Thompson-born Vincent Cheung, owner of Shape Collage Inc., who is also a full-time PhD student at the University of Toronto, has been named the 2010 Student Entrepreneur Ontario Champion by national charitable organization Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship (ACE) and program supporter CIBC.
Starting last year Cheung has owned Shape Collage Inc., which is a digital media software company that has an automatic photo collage making software program. The program takes hundreds of photos and automatically arranges them into a photo collage in any shape, word or logo. So far, the program is being used in over 200 countries.
Cheung has had over one million downloads of the Shape Collage software and has been approached by the largest online photo printing company in Europe - PhotoBox - to sign a technology license agreement. He also earns enough to pay himself a full salary.
Cheung says he is honoured to receive the recognition from ACE and CIBC so early in his career.
"This is great validation for all that I have learnt over the past year, and winning this award will provide invaluable exposure for Shape Collage in the Canadian market," he says.
Cheung went on to represent Ontario in the regional round of competition which took place at the 2010 ACE Regional Exposition in Toronto on March 8.
Cheung was born in Thompson but moved to Winnipeg with his family at the age of four.
