Tree-Spun Wins 2023 Hult Prize Competition Qualifier
, a student in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management and co-founder of Tree-Spun, and his teammates, Paul Sausville and Nicole Byrnes, both from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, won the 2023 Íø±¬ÃÅ Libraries’ Blackstone LaunchPad Hult Prize campus qualifier competition. The competition was held at the LaunchPad in Bird Library on Feb. 17.
 is a prestigious global business competition started by a partnership between the  and the . The competition challenges students to present products, services, technologies and other solutions to societal problems.
This year’s challenge is Redesigning Fashion, which asks student teams to pitch a for-profit business venture in the fashion/clothing industry that positively impacts people and the planet.
Rabia Razzaq ’23, a student in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and founder of Re-mend, and Sahitya Sampath ’25, a student in the Whitman School and founder of Block Threads, were runners-up.
Winners of the campus competition will advance to a regional competition for a chance to compete with international student teams for the opportunity to work with world class mentors and pitch at the United Nations for $1 million in investment. Past Syracuse winners have gone on to compete in Toronto, Boston and San Francisco.
This year’s Hult Prize Competition qualifier was organized by Alesandra (Sasha) Temerte ’23, a student in the College of Arts and Sciences and Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and a LaunchPad Global Fellow.
