Magnify Your Impact
Strength in community and fighting inequality A Ghanaian who has spent his life in the thick of it with no rose-tinted glasses. Francis’s strength is having African blood, surrounded by a culture of community coupled with adversity and inequality. Whilst working in West Africa myself, to bring the opportunity of education to communities. Such a big part of my learning was in fact to give what is necessary and asked for, rather than what I thought was needed and this was a steeper learning curve than I could have anticipated. Francis echoes what took me some time to learn due...
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Grit, determination and courage personified After reading Economics and Politics at Exeter University, Sanger trained as a chartered accountant at Ernst & Young before moving to an advertising agency. Frustration with the decision-making process led Sanger to open his own business, a chain of sandwich bars in West London. David is an award-winning entrepreneur with experience in corporate acquisitions, shareholder exit and corporate sales, he has the ability to grow turnover & profitability. Key Takeaways Some of the things we do in our beginnings, specifically towards our work and...
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So skilful, humble and leading with strength from the very front Caron Bradshaw is Chief Executive of Charity Finance Group. She joined CFG in June 2010 from the ICAEW, where she was Head of the Charity and Voluntary Sector. In addition to supporting a number of small charities and community organisations Caron has been a member of the NCVO’s National Assembly and the Charities SORP Committee, has sat on a number of government working parties, is a member of the Church of England Pension Board’s Audit and Risk Committee, and is Chair of the Board of the Directory of Social Change...
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A true empathetic leader of both head and heart Carole has a broad knowledge of growing business through face to face development and sales knowledge. She's a risk-taker and entrepreneur, who loves coming up with new ideas, implementing them and then watching them develop (through hard work!) Carole specialises in Idea implementation - growing the business from an idea to a full-blown concern. Understanding people, what their needs are and then finding something they want! Key Takeaways A philanthropic mindset is something that I see a lot of and is, of course, a great support for the change...
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A courageous leader who combines a never say die attitude with heaps of compassion Started the Infusion100 movement 5 years ago as part of a fusion project to give back to communities around the world. Since its inception, Infusion100 has built 5 schools and 1 house. The 5 schools are in: Malawi (2), Senegal, Haiti, Nicaragua and the house build is in Mexico. Over the 5 years over 8000 children have been educated as a result. To raise the funds every year 100km is walked in different countries and so far 1300km has been walked in UK, Canada, China, USA, Hong Kong and...
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How to really deliver on your vision Nathan is Founder and CEO of Ultimate Performance, previous founder and CEO of Inspire, Nathan is president of Malta’s largest non-profit organisation the Inspire Foundation, as well as the chair of the Voluntary Organisations Council, and a trustee of Children in Need and supports a wide range of other philanthropic initiatives through his endurance challenges. Nathan co-owns Hellfire Events, the country’s toughest endurance race series, He is a lecturer at the University of Malta, the Malta Institute of Management and guest speaker at many educational...
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Diving into the deeper structure of our successes Udayan has been a keen proponent of the fast-changing landscape of Financial Services in the transition from an industrial era to the information age and now to the networked economy. He fell into the intersection of Financial Services and technology well before the term FinTech was coined and traversed the Growth Markets when they were called frontier markets. His global experience began as the son of a diplomat living across multiple continents with his working life commencing in traditional investment banking and transitioning through...
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A truly international authority on our personal power and brand Lesley Everett is an internationally recognized professional keynote speaker and specialist on Personal Branding and The Personality of the Brand, known for her content-rich, engaging and practical advice and delivery. Lesley is the founder and CEO of Walking TALL Training & Consulting, Inc, with offices in the US and UK. She has created a methodology for Personal Branding that has inspired audiences for the past 16 years. Lesley was awarded the Professional Speaking Award of Excellence in the UK in 2010 (the first female...
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Determination and clarity personified, a leader living with the highest of standards Yolan Friedmann is currently the CEO of the Endangered Wildlife Trust, she has an academic background in Veterinary Nursing, a BA in English and Communications, an MSc in Environmental Studies (WITS) and an MDP from the Gordon Institute for Business Science (University of Pretoria). She was the first female recipient of the SAB Nick Steele Environmentalist of the Year award, which she won in 2011. She was also the winner of the CEO Most Influential Woman in Business and Environment award in 2012 in the...
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A millennial leader with a true global vision At 9 years old, Felix Finkbeiner, inspired by the story of Kenyan politician and environmental activist Wangari Maathai, developed the idea that children could promote climate justice by planting a million trees in every country. With the support of children from over 100 countries, Felix launched the youth initiative Plant-for-the-Planet in 2007. So far, more than 85,000 youth in 76 countries have been trained in Plant-for-the-Planet Academies. As Climate Justice Ambassadors, the children give speeches to adults, motivate everyone to plant trees...
info_outlineA millennial leader with a true global vision
At 9 years old, Felix Finkbeiner, inspired by the story of Kenyan politician and environmental activist Wangari Maathai, developed the idea that children could promote climate justice by planting a million trees in every country. With the support of children from over 100 countries, Felix launched the youth initiative Plant-for-the-Planet in 2007. So far, more than 85,000 youth in 76 countries have been trained in Plant-for-the-Planet Academies. As Climate Justice Ambassadors, the children give speeches to adults, motivate everyone to plant trees and fight for their future. Today, Felix is a PhD candidate at ETH Zurich studying the potential of forest restoration in addressing the climate crisis. Plant-for-the-planet.org
My key takeaways
Felix has a fascinating story. At 9 years old he started something which has grown from strength to strength. Now at the age of 22, his focus hasn’t changed.
A lady from Kenya who created a movement that after 30 years, was responsible for the planting of 30 million trees across East Africa. This inspired Felix, at such a young age and with the support and input of his immediate family, they grew what is now recognised in many parts of the world - Plant for the Planet.
Questions that I ask Felix throughout this interview around starting something so young and his answers that follow got me thinking that perhaps, not to underestimate the hard work undertaken by him, his family and the over one hundred individuals working on the cause, it seems to me it was the persistence and ‘why not’ attitude that comes with being a child that lifted this off the ground 13 years ago. No defences or hatred but honesty and love with minimal fear. All of which are forces hard to argue with.
Felix mentions something about the need for conviction that struck me as powerful. He said that real conviction doesn’t come with expectations, it just is. To have an expectation, you first need to understand what isn’t the expectation which could be, in a word, expressed as doubt. In essence, conviction doesn’t allow for doubt.
Now studying for his PhD to further improve the impact he has already created - such a lack of arrogance knowing that he can never know too much about his cause and the best ways in which to challenge and tackle it. Felix definitely has conviction!
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Connect with Felix
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/felixfinkbeiner
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FFinkbeiner
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FelixFinkbeiner
Plant-for-the-Planet International
Website: https://www.plant-for-the-planet.org/en/home
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/plantfortheplanet
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plantfortheplanet_official/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/pftp_int