Ashoka
Who We Are
Ashoka is a global network of social entrepreneurs and changemakers (Ashoka Staff, Ashoka Fellows, Ashoka Young Changemakers, Ashoka Support Network, Partners, Institutional Leaders, CEOs) from across the identity spectrum seeking to co-lead and co-create an Everyone a Changemaker world.
Each member of Ashoka's network self-identifies as a changemaker – a person that sees themselves as capable of creating large-scale change. At Ashoka's core are social entrepreneurs, visionary and persistent individuals with innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social, cultural, and environmental challenges, and offering new ideas for systems-level change.
Ashoka's History
Bill Drayton founded Ashoka in 1980 based on the idea that the most powerful force for good in the world is a social entrepreneur: a person driven by an innovative idea that can help correct an entrenched global problem. The world’s leading social entrepreneurs pursue system-changing solutions that permanently alter existing patterns of activity.
Ashoka's Priorities
Ashoka currently focuses on three strategic priorities to support a world where everyone can make a change to their society and its culture:
Social Entrepreneurship
Social entrepreneurs champion innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social, cultural, and environmental challenges. They model changemaking behavior, and catalyze organizations and movements where everyone can be changemaker.
Empathy & Young Changemaking
In order to thrive, young people need to know how to make an impact in today’s rapidly evolving world. Gaining the skills for changemaking, including empathy, must become the new norm for growing up.
Learn more
Organizing for a Changemaker World
Succeeding in a world where everyone drives change requires a new way of organizing: where we break through walls between sectors and within organizations to work together in fluid, open, and communicative teams.
Ashoka Switzerland
Ashoka Switzerland, founded in 2009, is part of Ashoka's global network.
We are a thriving community of change leaders: social entrepreneurs, Ashoka Support Network Members, Partners, foundations and companies who partner with Ashoka, who see that the world now requires everyone to be a changemaker.
Together, we collaborate to transform institutions and cultures, so they support changemaking for the good of society. We strive to shift the global economy to be more socially responsible and respectful, for which we create meaningful collaborations with strategic actors.
Our Team
Ashoka's leadership today is a group of change leaders with a track record of positively impacting society and empowering others to be changemakers. The team is made up of 300+ Ashoka staff worldwide, that supports the vision of an "Everyone a Changemaker" world.
Discover below the Swiss team and international staff members located in Switzerland.
Ashoka Switzerland Staff
Ashling Hoare
Finance and operations Manager Belgium and Switzerland
Ashling joined Ashoka in August 2019. She is the Finance and Operations manager for the offices of Belgium and Switzerland. Ashling has a Master in Finances from the ICHEC Brussels Management School.
Before Ashoka, Ashling used to work as a relationship manager in the finance sector for BNP Paribas Asset Management. In parallel of her professional life, Ashling has always been active in volunteer work and is currently a member of Natagora – an association active in nature preservation. Although born and raised in Brussels, Ashling is of French and Irish nationality.
International Staff Located in Switzerland
Olivier Fruchaud
LRP for Nestlé Partnership
Olivier is managing the global partnership between Ashoka and Nestlé, after having launched and led the Ashoka Switzerland office during 7 years.
He loves engaging public and private organizations into innovative alliances with social innovators to tackle main social challenges at scale. He holds a Master in Management from the French Business School EM Lyon (2001). After his studies, Olivier launched the “ecotour venture” in 1999 aimed at identifying innovative environmental best practices and engaging students on sustainable development. In 2004. Olivier also co-created the association "Sustainable Finance Geneva" in 2008 to promote sustainability and responsibility within the Swiss financial community.
Daniela Kreimer
Changemaker Companies Manager
Daniela worked for 6 years as Co Creation Manager and then Executive Director of Ashoka Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. Currently she is based in Switzerland working as a Fellows Engagement Manager for the Changemaker Companies Team. Specialist in impact business and local development, she was part of the International Movement of Social Enterprises developed by the Nobel Peace Prize Muhammad Yunus. With a degree in Business Administration and a Masters in Local Development, she worked at the Grameen Bank and Yunus Centre in Bangladesh, Germany and Colombia. In Argentina she founded the social enterprise SOWILA, which works on the empowerment of women in vulnerable situations, and worked as a consultant in local development and social innovation projects for the State.
Arnaud Mourot
LGM - Changemaker Companies
Arnaud Mourot is Co-Director Ashoka Europe. A member of the French team of Olympic wrestling for 10 years and a graduate from ESCP Business school, Arnaud has been involved in the humanitarian sector since he finished his studies. He founded and led the NGO “Play International” (formerly Sport Sans Frontières) in 1999. He has also contributed to the development of various Social Businesses and CSOs in France. He launched the operations of Ashoka France/Belgium/Switzerland in 2005. He now leads the development of Ashoka in southern Europe and Francophony, as well as Ashoka’s “innovation for EACH businesses” initiative. He also serves as a global spokes person for Ashoka.Arnaud is married and the father of 3 children. He lives in Switzerland.