TORONTO, May 28, 2007 – Successful businesswoman Linda M. Lopeke has launched a new virtual mentoring program for college students called SmartStart. This unique program, delivered via the Internet, accelerates career success up to 3 times faster than normal by teaching members the truth about how Fortune 500 companies really work. As well as revealing all the secrets to cracking the corporate success code, SmartStart’s innovative cash-for-college challenges help business school and college students with the high cost of their higher education – but only when they can prove they’ve learned the real world lessons of working 9-to-5.

The debate over the value of an MBA degree exists because, each year, newly recruited grads begin careers well schooled in business theory yet completely lacking the practical knowledge needed to succeed at work. With managers overloaded, departments understaffed, and training budgets slashed to the bone, grads are left to sink or swim, learning their lessons the hard way by making career-killing mistakes. SmartStart mentoring programs change all that. Everybody wins.

A study at Yale showed only 3% of people who work hard achieve success. SmartStart members don’t work harder, they work smarter. The program’s creator, Linda M. Lopeke, teaches simple, specific, and strategic behaviors guaranteed to put members in that 3%. Her students learn why there is no such thing as time management; that procrastination can actually be good for you, and also that being successful does not require making any changes to who you are right now. The class motto—there is no such thing as luck, there is only preparation meeting opportunity.

“Knowing how to deliver higher value than your competition means the difference between being invisible and being indispensable”, Lopeke says. “And with the right mentor and a proper mindset there’s no limit to how far you can go!” SmartStart program members aren’t just better prepared for how to be more successful at work; they are getting ahead faster than fellow grads simply by taking their accomplished mentor’s straightforward and often off-the-wall advice.

SmartStart is currently accepting a limited number of new students into the 2007 program on a first-come, first-served basis. Program memberships starting at $197.00 CAD per year are available at www.smartstartcoach.com. Members are taught critical lessons not available from any business school. They benefit from professional advice on how to accelerate success in the Fortune 500 specific to their unique situations, using methods proven in Lopeke’s own career.

Mentee Alexandra Gomez says, “Applying some of the Professor’s rules helped me nail the promotion I was looking for in just a couple months’ time!” Her experience is not unusual. Another student, a young chartered accountant, also took Lopeke’s straight shooting no-nonsense advice. Result? From a standing start entry-level job, in a non-management position in Finance, she blasted through 4 management grade promotions in less than 3 years, in an environment where a minimum of 2 years of service in each job grade is the norm.

“Every day I meet people driven to succeed who are willing to work for it. They don’t know how to get what they want for themselves safely and take few risks for fear of making a wrong move. I can’t think of a better way to honor my own mentors, the men and women who helped me succeed, than to share what I’ve learned over the years for the benefit of others” says Lopeke.

Ms. Lopeke routinely mesmerizes audiences with the astounding results she and her students have achieved delivering professional excellence in companies including Xerox, Manulife, GlaxoSmithKline, Hewlett Packard, Dunn & Bradstreet, Inco, Nortel, General Motors, CIBC, Coca Cola, Eli Lilly, Nestle, Prentice-Hall, Hospital for Sick Children, and Husky among others. The legacy and positive impact of her unusual coaching methods was most recently featured in an article titled From Good to Great published by Harvard (December 2006).

About the Prof
Ms. Lopeke kicked off her own career setting a world record for being the youngest person ever, in the history of banking, to lead a major technology implementation. She was just 17 at the time. A 10-year corporate management career in banking and financial services followed. Since 1983, she’s created over 800 success stories for nearly 300 corporate clients and government agencies. Today she devotes her time to mentoring students attending the world’s top 50 business schools and people designated as “high potential” or “emerging leaders” by their Fortune 500 employers.

How SmartStart Began
Inspired by masses of young people seeking information on how to succeed in the Fortune 500 following her lectures at the Queen’s School of Business in Kingston, Ontario, Linda M. Lopeke, an internationally recognized business strategist and leading expert in project management and technical communication, created an MBA Master Class called Fortune 500 Intelligence.

Since 2005, her unique mentoring programs have provided college and business school students the opportunity to learn the truth about how things really work inside the Fortune 500. In 2006, her mentoring program students benefited from well over $300,000 in support and sponsorship. Visit www.smartstartcoach.com to learn more.

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Telephone: (647) 298-8743 (Eastern time zone)
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