April 2012
CASE is proud to announce the winner of our 2012 Enterprising Social Innovation Award: KickStart International!
KickStart develops and promotes technologies that can be used by entrepreneurs to establish and run profitable small scale enterprises and help families improve their economic status. As of February 2012, KickStart has helped create 128,400 enterprises in Africa, sold 198,292 irrigation pumps to farmers and moved 641,800 people out of poverty.
Martin Fisher, CEO and co-founder of KickStart, will receive the ESI award and deliver a lecture at 6:30 p.m. on April 19 in Fuqua’s McClendon Auditorium.
Fisher has won numerous awards and earned recognition for his work, including TIME Magazine’s 2003 European Hero award, the Schwab Foundation’s 2003 Social Entrepreneur of the Year award, the 2005 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship and the 2008 Engineer of the Year by Design News magazine.
“KickStart’s tireless efforts to promote sustainable economic growth in Africa via technology design and small venture creation are astounding,” said Paul Bloom, CASE faculty director. “By challenging traditional development models and designing poverty solutions to address root causes, KickStart has been able to create immense impact. KickStart’s commitment to sustainable, long-lasting, cost-effective interventions to create wealth and economic growth while continuing to innovate, track, and scale that growth makes KickStart an ideal candidate for the CASE ESI Award.”
About the CASE ESI Award:
The CASE Award for Enterprising Social Innovation recognizes outstanding individuals, organizations or companies whose innovations blend methods from the worlds of business and philanthropy to create sustainable social value that has the potential for large-scale impact. The award is granted by a committee of CASE faculty, staff and students.