In past blogs, I have looked at some interesting British Ambassadors I have met in my trips around the world, and also some of the modern art museums I have been lucky enough to visit. I thought for this blog I would talk about some of the really inspiring individuals it has been my privilege to meet.
Image courtesy of Ejbevan.
My very good friend Roberto Salazar, CEO of S2M Foundation, our partner in Quito, Ecuador, introduced me to the amazing Yolanda Kakabadze during my last visit there. Yolanda is now running her own international NGO, but in an earlier phase of her career had been Ecuadorean Minister for the Environment. Readers may know about some of the damage which has been inflicted on native rain forest in that country over the years in the search for oil, and Yolanda was leading a major project aimed at saving millions of hectares of native forest from oil exploration. The project, Yasuni ITT (named after the three native tribes who lived in the Amazonian forest) sought to secure funding commitments equal to 50% of the revenues estimated to flow from the forest if oil exploitation were allowed to proceed. If they secured the funding the forest would be left untouched. They succeeded last year.
Our partner organisation in Thailand, the Population and Community Development Association is the biggest NGO in the country. Curiously enough, I met the Chairman, Mechai Viravadya, not in Bangkok but in Oxford where he was attending a conference and I was lucky enough to meet him for breakfast. Mechai is a man of many parts, a businessman and an ex- Senator but is perhaps best known for his very original approach to the severe problem of the rise in HIV/Aids cases in Thailand.
Mechai Viravadya opened a chain of restaurants called “Cabbages and Condoms” where along with the very good menu, free contraceptives were made available. In addition he campaigned industriously for family planning principles, and the flattening off of the rising HIV/Aids curve during the late 20th, early 21st centuries is attributed in a large part to his very innovative efforts.
One of the fascinating aspects of my work has been meeting people who cross cultures with great ease, and are totally comfortable in more than one. William Valentino is one such, and I have always been amazed to see how he does it. General Manager, Corporate Communications, Greater China, for Bayer, he is also a visiting Professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, and a member of the Global Educational and Research Network for Corporate Citizenship. He has been one of the outstanding drivers of corporate citizenship in China, and, in addition to his work at Bayer, is a well known speaker around the world. It is always astonishing to see Bill cracking jokes in perfect Mandarin with a Chinese audience and laughing at their own. He has lived in China now for over 15 years, so has taken full advantage of the opportunities. And by the way, he speaks perfect German too, as his employer is a German firm.
Finally, a member of one of Europe’s royal families. I was asked some years ago by our then partner in Stockholm, Mentor Sverige, to present a UK youth mentoring programme to their Board of Directors. To my surprise, I found on arrival that the meeting was at the Royal Castle, as HM Queen Silvia was a patron of the charity. She is very committed to youth projects such as the one I was presenting and asked some very astute questions. When my presentation was over she thanked me and asked if I could leave the Board to discuss the proposal. If I needed to use a phone, I was welcome to use the King’s study next door. So for the next 20 minutes I made a series of calls starting with “I am calling from the King of Sweden’s study!” In the end, the youth mentoring project was adopted in Sweden – I met the Queen some time later at a British Embassy event and she reported good things about its implementation.
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