Mariotti (right) with BESA winners

Steve Mariotti, Kaizen interviewee and founder of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), wrote about his experiences with young entrepreneurs at the Bright China Entrepreneurial Spirit Award (BESA) ceremony. “…These young people would most likely end up as low-income workers in factories. Through the NFTE/Bright China program, they were inspired to start their own businesses,” Mariotti said.

Read more here.

Related: “China’s Century?” by Michael Beckley [PDF].

Chan Luu is CEO of Chan Luu, Inc. Born and raised in Vietnam, Luu came to the USA for college in Boston before launching herself as a designer of jewelry and clothing in Los Angeles. Her designs are now carried by stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, and Banana Republic, as well as in high-end stores in London and Japan. We met with Chan Luu in L.A. to discuss entrepreneurship in the design business, how she combines creativity with bottom-line thinking, and the challenges of maintaining a successful enterprise in the fashion world.

Kaizen: Your designs have been worn by many Hollywood celebrities—Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga, Kate Hudson, Christina Aguilera, Reese Witherspoon, Sandra Bullock, Janet Jackson, and many others.

Luu: It has been happening for a long time and, of course, it’s always exciting.

Kaizen: But your story starts in Vietnam, where you were born. Where in Vietnam did you grow up?

Luu: I was born and raised in South Vietnam, in Nha Trang. I don’t know if you know that town. It’s more toward the center. It’s a seaside town, very beautiful. I was born and raised there. But mom and dad had business in Saigon, so I did go back and forth.

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Kaizen interviewee Mary Mazzio was profiled last month in Forbes. The piece covers her various careers: Olympian, lawyer, filmmaker, and entrepreneur.

Read the article here.

Read our in-depth interview with Ms. Mazzio here.

In our latest issue of Kaizen we feature an interview with Chan Luu, CEO of Chan Luu, Inc. Born and raised in Vietnam, Luu came to the USA for college in Boston before launching herself as a designer of jewelry and clothing in Los Angeles.

Also featured in Kaizen are: student essay contest winners Farzaneh Farhangi, Kelly Foster, and Rebecca Robinson; Extreme Entrepreneurship Day; filmmaker Jeffrey Van Davis‘s discussion panel for his film Only A God Can Save Us; and guest speakers Douglas Den Uyl, who visited us from Indianapolis, and Federico Fernández and Martin Sarano, who visited us from Argentina.

A PDF version of Kaizen is available here. We will soon post separately the full interview with Ms. Chan Luu.

If you would like to receive a complimentary issue of the print version of Kaizen, please email your name and postal address to CEE [at] Rockford.edu.

In an article for Huffington Post, Rieva Lesonsky credits Generation Y, which she dubs “Generation Entrepreneur,” for a major role in the entrepreneurial comeback of the 2010s. She cites Gen Y Capital Partners among organizations seeking to correct the difficulty Generation Y entrepreneurs often have in finding capital. The company donates $10 million to Generation Y startups, and gives some of its proceeds to Kaizen interviewee Steve Mariotti‘s Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship.

Read more here.

Kaizen interviewee and guest speaker Robert Bradley, Jr. talks about the connection between green energy projects and crony capitalism on the Forbes website.

Read the article here.

Francesco Clark is founder and CEO of Clark’s Botanicals, based in Bronxville, New York. At age 24, he became paralyzed from the neck down after a swimming pool accident. Some physicians thought he would never move or breathe without assistance again. But with great effort over several years, Mr. Clark made strong progress and, given his physical-therapy experiences, developed an award-winning line of skin-care products that became Clark’s Botanicals, now sold in Europe, Asia, and the United States. We met with Mr. Clark in New York to discuss coming back from tragedy, what it takes to fight against overwhelming odds, and entrepreneurship as an option for people with disabilities and special challenges.

Kaizen: Where did you grow up?

Clark: I grew up in Italy — in Bologna — for seven years and then we moved to New York. Since sixth grade, I grew up just outside of New York City in Westchester.

Kaizen: When you were a teenager, what were you thinking your likely career would be?

Clark: My original career path was to be become a diplomat. So I went to Baltimore and studied at Johns Hopkins. I double majored in International Relations and Romance Languages. I liked that because it gave me kind of a wide funnel, a wide array of options to go into. I took the Foreign Service Exam and I passed, and it gave me the option in going into that aspect, or business, or law. But in reality, I didn’t really know what I wanted; I was just curious. I love learning and I’m still just as curious as I was before about that. And then I just kind of started working after I graduated.

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In our latest issue of Kaizen we feature an interview with Francesco Clark, founder and CEO of Clark’s Botanicals. At age 24, he became paralyzed from the neck down after a swimming pool accident. Some physicians thought he would never move or breathe without assistance again. But with great effort over several years, Mr. Clark made strong progress and, given his physical-therapy experiences, developed an award-winning line of skin-care products that became Clark’s Botanicals, now sold in Europe, Asia, and the United States.

Also featured in Kaizen are: student essay contest winners Nicole Schnack, Jake Maliszewski, and William Newkirk; High School Entrepreneur Day, Professor Jules Gleicher’s new course, and guest speaker Dr. Al Gini.

A PDF version of Kaizen is available here. We will soon post separately the full interview with Mr.Francesco Clark.

If you would like to receive a complimentary issue of the print version of Kaizen, please email your name and postal address to CEE [at] Rockford.edu.

John Allison is the retired CEO and Chairman of the Branch Banking & Trust Corporation, based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Under Mr. Allison’s leadership from 1989 to 2009, BB&T grew from $4.5 billion to over $152 billion in assets to become the tenth largest financial institution headquartered in the USA. Almost more impressively, while many top banks failed outright or received large bailouts during the recent financial crisis, BB&T remained healthy and profitable. Mr. Allison is currently Distinguished Professor of Practice in the Business School at Wake Forest University.

Kaizen: Where did you grow up?

Allison: I grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina but I moved between the 10^th and 11^th grades to Chapel Hill, and graduated from high school in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Kaizen: When you were young, did you think you would become a banker?

Allison: Not at all. I was interested in economics in high school but not in banking, per se.

Kaizen: What were your early career dreams when you were a kid?

Allison: I thought I would work for a railroad and maybe be a railroad engineer.

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In our latest issue of Kaizen we feature an interview with John Allison, former CEO of BB&T Corporation. Under Allison’s guidance, BB&T has become one of the top financial services companies in the world. He was nominated by MorningStar as one of the best CEOs in 2008.

Also featured in Kaizen are student essay contest winners Jennifer Harolle, Alyssa Baggio, Derek Garcia, the Walhout Prize in Philosophy winner, Nathaniel Branch, and guest speaker Dr. David Henderson.

A PDF version of Kaizen is available here. We will soon post separately the full interview with Mr. John Allison.

If you would like to receive a complimentary issue of the print version of Kaizen, please email your name and postal address to CEE [at] Rockford.edu.