Campus News

Gulf-South Summit at UGA to host Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS Shoes, Inc.

Gulf-South Summit at UGA to host Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS Shoes, Inc.

Athens, Ga. – Blake Mycoskie, founder and chief shoe giver of TOMS Shoes, Inc., will deliver a lecture Friday, March 5, at 1:15 p.m. in the Mahler Auditorium of the Georgia Center for Continuing Education Hotel and Conference Center.

The keynote address, entitled “The New Rules for Tomorrow’s Business: A Student’s Guide to Making a Difference in the World,” is sponsored by the 2010 Gulf-South Summit, the University of Georgia Office of Service-Learning, the UGA Center for Leadership and Service and Mercer University. Open free to the public, the lecture does not require registration for the Gulf-South Summit conference.

Mycoskie founded TOMS Shoes in 2006 with the promise to give a pair of new shoes to children in need around the world with every pair sold. Since its inception, TOMS has given more than 400,000 pairs of shoes to children in need through the purchases of customers. The company is cited in the Time magazine article, “How to Fix Capitalism,” written by Bill Gates, and Mycoskie caught the attention of AT&T, which has featured him in a national ad campaign for the past several months.

In his talk, Mycoskie will explore the principles that have contributed to the success of TOMS Shoes and demonstrate a model of sustainable business practice based on the company’s concept of “doing good by doing well.”

The lecture is part of the 2010 Gulf-South Summit on Service-Learning and Civic Engagement through Higher Education hosted by UGA, March 3-5. The conference will focus on ways colleges and universities are addressing local and global problems by engaging students, faculty members, and community partners in service-learning and outreach partnerships.

Those interested in attending the conference may pre-register by calling the Georgia Center at 706/542-2134 or 800-884-1381, weekdays, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., or attendees can register onsite the day of the event. The cost is $200 for faculty and staff members from sponsoring institutions (A list of sponsoring institutions is available at http://www.georgiacenter.uga.edu/conferences/gulf_south/sponsors.phtml) and $150 for students and community partners.

Further information on the conference and Mycoskie address is available at www.georgiacenter.uga.edu/conferences/gulf_south/.