A Whitehorse entrepreneur will be attending a youth conference that will run parallel to this week's G8 and G20 summits in Ontario.

About a month and a half ago, Alan Lebedoff, 20, was selected to represent the Yukon in MY SUMMIT 2010, which is co-hosted by the federal government and Global Vision, a not-for-profit organization.

Lebedoff is in Muskoka, Ont. until Friday for the G8 component of the event. On Saturday and Sunday, he will be in Toronto for the G20 portion of the event.

Approximately one youth from each province and territory will gather in Muskoka to develop a communiqué parallel with the G8 summit. They will then give that communiqué to the G8 leaders, who will take their recommendations into account.

"It will be the youth perspective and hopefully a different view,” Lebedoff told the Star this week.

Each country will have its own set of youth delegates who will hold discussions.

The Canadian youth will be divided into groups to discuss the summits' four topics: terrorism and nuclear non-proliferation, food security, maternal and child health, and climate change.

"Climate change and maternal and child health will be real heated negotiations and hot-button issues,” said Lebedoff. He chose to be on the terrorism-and-nuclear-non-proliferation crew because he saw it as the major issue of the day, he added.

Lebedoff said he applied to be a MY SUMMIT youth delegate because he saw it as a way to expand his understanding of pertinent Canadian and global issues.

"There, we'll be able to see everything all at once and hopefully come out more informed,” he said.

When his application was accepted, Lebedoff was sent to Yellowknife to attend the Global leaders centre. Out of the 30 youth in attendance at the centre, two from the Northwest Territories and two from the Yukon were chosen, including Lebedoff.

Those four potential delegates later met up with youth from other jurisdictions in Ottawa and a select few were chosen to represent the country at the summits.

Lebedoff said the young delegates will be able to present the G8 leaders with unique ideas because the youth have "a whole different view of the country and the world.”

Lebedoff has a particularly interesting perspective to bring to the summit, not only because he is a Yukoner, but because he has been an entrepreneur since high school.

At 16 years old, Lebedoff founded ALX Exploration services, which provides exploration, survey and drilling supplies for exploring and mining in the Yukon.

At the time, he was too young to obtain a business licence, so the company was in his parents' name until he became an adult.

Lebedoff said he began building drill core boxes after he heard that exploration was "really booming,” so much so that Yukon-based companies couldn't keep up with demand.

The plan was to build a few drill core boxes in his parents' garage as a hobby.

"But it never was (a hobby),” he said. "I got a big order.”

The first few years, he worked at his business after school and on the weekends for approximately 40 hours a week. He works about 80 hours a week now that he has graduated.

Since its beginning, ALX has become a "healthy business” and Lebedoff said he hopes to continue expanding.

To help him develop his business, Lebedoff will be attending a Global Vision economic trade mission in China for three weeks in August.

He will act as a representative of Canada as he makes business contacts in that country.

"Hopefully China will open up my eyes to some things,” he said.