11 Jan Ocean Conservation and Venture Philanthropy

screenshot panel discussion
From l to r Fabrice d’Erm, Alasdair Harris, Matthew Michaelides, Chirag Shah

Over 80 alumni and guests registered for Ocean Conservation And Venture Philanthropy. The online event was hosted by the Zurich Chapter of the INSEAD Alumni Association in January 2022. It was moderated by Fabrice d’Erm, YMP’04, Co-Founder, The Rocket Foundation. The recording and slides are on the links below.

The threats to oceans affect the health of the planet and people’s lives but there are some promising solutions emerging. Participants learned about Blue Ventures initiatives, an NGO that supports itself and its programmes in 15 countries through grants, philanthropy, and institutional funding.

The most successful marine protection programmes include locally-led poverty alleviation measures, according to Alasdair Harris, Executive Director of Blue Ventures, He shared some examples these kinds of community-based solutions created by Blue Ventures and answered many questions during the lively Q&A session,

Alumnus Chirag Shah, MBA’96D, spoke about his experience over the past few years as part of The Rocket Foundation, which supports its carefully selected impact venture portfolio (including projects with Blue Ventures) by bridging the funding gap. He spoke about the challenges, and rewarding nature of recent projects.

Also on hand was Matthew Michaelides, MBA 21J, who was on the team of (now former) MBA candidates that developed a new fundraising vehicle for Blue Ventures as part of an INSEAD Social Enterprise Consulting project.

 

Speakers

  • Fabrice d’Erm, YMP’04, Co-Founder, The Rocket Foundation (Moderator)
  • Alasdair Harris, Executive Director Blue Ventures
  • Matthew Michaelides, MBA’21J, Consultant at Bain & Company
  • Chirag Shah, MBA’96D, Entrepreneur in Residence, The Rocket Foundation

Links and Downloads