Starting a Social Enterprise and Making an Impakt

Today I on the show we welcome social entrepreneur Jeroen van Overbeek, Jeroen was a corporate high-flyer, successful from a young age, his last corporate gig saw him managing 800 employees across 9 countries and was in charge of 260 million dollar business. However, his life lacked a focus on giving back, on impacting the human experience on the planet. Skip to 2020 and Jerone is very clear how helping people in need is was the reason he was put on this earth. I met Jerone recently in coordinating relief efforts to face the crisis in Bali. His social enterprise, Social Impakt, provides high-impact ceramic water filters to improve
access to clean drinking water for rural communities in Indonesia. They do some amazing work.

If starting a social enterprise or simply pursuing a more purposeful career is of interest, this is a must-listen podcast. Jeroen kindly shares the smart process he employed in researching and founding a social enterprise.

About the Guest

Jeroen Van Overbeek, from the Netherlands, has twenty years of international experience in the B to B ingredients field (food, chemicals, pharmaceuticals ). He holds an MBA from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Jeroen held various positions in Asia and Europe in Business Development, Project Management and General Management.

He led teams across borders and cultures, in both emerging and developed markets. Jeroen can converse in 6 languages, amongst which Chinese (Mandarin) and Bahasa Indonesia.

Jeroen worked for corporations like Associated British Foods, where he was Vice President EMEA for the Yeast division and led a business of several hundred million US$.

Prior to this, from 2002 to 2009, he spent 7 years in China, where he led the Asian operations of the Specialty Chemicals division of the SNPE group. Jeroen has a good knowledge of the Asian markets, has always had an interest in social enterprises and aspired to start his own business.

This is the reason why he founded Social ImpaKt, a social enterprise operating in Indonesia whose mission is to improve access to clean drinking water in remote communities. Jeroen’s vision is to help people at the bottom of the pyramid with access to safe and affordable technologies which are enhancing their everyday life and have a positive impact on the environment. And these technologies create micro-business opportunities within the local communities.

Podcast Conclusion

It was such a pleasure to have Jeroen on the show and below you’ll find where to follow him and how you can personally make a difference by supporting Social Impakt. If you enjoyed this episode of AMLBD please ensure to subscribe and go directly to the AMLBD site if you too are interested in a more purposeful career and are interested in learning how check out the career coaching section of the site here. Thanks again for joining us on the show and whereever you are in the world wishing you a beautiful morning, day or eve.