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BZSE Social Entrepreneur Mentors The Diploma in Business & Social Enterprise (BZSE) has a unique learning approach. Students are provided with inspirational social entrepreneurs to be mentors. Some of these are award-winning individuals who have made impact internationally. Given the opportunities to network with and work alongside the range of local and international social entrepreneurs, BZSE students get to learn beyond what textbooks and classroom learning can achieve.
Kenny Low Principal and Founder CHEC and O School [Singapore] | | Kenny Low is the Principal and Founder of 2 social enterprises – CHEC and O School. He graduated from Nanyang Technological University of Singapore with a Business degree and obtained his Masters in Education Management from Monash University. For his vision and business model to meet social gaps, Kenny was presented with the Schwab Foundation’s Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2007. He had the opportunity to participate in the annual Social Entrepreneurs’ Summit in Switzerland, attended by key global leaders and social entrepreneurs around the world. Prior to that, he was also the 1st Runner Up for the DHL Young Entrepreneur for Sustainability (YES) Award. Kenny spent 6 years in youth services (4 years as a volunteer at a local community services agency and another 2 years coordinating their tuition services arm) before setting up CHEC formally. He was motivated by a need for transformation and change in education for the GCE ‘O’ Level private candidates, believing that those candidates should not be limited in their educational options and purpose because of missed opportunities in mainstream schools. |
Melissa Aratani Kwee
Chairperson
Halogen Foundation
[Singapore] | | Melissa is known to be a strong advocate for vulnerable communities, youth development and leadership. From 2002 to 2006, as President of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), after obtaining a degree in Social Anthropology at Harvard University, Melissa initiated groundbreaking projects such as the Stop Demand for Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Women and Children Campaign and Financial Education for Migrant Women Workers. In 2006, she founded "Beautiful People", a volunteer programme that enables professionals to mentor teenage girls who lack strong social and family support. Melissa currently chairs the non-profit group Halogen Foundation, from which aims to inspire and influence a generation of young leaders. She is also presently establishing an alternative platform to develop an ethical, transparent and fairer system for the recruitment, placement and integration of migrant workers in Singapore. . For her dedication to the youth community, she was conferred the Singapore Youth Award 2007 and Her World Young Woman Achiever Award 2007. |
Jack Sim
Founder
World Toilet Organization
[Singapore] |
| Jack broke the global taboo of toilet and sanitation and legitimizes it for mainstream culture. He established the Restroom Association of Singapore (RAS) in 1998 to bring the subject of toilet to the centre stage of world's media. In 2001, Jack created the World Toilet Organization (WTO) as a global network and service platform where the various toilet associations, academia, government, UN agencies and toilet stakeholders learn from one another and leverage media and corporate support that in turn influenced governments to promote sound sanitation and public health policies. Since its inception, WTO organized World Toilet Summits and celebrated 19 November as World Toilet Day annually. Today, WTO is a growing network of 155 organizations in 53 countries. In 2005,he also started World Toilet College. His accolades include Time Magazine Hero of the Environment 2008, Schwab Fellow of the World Economic Forum, Member of Clinton Global Initiative, Asian Development Bank's Water Champion, Asian of the Year by Channel News Asia, and Ashoka-Lemelson Fellow, Singapore Green Plan Award, Ashoka Global Fellow and was Schwab Foundation's Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2006. |
Dr Andreas Heinecke Founder Dialogue in the Dark, Dialogue in Silence [Germany] | | Andreas Heinecke is the founder of Dialogue in the Dark, a museum that gives the sighted an experience of what it means to be visually handicapped. Visually-impaired guides will lead visitors through interactive galleries and get them to perform tasks in pitch darkness. The other senses - smelling, hearing, touching and feeling are heightened as the visitors go through the experience. The foundation stone of Dialogue in the Dark was laid in 1988. Since then, there have been exhibitions in over 25 countries and more than 150 cities in Asia, Middle East, America and Europe. Over 6 million visitors worldwide have experienced what it means to hear, smell, taste and touch things, without being able to see them. Together with his wife, Orna Cohen, Andreas also developed a spin-off of Dialogue in the Dark - Dialogue in Silence, to similarly help people experience and understand the world of the hearing-impaired. Over the years, Andreas has won several awards for his work, including the more recent Ashoka Fellow 2005, Deutscher Unternehmer Preis 2006 (Germany award for corporation of the Harvard Business School), Outstanding Global Social Entrepreneur 2007 (Schwab Foundation). |
Sadaffe Abid
Chief Executive Officer
Buksh Foundation
[Pakistan] | | Sadaffe is the founding CEO of Buksh Foundation, whose mission is to empower women, to be financially and socially sustainable, to innovate and to create a strong impact on the long term growth of Pakistan through microfinance loans targeting low-income households offering a wide spectrum of financial services and business development projects. Before this, Sadaffe was the CEO of Kashf Foundation (1997-2008), another non-profit organization that provides credit, insurance services and training to help poor rural and urban women in Pakistan. Kashf has blossomed into a service that has over 300,000 clients and a network of 150 branches with 2000 staff members. She helped grow Kashf from a start-up phase to a globally respected reputable microfinance institution. She successfully managed the rapid growth phase combined with a focus on business innovation and talent development. Sadaffe has studied economics and international relations from Mount Holyoke College, U.S.A. |
Pierre Tami
Founder
Hagar International
[Cambodia] | | In 1994, Pierre Tami and his wife Simonetta, established the Hagar Shelter in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, as a haven for women who had fallen victim to violence and sexual exploitation. As an organization that premises on social rehabilitation and economic empowerment, Hagar’s primary mission is to create safe, meaningful employment with a decent wage for the beneficiaries and to produce profits to provide funding to social activities, through employment in fully commercial enterprises owned by Hagar. Hagar works with Cambodia’s trafficked and abused women and children through individualized and long-term holistic programs. Hagar has assisted more than 100,000 women and children through its social programs and economic projects. The U.S. State Department in 2004 selected Tami and the Hagar project as one of its six international heroes in the struggle against the global slave trade. The story of how Pierre Tami created one of the most innovative programs for freed slaves will inspire even the most entrenched cynics. Pierre, a Swiss businessman, had devoted 12 years to helping people in crisis—including a long stint in Japan aiding the homeless in the parks of downtown Osaka and several years more building up a youth drop-in center in Singapore. |
Industry Partners & Community Gawad Kalinga (GK), Philippines World Toilet Organisation Food from the Heart Gateway Entertainment O School Studio You Immanuel Beauty School (IBS) Eighteen Chefs Big is Gorgeous New Charis Mission School of Thought (SOT)
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