Speakers - Ashoka

Arnaud Mourot, Director of
Ashoka France Belgium Switzerland
6
«Dear Friends,
It’s with immense pleasure that the Ashoka team welcomes you today
for the fi rst edition of the Ashoka Changemakers’ Week!
Thirty years ago, Ashoka launched in India and Bill Drayton coined
the term ‘social entrepreneur’. Six years ago, Ashoka launched
in Western Europe, notably in France. Since then, the social entrepreneurship
movement has continued to develop globally, with new
currents arising and the number of actors growing. The message is
accelerating within civil society, universities, media, but also recently,
within the business world.
This anniversary provides us with the opportunity to share and exchange
with actors of social entrepreneurship in Europe and in the
rest of the world. We have learned a lot over these past 30 years,
from supporting social entrepreneurs in 70 countries. This allows us
to have a future vision of the sector and to understand what we must do to develop solutions that match the
scale of the challenges society faces.
This unprecedented gathering is organized for and by changemakers. Its ambition is to defi ne and develop the
necessary ecosystem for accelerating social change in Europe, while learning equally from the experiences of
other innovators around the world.
Two central ideas structure this gathering:
- Action: It is no longer enough to debate problems – they are well known and we have characterized
them thanks to the previous work of our partners. It is time for action! It is time to put into place effi cient
models and make sure they scale.
- An unprecedent concentration of changemakers: You were invited to this event because you
are an entrepreneur, in the social or business sector, or an intrapreneur within your organization. Simply put,
you are part of the population who dares to take risks.
We hope that these two ideas, when combined, will allow for the development of new collaborations, capable
of accelerating social change and diffusing this change broadly.
I would like to thank everyone who made this event possible. Our partners of course, but also to the organization
team led by Laurence (Aurélie, Sarah J, Thomas, Pauline, Lisa, Clémence…) and more broadly, to the
entire Ashoka France/Belgique/Suisse team (Sarah, Catherine, Hélène, Pascal, Kurt, Olivier, Virginie), the interns,
and to our large number of volunteers, as well as those colleagues from other countries across Europe, from
Washington DC, and from the rest of the world. All of them are dedicated builders!
It’s up to you to take action now! Take advantage of this moment for meeting, exchanging, and innovating!
There are no limitations to what we can do and accomplish together, beginning with the moment when we
believe that everyone can be a changemaker! »
Representing the Ashoka team,
Arnaud Mourot