CHICAGO — Dominic Coryell, a student of Northeastern University, has won the Entrepreneurs’ Organization’s (EO) Global Student Entrepreneur Award (GSEA). His company, Husky Express, is a high-tech laundry and drycleaning service.Coryell emerged from a group of 26 finalists to win this year’s Global Student Entrepreneur Awards competition for top undergraduate student business owners. The annual competition, presented by Mercedes-Benz Financial, attracted 1,000 collegians from more than 300 universities in 11 countries.“The number and caliber of award nominations that GSEA receives is more impressive each year. We congratulate this year’s winners for distinguishing themselves from a talented pool of innovative young business owners,” says Dave Galbenski, chairman of EO’s global board of directors. “Entrepreneurs drive economic recovery during down-turns. We are proud to offer programs like GSEA that nurture the next generation of business leaders.”Coryell was also given the Innovation Award for Husky Express’ implementation of a fully automated process that provides quality, next-day delivery and pick up of garments, EO says. Husky Express’ 2008 revenues are approaching $800,000.“To me, entrepreneurship is about challenging common knowledge and notions by building stronger, more recognizable and efficient systems to solve problems in a world where people wait for solutions,” says Coryell. “I think entrepreneurs have a responsibility to themselves to empower the people around them with motivation and possibility that they would not find elsewhere. By leading others to innovate, we improve quality of life. I think a lot about being an entrepreneur is not being afraid to leave your comfort zone and to embrace chaos and stress as the ingredients that drive you to embark on bigger journeys and solve more complicated problems.”By automating the entire process, Husky Express has eliminated the correlation between increased volume and increased number of mistakes that hinders scalability, EO says. Customers can take advantage of a robust, internally developed software suite that allows them to track garment production, complete detailed special requests throughout the process and more. The software also allows the company to scale beyond its competitors by creating efficiencies not commonly associated with the industry, EO adds.Husky Express has followed a slow and steady growth path for the past eight years, and it has programmed its system so that when it expands nationally, it can grow with less human error. Husky Express plans to plans to quadruple its customer base in 2009 and embark on its national expansion plan in 2010.Coryell will receive more than $100,000 in cash and donated services from leading entrepreneurs, including web services, public relations, general business consulting and printing, a year’s mentoring by an EO member, and a year’s tuition to the EO Accelerator Program.
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