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Meet Philile Gumede, Entrepreneur in Cape Town, South Africa, and Publisher of The Social Investor Magazine

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Meet Philile GumedePhilile Gumede

Philile is a Founding Director of Mveli Media, an online and print communication agency and a Publisher of The Social Investor Magazine for leaders of social change.

She is passionate about social causes especially engaging on change-makers collaboration on social innovation and solutions.

Her leadership project is Dreamzzz Young Africa Foundation, an initiative to assist in the improvement of the quality of future leadership by investing into the positive and dreams of South African youth at a foundation phase.

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More About  Social Investor Magazine

The Social Investor Magazine is a bi annual social impact handbook that promotes social innovation and its success stories.  South African Private and Public sectors invest millions  of rands each year to local communities as part of their Social & Labour Plans (SLP’s) commitments and Local Economic Development (LED’s). In most cases, the impact of these investments is compiled and shared as Corporate Sustainability Reports.  And usually, this information is inaccessible to beneficiaries.

  • Value Proposition : The magazine’s vision is ‘Restoring South Africa’  to make positive and nation building information accessible to all. The magazine is a platform where South African change makers; The government, socially motivated investors, intermediaries and enterprises connect and share ideas for the greater good of South Africa, hence the mantra “Restoring our South Africa”
  • Website: http://thesocialinvestormagazine.co.za/ 

Past Issue of Social Investor Magazine

Social Investor Magazine Cover

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Interview with Nasir Qadree, Head of Education at Village Capital

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Meet Nasir Qadree

 

Nasir QadreeThis episode of the Innov8social Podcast features an interview with Nasir Qadree, who serves as a Head of Education at VillageCapital, a venture capital firm that sources, trains and invests in seed-stage entrepreneurs with business solutions to major global problems.

Nasir, born in Atlanta Georgia and a graduate of Hampton University, began his career as an Analyst at Goldman Sachs, and later worked as an Associate to State Street Corporation before serving as Co Chairman of Innovation for Senator Cory Booker, during his special run for Senate in 2013.

Nasir was later was appointed and served as an Education Pioneer Fellow/Special Assistant at the Connecticut State Department of Education, leading the states digital learning and infrastructure initiative , and creating new strategies to empower teachers and school leaders to improve persistently low-performing schools.

I connected with Nasir in connection to Village Capital’s deep work in supporting global social entrepreneurship—and had the fortuitous chance to meet him just weeks later at the Pioneer Summit at GSVlabs. We also found another great connection—we are fellow alumni of the New Leaders Council Fellowship Program and both participated in 2012! Nasir, in the Boston chapter, and me in the Silicon Valley Chapter.

Another fascinating and inspiring factoid about Nasir is that he has committed to running 51 full marathons in each US state, including DC, in an effort to raise scholarship funding for first-generation college students. He has run 14 marathons towards his goal.

 

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More About Nasir Qadree

  • Nasir’s bio, as listed on educationpioneers.org
  • Nasir’s fundraiser focused on supporting the career aspirations of highly ambitious first generation college students by providing Mentorship, Leadership, Training, and Career Development

 

More About Village Capital

  • Website: http://www.vilcap.com/
  • Value proposition: “Village Capital finds, trains, and funds early-stage entrepreneurs solving major global problems. Their peer-selected investment model has supported more than 450 entrepreneurs in 9 countries. Program graduates have created over 7,000 jobs and raised more than $110 million in follow-on capital, and 94% of their portfolio alumni are still in business.”
  • Village Capital’s Vision, a video

 

 

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Interview with Chris Gordon, Co-Founder and Chairman of the Irish Social Enterprise Network

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Meet Chris Gordon

Chris GordonHow is social enterprise emerging in Ireland? This episode of the Innov8social podcast features an interview with Chris Gordon, Co-founder and Chairman of the the Irish Social Enterprise Network, the largest network of social entrepreneurs and innovators in Ireland.

As you will hear from the interview, Chris studied physics and has himself has been connected to the impact space since his childhood. He has also been entrepreneur since his youth and sees great power and potential in creating business solutions to drive societal, community, and environmental issues.

I met Chris on social media and through our shared interest in social impact. Over the past couple of years it has been incredible to connect with him about his work in Ireland and also get his feedback on projects such as the book. It is very special to share his story on the podcast!

Chris’s work focuses on social enterprise, entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, startups, cooperative development, exporting and small business in Ireland. He is a director of Treehouse, PosInform and 222 Ireland and Founder and Chair of the Irish Social Enterprise Network (Socent.ie) and the Irish Export Cooperative (ExportCoop.ie). Chris has also been working B Lab to bring B corporation certification to Ireland. He is also a Social Innovation Fellow from StartingBloc (US), a Constellations Society Fellow (France), Tällberg Pathfinder Fellow (Sweden)from Sweden and a Boston College/ US Department of State awardee on Social Enterprise and Tackling Long Term Unemployment programme.

 

 

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More About Chris Gordon

 

More About Socent

  • Website: http://socent.ie/
  • Value proposition: “Largest network for social enterprises, social entrepreneurs and social innovators in Ireland. We are here to help social enterprises, social entrepreneurs and social innovators in getting their idea off the ground and providing the supports to grow. We are here to build a network that will change and impact their social mission as well as foster an entrepreneurial sphere of passionate and groundbreaking models of social change.”

More About Treehouse

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Interview with Yonathan Parienti, CEO of Horyou, a Switzerland-based Social Network for Social Good

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Meet Yonathan

This episode of The Innov8social Podcast, features an interview with Yonathan Parienti, founder and CEO of Switzerland-based social network for social good, Horyou. 

Yonathan comes to the social impact sector by way of banking and international finance– having graduated from one of the top business schools in France before working at major banking groups including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of China, Julius Baer. Horyou is a realization of his dream of making technology accessible to all by creating a social networking platform devoted to solidarity and social good.

Yonathan is also one of the founders of the Horyou Foundation, a philanthropic group that promotes active solidarity as a major factor of change for a more harmonious world.

In addition to the online engagement provided by the platform his team built over two years ago, Yonathan has also been working with various organizers, organizations, and thought leaders to host an annual conference called Social Innovation and Global Ethics Forum (SIGEF) which will have it’s second annual event at the historic Bâtiment des Forces Motrices, situated on the Rhone Rier. SIGEF 2015 is expected to have 5,000 participants, 100 nonprofits and NGOs, 30 keynote speakers and 50 media partners.

 

 

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More About Yonathan Parienti

 

More About Horyou

  • Website: https://www.horyou.com
  • Value proposition: “Horyou is an action oriented social network for the social good. We bring Organizations, Personalities, and Supporters together to connect within an internet-based global community.”
  • Video explaining Horyou
  • Video tutorials on how to use Horyou

 

More About SIGEF 2015 – October 23-25th in Geneva, Switzerland

  • Website: https://www.sigef2015.com
  • Description: SIGEF is an annual international event that gathers non-profit organizations, renowned speakers, social entrepreneurs and the general public for three days of dialogue and interaction. It features plenary sessions, cultural events and networking opportunities, as well as NGO and project showcases.​
  • Register here
  • Video about SIGEF 2015:

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Interview with Kristine Unkrich, Millennial Social Innovator and Educator in Vietnam

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Meet Kristine Unkrich

In this episode of The Innov8social Podcast, we sit down with Kristine Unkrich, a recent graduate from Whitman College and current educator and Lead of Special Projects at Everest Education in Vietnam. She has been motivated by social impact throughout her time at her alma mater, Whitman College, and through various internship and work experiences in France, Indonesia, and currently, in Vietnam. Abroad, she has worked on issues around womens’ rights and education and also interned with an LGBT refugee organization in San Francisco.

Kristine provides perspective on the ecosystem for social entrepreneurship in Vietnam, including information about a new legal structure for social enterprise recently passed in the country. Also insightful are her thoughts on the evolving global workforce as millennials not only enter, but now make up a majority of the working economy. She reflects on her own guiding desire to create social impact in her career and the roles she takes, and also observations of what she has noticed in her peers.

 

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More About Everest Education

  • Website: http://e2.com.vn/en/
  • Value proposition: “Everest Education prepares students mentally and academically for rigors of an international education.”

More About Millennials in the Work Force

  • Fortune article, “Everything You Need to Know About your Millennial Co-Workers”
  • Inc article, “Millennials in the Workforce: They’re More Different Than You Think”
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Social Enterprise in South Korea: 5 Facts

Social entrepreneurship is developing and evolving in unique ways around the globe. In Asia, South Korea has both government

1. South Korea is the only country in East Asia to legally define a “social enterprise.”

It was passed as part of the 2006 Social Enterprise Promotion Act (SEPA), and went into effect in 2007. The government defines a social enterprise as “a company or organization which performs business activities while putting priority on the pursuit of social purposes.”
A company or organization must go these 7 steps before being certified as a social enterprise in Korea.
According to an this article published in the Social Enterprise Journal in 2011, SEPA was in part influenced by British law and social cooperative law passed in Italy in 1991.
A social enterprise in Korea can be a non-profit or for-profit organization.
Seoul by night
photo by @koshyk

 

2. In 2011, the Korean government introduced a plan to support social enterprises through preferred contracts, expanded funding channels, and exclusive business management programs specifically for social enterprises.

 

3. South Korea hosted multiple conferences on social enterprise in 2014 including the 8th Annual Social Enterprise World Forum (Oct 2014), the 3rd International Conference on Social Enterprise in Asia (Jul 2014).

 

SEWF brought together 600-800 thought leaders, academics, and practitioners around the theme “Social Change through Social Enterprise.”

The Conference on Social Enterprise in Asia in July also integrated conferences including the The Eastern ICSEM Symposium took place in Wonju (South Korea) and the Social Enterprise Leaders Forum (SELF) 2014 bringing together over 600 participants including academics, social entrepreneurs, and government officials.

Seoul will host the 12th annual SAGE World Cup finals for high school social entrepreneurs in August 2015.

 

4. As of November 2014, there are 1,165 certified social enterprises in South Korea. The government aims to promote more than 3,000 certified social enterprises by 2017. (cited from Rappler).

 

This is especially significant considering the country’s strong economic position as the 15th largest global economy, according the World Bank.



5. Seoul Mayor, Won-Soon Park, has taken an active role in facilitating social entrepreneurship in the city of 10M.

 

Mayor Park introduced was Cheong-Chek – or the Listening Policy– and founded the Hope Institute for collaboration and action.

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