Roy Thomasson, CEO of the Young Americas Business Trust (www.ybiz.org), an organization supporting youth entrepreneurship in Latin America, spoke to students at URIS on Tuesday. Thomasson founded YABT four years ago as an entrepreneurial venture affiliated with the Organization of American States to find a better way to leverage resources to encourage the teaching and practice of entrepreneurship in Latin America and the Caribbean. “We know there is a problem with income inequality, poverty, and unequal access to opportunity in Latin America as well as much of the rest of the world,” Thomasson said. “The question is what are we going to do about it?”   Almost ten percent of all the young people in the world, about 100 million people aged 15 to 24, live in Latin America and the Caribbean, but economic growth has not kept pace with the population. Young persons under age 30 comprise an almost 60 of the population of the region. Thomasson told students that job creation requires a business solution – giving the region’s youth the tools to start their own businesses, no matter what size or industry. The wage sector simply cannot absorb the numbers of young persons leaving school each year.   YABT’s strategy is to promote a three-pronged approach: developing personal entrepreneurial attitudes, skills training and mentoring to youths, leading to finance, he said.   “We seek to catalyze a vibrant entrepreneurial sector in Latin American and the Caribbean,” Thomasson said. “We focus on four core areas: leadership, skills training, technology and resource partnerships.”    The group has paid particular attention to developing practical teaching curricula that students can apply immediately to real-life business questions. The curricula have received positive feedback from teachers and students alike. Since its inception, to respond to requests from OAS Member States, YABT works through partnerships and affiliates in most Latin American and many Caribbean countries and continues to grow at a pace that Thomasson admits has surprised even him.   YABT is part of a growing trend in public-private development partnerships that seeks to deploy the resources of government more nimbly and entrepreneurially to give young aspiring entrepreneurs the confidence, skills, and networks to start a company and grow it. He concluded by noting the strong support YABT had received from young entrepreneurs themselves and the important contribution that students in business schools like Columbia could make to international development.   The discussion was co-sponsored by Columbia Entrepreneurs Organization, the Managers in International Development Initiative, the Latin American Business Association, and the Social Enterprise Club.