John Phillips
In line with the movement that began in the early 2000s for more responsible brands—something this title, along with organizations such as Medinge Group in Sweden, have promoted—Chivas Regal’s the Venture search seeks to find and support the most promising social entrepreneurs creating profitable businesses that also makes a positive impact on people. Lily Cole added credibility as well as celebrity power to the panel discussion in London’s Natural History Museum on Thursday, and debated whether social enterprise would ever grow to a point to solve some of the world’s biggest problems, and whether big business, government and investors should do more.
Cole herself is a social entrepreneur, having founded Impossible, a social giving network that enables people to share their time, skills and objects. She was joined by Sonal Shah of the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation at Georgetown University, Rajeeb Day, CEO of Enternships, and Thomas Davies, CIO of investment platform Seedrs.
Alexandre Ricard, chairman and CEO of Pernod Ricard, hosted the event.
Also in attendance were 27 start-ups who had been chosen to compete for a share of the Venture’s $1 million fund. The finalists were taking part in a programme created by the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at the Saïd Business School at Oxford University. The public can vote for their favourite finalist between May 9 and June 13, and determine how the first $250,000 in funding is split among the finalists. They already feature at the Venture’s website at www.theventure.com.
The remaining $750,000 will be awarded at the Venture’s final in July.
John Phillips
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