By Kimberly Parker
The Social Enterprise Program honored Ben Powell ’05 of Agora Partnerships as the inaugural recipient of the Social Enterprise Alumnus Innovator award. This honor is awarded to a Columbia Business School alumnus/a who has innovatively applied business ideas, principles, or tools to make a social or environmental impact. Powell is the founder and managing partner of Agora Partnerships, a nonprofit organization that works with small and growing businesses to fight poverty in the world's poorest communities. The award was presented at the 2011 Annual Social Enterprise Reception on February 9.
Nominations for the award came from fellow alumni, employers, and friends of the Social Enterprise Program, and the nominees comprised a group of extraordinary and inspirational innovators. The advisory board of the SEP reviewed the nominees and then selected Powell as this year's Alumnus Innovator. In his keynote speech, Powell spoke of the assistance he received from professors and fellow students in starting his venture and the continuous support from the SEP through summer fellowships and international development pro bono consulting projects.
"I was very honored to get the award, because Agora has been such a joint effort of people at Columbia," Powell said. The organization draws on the School's natural strengths — finance, investment, and social enterprise, he said.
It was in a Columbia Business School class that Powell wrote the business plan for Agora Partnerships, and he launched the venture with the help and advice from more than two dozen fellow students. Agora works with impact entrepreneurs — entrepreneurs whose businesses make strong, positive contributions to their communities, such as creating jobs for low-income workers and working to protect the environment. By targeting businesses in the missing middle — businesses too large for microfinance but too small to attract traditional growth capital sources — Agora works to fill a gap in financing and make a definitive, positive impact on local economies.
Furthermore, Powell aspires to democratize access to opportunity in developing countries and to build a culture of impact entrepreneurship in Central America. Agora Partnerships works in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras, with plans to expand to Mexico, and has provided business advice to more than 400 small and growing businesses and helped 25 companies obtain financing. Through its strategic initiatives, Agora is continuously working to find new and innovative ways to contribute, and to extend opportunity to anyone with the ambition to make a positive social impact.
The Social Enterprise Alumnus Innovator Award will be an annual prize awarded at the Social Enterprise Annual Reception every year. The next reception will be held in February 2012, and solicitations for nominations will begin in November.