Forbes magazine named Magatte Wade one of the “20 Youngest Power Women of Africa.” Magatte was born in Senegal, educated in France, and started her entrepreneurial career in the U.S. Her first company, Adina World Beverages, based on indigenous Senegalese beverage recipes, became one of the most widely distributed U.S. brands started by an African entrepreneur. Her second company, Tiossan, sells skin care products based on indigenous Senegalese recipes online and at high-end boutiques. Magatte was also named a Young Global Leader by the 2011 World Economic Forum at Davos and is a frequent speaker on college campuses.
Wade: I was born 80 kilometers south of Dakar on the coast of the Atlantic, in a small town called M’bour. It used to be a very small town but because it’s a beach village, it’s become one of the main leisure and tourist towns.
Kaizen: The Gambia River runs from the west through Senegal?
Wade: Yes. We are about three hours north of that.
Kaizen: What was your education as a child like?
Wade: I never went to school when I was a child in Senegal. I credit a lot of who I am and my love of freedom to that—to the fact that my grandmother allowed for me not to go to school.
Kaizen: So you were raised by your grandmother primarily?
Wade: Yes, for three or four more years. Instead of going to school, I would spend all of my time playing with boys, going on expeditions, and things like that.
By May, a new law in Chile should be in effect, allowing entrepreneurs to incorporate their businesses online for free within one day. This is part of Chile’s Year of Innovation, a billion-dollar initiative launched by President Sebastián Piñera, which is designed to simplify the process of innovation for Chileans.
On January 31, Professor Arielle John will speak on “How culture influences entrepreneurial decision-making.” Professor John is a native of Trinidad and a Ph.D. candidate in economics from George Mason University. She currently teaches in the Department of Economics at Beloit College, Wisconsin.
Professor John’s talk will be held in Scarborough Hall, room 212, from 11 am-12:15 pm. All members of the campus community are welcome to attend.
Kaizeninterviewee Steve Mariotti writes about his Network For Teaching Entrepreneurship’s programs in Europe. “Youth unemployment,” he says, “Is one of the biggest problems in the world. Its impact is particularly evident in Europe, where in November youth unemployment rates hit 23.7 percent in the European Union, and a whopping 57.6 percent in Greece and 56.5 percent in Spain. I believe youth entrepreneurship education can bring these horrible unemployment rates down.”
William and Wilson Ling are shareholders and board members of Petropar S.A., one of the major producers of aluminum beverage cans and plastic closures in Brazil, and the world’s second largest supplier of lightweight spunmelt nonwovens fabrics for disposable hygiene applications.
Kaizen: To start with your background and how Petropar began. You were born in Brazil?
Wilson: All four Ling siblings are Brazilian—Winston (born 1955), William (1957), Rosa (1959), and Wilson (1961).
Kaizen: Your parents immigrated from China in the 1950s?
William: Our father, Sheun Ming Ling, was born in Beijing in 1921 and was raised in Wenzhou. He left China in 1948, in the wake of the communist revolution, first to Taiwan. In early 1950 he went to Hong Kong where he met Lydia Wong who was born in 1928, in Shanghai.
Our father wasn’t educated in a formal school; he was homeschooled. It was usual at that time for families to do homeschooling. So basically his education was at home with private tutors.
He lost his father when he was young—at age 12. So he stopped studying and started working as an apprentice. He joined the China Vegetable Oil Company (CVOC), which was a large entity with state and private ownership that had a virtual monopoly in the vegetable oil industry. It was there where he acquired all his experience in this industry. But he always worked as an accountant or as an auditor. He wasn’t involved in operations. He knew the operations from his work as an auditor.
Our latest issue ofKaizen features a bold new design and an interview with William and Wilson Ling, shareholders and board members of Petropar S.A., one of the major producers of aluminum beverage cans and plastic closures in Brazil, and the world’s second largest supplier of lightweight spunmelt nonwovens fabrics for disposable hygiene applications.
Global Entrepreneurship Week starts today and runs through November 18. So far, Dropifi (an app that helps ecommerce businesses to connect more effectively with customers) won the award for most innovative startup, and hundreds of new business were created. Many more events are coming up this week in over 130 countries.
A new Sketchbook video illustrates the impact of Global Entrepreneurship Week, which features over 30,000 events worldwide from November 12 through 18.
At Entrepreneurship.org, Jonathan Ortmans explores the conditions that are making Africa a great climate for entrepreneurship, including the rise of local investors, mobile banking, and planned tech cities. Ortmans concludes: “The next chapter in Africa’s history will be largely written by its new generation rather than by foreign aid organizations. More importantly, I expect Africa to lead in fresh thinking about problems and in producing world-class innovations that will benefit us all.”
Forbes magazine named Magatte Wade one of the “20 Youngest Power Women of Africa.” Magatte was born in Senegal, educated in France, and started her entrepreneurial career in the U.S. Her first company, Adina World Beverages, based on indigenous Senegalese beverage recipes, became one of the most widely distributed U.S. brands started by an African entrepreneur. Her second company, Tiossan, sells skin care products based on indigenous Senegalese recipes online and at high-end boutiques. Magatte was also named a Young Global Leader by the 2011 World Economic Forum at Davos and is a frequent speaker on college campuses.
