2014 Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards Finalists Announced

The Cartier Women’s Initiative announced 18 finalists from 15 countries for its 2014 Awards.  They feature impressive new businesses that have created ethical, sustainable and scalable solutions to pressing social challenges and cover sectors spanning from high technology to healthcare, education, fashion, international development and the environment. INSEAD works closely with the Cartier Women’s Initiative on these awards by mentoring contestants at several stages of the competition and the selection process itself. Six Laureates, each representing a geographical region, will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on 16 October 2014, at the Annual Global Meeting of the Women’s Forum in Deauville, France. To learn more about this year’s finalists, visit the Cartier Women's Initiative webpage! 

MyMind Expanding Access to Mental Health Services

Krystian Fikert (ISEP 2010-Singapore) established MyMind in 2006 in response to a troublesome gap in providing mental health services in Ireland. People suffering from anxiety, stress, depression, addiction, relationship issues, workplace problems and other issues affecting their mental health found themselves facing long public sector waiting lists or high costs for private services. MyMind was created as a community-based mental health service that draws on the power of information technology to provide efficient, low-cost help when people need it.

Based in Dublin, MyMind provides accessible and affordable counselling and psychotherapy, in different languages, through a team of over 100 mental health professionals. We are dedicated to providing early intervention into mental health problems, to help to build people’s resilience and avoid more serious problems developing in the long term, so first appointments are usually offered within 72 hours. The “MyMind Online” system is able to empower clients to book their appointments online or by phone, bypassing the hindering and expensive referral process. In addition to its face-to-face services, it also provides online support via the MyMind Online platform, and the new “MyMind at Work” programme that provides information and skills workshops to workplaces in order to enhance staff resilience and wellbeing.

It has now teamed up with Twilio.org an international organisation whose mission it is to harness the power of advanced communications technologies to enable social and non-profit organisations to help engage their audience, expand their reach and focus on making a real change in the world. This has already enabled MyMind to become a global leader in creating fast, efficient, and secure mental health services for those in need and continue to create opportunities for growth to meet the demand in Ireland and beyond.

Victoria Kisyombe Receives Global Leadership "Economic Empowerment Award"

Victoria Kisyombe (ISEP 2011-Fontainebleau) was awarded the Vital Voices Global Leadership Economic Empowerment Award by Hillary Rodham Clinton at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC for her trailblazing work to empower women through micro leasing in Tanzania as founder and CEO of SELFINA.

Founded in 2002, Selfina's mission has set out to increase the incomes and employment of women who own micro enterprises in Tanzania, by helping them and their businesses grow. Its innovative use of assets to access credit has made it a pioneer of micro-credit and micro-leasing that have enabled women who would not otherwise be able access financing. SELFINA has maintained a particular focus on widows and young girls and helping them overcome customs and traditions that often make it difficult for women to own land and assets. In its 11 year history, SELFINA has empowered more than 25,000 women with a total credit worth 25 billion Tanzanian Shillings [approximately $16 million US dollars]. Over 200,000 lives have been impacted through the benefits accrued. Women are now owners of their own businesses and more than 125,000 jobs have been created. Victoria was herself widowed but made good use of Sero, a cow left behind by her late husband as a productive asset to generate income. (see video)

Vital Voices Global Partnership was co-founded by Hillary Rodham Clinton to honour and celebrate women leaders around the world who work to strengthen democracy, increase economic opportunity and protect human rights. In addition to Secretary Clinton, this year’s awards were presented by television news anchor Norah O'Donnell and fashion designer and activist Diane von Furstenberg to the five outstanding women from Syria, Iraq, Tanzania, India and Guatemala. Past honorees and presenters have included Oscar winner Sally Field, Angelina Jolie, Aung San Suu Kyi, Ben Affleck, Reese Witherspoon and Malala Yousafzai. 

Impact Investing reaches the Vatican - Conference: Investing for the Poor

The growth of the Impact Investing sector has attracted the attention of the Catholic Church which is discussing the ways in which the logic, frameworks, and opportunities in impact investing can help the Church in achieving its mission of alleviating poverty worldwide.

Our own Prof. Filipe Santos was the opening speaker at the conference, which took place in Rome June 16-17. The conference web-site provides a complete overview of the conference, knowledge resources about impact investing, and summary of the discussions and conclusions from the gathering. Check:  http://www.investingforthepoor.org/

All the 120 attendees, the majority of which were representatives from Catholic Church organizations, as well as international impact investors and thought leaders  from the sector, were blessed with an audience with Pope Francis. It was an exciting conference for both the mind and soul and a testimony to the growth and potential of impact investing and social entrepreneurship.

Rustam Sengupta selected 2014 Echoing Green Fellow

Rustam Sengupta (MBA(MBA'08D -) was selected for Echoing Green’s Global Fellowship programme which recognises social entrepreneurs from around the world working to disrupt the status quo for positive change. Rustam is the founder and CEO of Boond, a social enterprise that creates a sustainable ecosystem for sales and servicing of energy access products and services in India.

Boond creates a sustainable ecosystem for clean energy access through sales of solar systems financed by rural banks and micro finance institutions and serviced by trained local technicians. The Boond model eliminates the initial cost barrier that hinders the penetration of renewable energy products in remote poor areas and ensures that the systems last for the requisite life through reliable after sales service. Over the past two years, we have installed over 7500 systems in some of the remotest parts of India for rural businesses, micro-grids based charge stations, schools and milk diaries other than individual households.

Rustam Sengupta is an expert on design and data analysis for products and services for the BoP. He has consulted to numerous universities and institutions on market entry and emerging market economics and won numerous and more importantly has impacted the lives of over 75,000 people in villages of India over the past two years. Rustam is an INSEAD MBA graduate and MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Irvine.

Echoing Green’s Global Fellowship is a twenty-five year-old program for smart young leaders who are deeply connected to the needs and potential solutions that may work best for their communities. It selects high-potential social entrepreneurs from around the world working create a disruptive change to the status quo. Twenty-two individuals were awarded fellowships in 2014 and will receive a stipend and benefits over the two-year period of the Fellowship, professional development, leadership gatherings, coaching and mentoring plus access to technical support.

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Meena Vaidyanathan & niiti Consulting Wins Ashoka Globalizer Economic Inclusion Award

Congratulations to Meena Vaidyanathan (ISEP 2009-Singapore) founder of  niiti-Consulting for being selected as a winner of the 2014 Ashoka Globalizer,  Economic Inclusion Ecosystem Fund Award for a joint project with Karmany  on “Clearing the Uncertainty of Working in the Social Sector”. The project will develop a web-based tool kit to address the crying need for talent management in the social sector and the need to build a pipeline and a process to address individual basis.

Niiti has recognized that there is a crying need for talent management in the social sector but many number of social enterprises lack the resources to build a pipeline and a process on an individual basis. In response, Karmany and niiti have joined together in the hope of developing a web-based tool kit that helps social organizations assess and evaluate their talent management needs. In addition, it equips professionals with the information and tools to make informed career transitions into the social sector on the other. The tool seeks to serve as a platform to spur competition within the industry, and collective sharing that brings a far larger awareness of the credibility of the social sector to non-industry professionals.

For further information see the niiti Consulting web site and Facebook page.