Roxana Mihaela Stefanescu from Romania has recently finished her Ms in Management in Greece with a research paper on “Employability Skills and the attitude towards Entrepreneurship of students entering the job market”. Since, she has been working for Junior Achievement – Young Enterprise (JA-YE) Europe in Brussels. Roxana shares: “One of my main interests is education and during my international experiences I have been inspired in this field. I believe through education we can achieve sustainable development, life-long learning, and a better perspective for today’s youth and my vision is to help with the creation of better ways of both formal and informal education.”

Anu Olvik from Estonia is covering every angle of our Forum in one person: She is a student, a teacher, an entrepreneur and an activist. She teaches economics in high-school and studies law and history in university and organizes 24hour entrepreneurship camps and “manager for a day” events. Anu shares: “I am eager to find out the disposition of youth and their expectations of the world tomorrow. Where are we going and from where are we coming? Estonia is so small, it is really easy to start a change. I strongly feel it has lot to learn and already something to give.”

Tariq Al Olaimy is the Co-founder and Director of Al Tamasuk (Meaning ‘Cohesion’ in Arabic), an award winning, Bahrain based, social enterprise that addresses diabetes prevention and education, through a model that is intended to foster a healthier and more socially cohesive, inclusive, and responsible society. Tariq is also a co-founder of 3BL Associates: a strategy consultancy meets think-tank, which offers a boutique suite of services including Sustainability, Innovation, and Leadership. 3BL Associates align the pursuit of profits with social and environmental development, and are a playground for the convergence of ideas and innovation in Bahrain.

Augustus Lito is from the northern countryside of the Philippines, youngest in the family and finished his Master of Arts in Public Administration. He now serves as a university instructor and public administrator focusing on youth empowerment, sustainable development, education and everyday leadership. In his commitment towards professional development, Augustus took part in an exchange program in United States where he got a chance to intern in different not-for-profit organizations that promote international development, environmental restoration and education.

Nike Kondakis is a Greek/Danish but has been living in Kenya for the last four years.
She is an ethical fashion designer, creating garments from recycled parachutes and jewelry from wood, a percentage of her sales goes towards educating Maasai girls. Nike says: “I’m passionate about creating a competitive alternative to the extremely polluting fashion industry. I often teach youth at the Nairobi University, where I offer my students time to reflect on their dreams and goals and I give them tools to think out of the box and inspire them to turn their passion in art into an ethical and sustainable livelihood.”

Nicoló Amaglio is from Milano, Italy. He is a student of a faculty no-one ever cared about, cultural and linguistic mediation. So far he invented his jobs himself offering his experience to others, to realize someone else’s projects and dreams. Nicoló says: “I believe in Europe. I don’t believe in an easy way to the united EU. I believe in culture. I don’t believe in degrees. I believe in life experiences. I don’t believe in experts. I trust the power of people. I stopped trusting people on power.”

Didem Uygun is a management student from Istanbul, Turkey, and intrepid green blogger and activist. She says: “Every little bit helps! Yet we need BIG steps, too, to realize what we dream about. For your dream to live in a better world, you may need to wake up to make it come true. That waking-up process requires many people, needs everyone’s contribution. Everyone has something to add to that delicious meal. Thoughts as salt, ideas as pepper, awareness as main ingredient! By being here, I am partly contributing to that meal to say ‘Bon Appétit!’ eventually.”

Jean Claude Bwenge is a young engineer and entrepreneur from Rwanda, who’s company focuses on renewable energy solutions and ICT. He says: “As we get an advance in technology, we also face the risk of getting an advance in pollution! Let us be responsible enough and earn our interests only from environmental friendly resources. It is every one’s effort to support green businesses and stand against polluting businesses as a major way of eradicating polluting activities and hence save our world. Let us help the entire world to understand this!”

Tobias Martens from Germany is a young student or business consultant or entrepreneur or volunteer or networker? Developing new media technologies for the coming value-based society he represents what he his web-solutions stand for: the wealth of diversity. Tobias says: “All of this is linked and driven by one core green aspect: The sustainability of personal- and business-interactions/-transactions. This is what green means to me – you participate and interact with your environment, while trying to move and create the future you would choose to live in.”

Marcin Senderski is a GEF ambassador in Poland. He commenced his professional experience as a journalist for regional media. Since October 2007 he has been in charge of several managerial positions within Student Internet Television TVPW. In August 2009 he started working in business consulting, first for CASE-Advisors, then for Deloitte. He rendered advisory services to public administration, the energy sector and banks. He is passionate about modern history and participates in the EUSTORY Alumni Network. He graduated from Warsaw School of Economics and currently pursues a master degree at University of Warsaw.