Join the Bainbridge Graduate Institute (BGI) at Pinchot for an entrepreneurship panel featuring Yusuf Tura and Lauren Durand as they share their entrepreneurial experience as founders of Obamastove and Seeder, organizations that give people access to sustainable solutions to air quality challenges in their daily life.
Moderated by Michael 'Luni" Libes, entrepreneur in residence at BGI, the conversation will explore the guests experience with start-ups, social entrepreneurship, Fledge and multicultural elements in their business models.
Yusuf Tura
Obama Stove.
After surviving horrific conditions in his home country of Ethiopia during a civil war, Yusuf was brought to the US with help from church groups and the state department and would go on to found Obama Stove company that creates and provides energy-efficient cooking stoves to impoverished families that offer a sustainable cooking alternative while reducing harmful pollutants and devastating deforestation in the region.
Yusuf will show how his stove team, is lifting hundreds out of poverty, training villagers to build stoves and a sales force to sell them, boosting local economies and giving impoverished communities new hope.
Yusuf is a fledgling, member of the 5th cohort of Fledge, the conscious company accelerator.
Lauren Durand
Lauren is the co-founder of Seeder, a Shanghai based StartUp that delivers energy savings solutions for better buildings. Lauren moved to Seattle a few weeks ago with the aim expanding the business to the U.S.
Prior to joining Seeder, Lauren has worked as a PR & marketing consultant for three other startups in different industries and hopes to leverage her varied experience in digital marketing to grow Seeder.
Lauren holds a MSc in Global Issues from Lund University in Sweden and is deeply believes in encouraging a more sustainable urbanization process.
Lauren and her co-founder also joined Fledge5 this year, presenting their ideas at DemoDay.
Moderators
The conversation will be moderated by BGI at Pinchot faculty member:
Michael ‘Luni’ Libes: Moderating the Conversation on Friday, Nov 7 at IslandWood