Izzy Obeng, Foundervine – Diversity is the real deal: inspiring future leaders
Episode 33, Sep 18, 2020, 09:00 AM
Izzy Obeng joins Michael on Change Makers this week. As founding director of the award-winning social enterprise Foundervine, she leads a small team with a big mission – to change the global face of entrepreneurship. She launched Foundervine in 2018 to help young leaders from under-represented backgrounds direct their entrepreneurial energy to the right place, start-up and accelerate their ideas. It has since helped over 2,000 diverse, future leaders create, test and sustain entrepreneurial ventures globally. Here Izzy shares the experiences that drove her growing up in Tottenham, the importance of ensuring all communities have a voice, and why she believes business is the fastest route to social change.
As founding director of Foundervine, Izzy provides founders with access to training, mentoring and funding opportunities. Since 2018, 2,000 young people have been skilled by Foundervine programmes, $230,000+ raised with 62% female participation. She is an experienced public speaker and has helped people grow at global brands such as Just Eat, Facebook, PwC, Google, AirBnB and more. Izzy is a Non-Executive Director for Capital Enterprise, a body that has raised £814.7m for UK startups and a former trustee for Parkrun. In 2019, Izzy was named by Tech Nation as one of the 50 most influential black voices in UK tech. She now divides her time between the UK and West Africa, delivering start-up and scale-up acceleration programmes designed to transform the digital innovation ecosystem.