LONDON – SAP UKI today announced a new partnership with Enactus, the world’s largest experiential learning platform dedicated to developing the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders and social innovators. The partnership will involve joint initiatives to drive SAP UKI’s future talent pipeline, while COO, Ryan Poggi, will join Enactus’ Board of Directors. SAP UKI will now serve as the sole technology partner to Enactus and will also make a charitable donation as part of its CSR programme.
Seventy per cent of UK millennials want to work somewhere that has a powerful social and environmental conscience. As part of his role on Enactus’ Board, Poggi will look at how SAP UKI can connect the Enactus students to technology that has the ability to drive social change. By supporting their ambitions of social entrepreneurship, Poggi will ensure that Enactus’ alumni have a pipeline of career opportunities with SAP UKI and other leading technology vendors that align with their values and beliefs.
“Joining Enactus’ Board of Directors is something that gives me great pride,” said Ryan Poggi, Chief Operating Officer for SAP UKI. “There’s a shift towards how students view their role in driving social innovation and finding solutions to the biggest challenges we face in the world today. The fact that Enactus now has 2,500+ students and 65 universities in the UK is a powerful testament to that, and our purpose to leverage innovative technology to help improve people’s lives unites our goals. I look forward to exploring ways to help Enactus students in the UK connect with opportunities that align with their social entrepreneurial ambitions, not just with SAP, but with our partners and customers as well”.
The partnership also includes the launch of a major social entrepreneurship competition with Enactus students across the UK. Sponsored by SAP UKI, the competition will see students solving an important social challenge around how to transition to a circular economy. The students will provide ideas on how the value of products, materials and resources can be maintained in the economy, thus helping to eliminate the generation of waste in the environment. Students will submit ideas and present them to SAP UKI in March, with the winning teams being shortlisted to join the global competition.
As part of the competition, SAP will offer grants and mentorship to teams that develop projects both locally and internationally. Martin Gollogly, Director of SAP UKI’s University Alliance Programme, will mentor Enactus students, while Lindsey Rowe, Chief of Staff COO / Head of People & Programmes Office at SAP, will look at how the Enactus programme can support SAP’s placement programme, which involves hiring 60 undergraduates in 2020.
“Our partnership with SAP is very important for our programme, bringing as it does not only opportunities to collaborate and to grow our technology for good impact, but also a collaboration that helps develop our students’ capabilities to understand how to tackle large challenges with innovative solutions based on real needs,” said Andrew Bacon, CEO of Enactus.
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About Enactus
Enactus supports young people to engage in youth social action and youth social enterprise. We lead a national network of socially-minded young leaders of the future who transform communities and society through real life social action and environmentally responsible enterprise.
The Enactus network of business, academic and student leaders are unified by our vision and are dedicated to creating a better world while developing the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders and social innovators.
We have an established University programme which has been running since 2001 and now operates in 60 Universities across the UK, engaging over 2,500 students each year.
We make the connection between character education and the world of work, enabling young people to develop the knowledge and attitudes they need to succeed, building on the experience of youth social action, enterprise and entrepreneurship. We work with educational professionals, business leaders, mentors, specialists and alumni who combine to create a unique co-curricular enterprising environment.
To find out more please visit www.enactusuk.org
For more information, press only:
Adam Clatworthy, SAP, +44 (0)7918 372043, adam.clatworthy@SAP.com
