CCS in Atlantic Canada. Trumped is a spin-off from the hit TV series The Apprentice. In it, teams of students compete in business-orientated tasks until one group is left standing. The 2010 Trumped Competition included teams from Saint Mary's, Dalhousie and Mount Saint Vincent University. The 2011 Trumped Competition gets underway January 25 with teams competing for $15,000 in prizes. Visit www.trumped.ca for details.

Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) is an international program that’s active in 40 countries, and their mandate is to empower students to create economic opportunity in communities by teaching others about market economics, entrepreneurship, success skills, financial literacy, and business ethics. Naturally, you may have guessed, this attracted JP’s attention, and he now serves as the society’s Co-President, alongside Charles Ackerman.

Through SIFE, JP has been involved with the Dollar and a Dream campaign (designed to teach students the ins and outs of saving, budgeting, and credit), Trumped, the What’s the Big Idea? Competition (at which he and his partner Kaitlyn Touesnard placed 1st and won $3,000 for their start-up, Perfect Finish Auto Detailing), and was afforded the opportunity to work in the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto.

JP was born in Montreal and spent most of his life in Toronto. He started his university career at Dalhousie in the Science Department, but very quickly realized that Business was his passion, and made the switch to Saint Mary’s, which he called, “the obvious choice.” JP hopes to continue his entrepreneurial journey once he graduates, and says that he sees himself as part of a Clean Technology start-up.

“My Dad, hands down, has been my biggest inspiration, and has been for as long as I can remember. He has been the best role model and the best dad I could ask for,” JP says of his influences and motivation. Look out for this young man, his future is starting right now.