XMA hunts for ‘next Bill Gates’

VAR scouts for talent among UK student population

By Caroline Donnelly

More from this author

05 Nov 2009

Be the first to comment

  • Digg
  • Tweet
Bill Gates
XMA hopes to nurture the next Bill Gates

One of the UK’s largest resellers has kicked off a competition to find “the UK’s answer to Bill Gates” among next year’s crop of university students.

Public sector speciailst XMA will provide £3,500 towards the cost of the winner’s tuition fees, a Toshiba laptop, a summer work placement at XMA and the services of a mentor for their first year at university.

The competition, which is sponsored by Toshiba, is open to anyone starting university in 2010 and with an interest in getting a head start in IT.

Further reading

Guy Bates, XMA business development director, said: “With tuition fees, living costs, student loans and overdrafts all mounting up, many students in the UK have become completely overwhelmed by debt.

“This competition is a great opportunity to give someone a head start at university – not only on a monetary level but the additional support from a business mentor will go a long way to helping them excel in their studies.”

Bates will be working with the Guardian’s technology correspondent Bobbie Johnson and former Dragons’ Den star Doug Richard to pick the winner.

“Bill Gates is an icon because he’s unique,” said Richard. “He was the first great software billionaire and a huge inspiration in the IT world. Our challenge is discovering the talent before they’re at Bill Gates’ level.”

Students can nominate themselves online until Sunday 28 February 2010 at www.thenextbillgates.co.uk, and also have the option of including a one-minute video to support their entry.

Once all entries are in, a shortlist of three finalists will be invited for an interview with the panel and the winner announced in May.

display:none
Loading
We won't publish your address
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms & Conditions

Your comment will be moderated before publication.

Has the public sector procurement process changed since the coalition took power?

22%

3%

53%

16%

6%

CRN Partner Connect 2012

CRN Partner Connect logo

CRN's premier networking event is back on 17 May at the Ricoh Arena

Date: Thu 17 May 2012

CRN Fight Night 2012

One of the fights from CRN Fight Night 2010

Channel fighters preparing to square up once more on 24 May

Date: Thu 24 May 2012

Sign up for our range of FREE newsletters:

Submit your email address and we'll send a link to a personal newsletter control panel

fragment image

The mobile enterprise: Secure the data, not the device

The proliferation of endpoint devices within the enterprise has highlighted the shortcomings of one of the traditional approaches to data security

fragment image

Measuring the ROI of Google Apps

This Forrester report compares the costs and benefits of legacy email and productivity software with Google Apps


Dave the dealer blog

Dave the dealer

Clocking off

Dave discovers that rozzers are seemingly living in the technology dark ages

View from the channel

Views from the Channel

Meg Whitman’s channel charm offensive

HP's new boss made all the right noises at HP GPC - but are words enough, asks CRN deputy editor Doug Woodburn

To send to more than one email address, simply separate each address with a comma.