CEO MONTHLY Ι GLOBAL CEO EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2024 30 powa’s mission is to secure impact investing for the benefit of worldwide stakeholders. Its platform aims to, in CEO Ryan Lavelle’s words, “automate and scale impact,” protecting it from corruption with utter “transparency, and accountability” by implementing an ecosystem which provides comprehensive oversight. The company was founded on the belief that by leveraging blockchain technology and providing the right digital finance solution, sustainable development is with much closer reach for deprived areas. The goal at Mpowa is to directly bring investors’ money to their desired development projects without using intermediaries. By leveraging blockchain technology and digital currency, its platform ensures that all investments are traceable from the initial funding to the project on the ground. Between the range of SDG impact opportunities available to prospective investors and Mpowa’s consultancy services, its technology facilitates high impact, safe investing, pushing the Global South that much closer to sustainable development. “By means of enabling scalable impact, our mission is to empower communities to solve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and our vision is of a world free of scarcity, poverty, and social inequality and injustice. As we believe all revolutionary change starts with the sovereign individual, such we state our massive transformational purpose to be ‘empowering people everywhere to engineer abundance.’” As a veteran of banking and finance, Ryan Lavelle began exploring blockchain technology in 2018 and became involved in startups. Owing to diverse career experience and knowledge of finance, risk, and largescale team-based programmes, he has leant to remain calm under pressure and allocate resources and team efforts effectively towards a shared goal. Ryan turned his attention to global inequality and international development after being a first-hand witness to the events of 9/11. Having felt its impact deeply and in turn focused on doing his part to promote widespread wellbeing, Ryan now draws upon that broad skillset to provide Mpowa’s offering, a holistic impact investment solution. When pursuing Mpowa’s mission and approaching new partnerships, Ryan emphasises the need for “a lot of due diligence and discussion across all aspects of the endeavour.” His career background Most Pioneering CleanTech CEO 2024 (UK): Ryan Lavelle Achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals relies on many people playing their part, and that includes the right strategic investors. Development programmes require funding which many prospective investors are ready and willing to provide, but lack the network required to do so securely. Mpowa is a holistic ecosystem designed to enable businesses and consumers to sponsor sustainable development programmes in the Global South with the utmost faith that their investment is protected and used productively. provides a valuable foundation for each “360-degree analysis of the benefits, costs, SWOT, and long-term implications,” which he discusses with primary stakeholders to ensure their organisation-wide alignment with the mission at hand. “Building solid consensus,” he continues, “and buy-in from the management team and then the wider organisation is the key to long-term success.” “As our business is a very complex one targeting long-term systemic change, building trust and confidence in the marketplace of ideas is our primary focus at these early stages.” Though blockchain technology and decentralised finance are ever-evolving, Ryan considers the company in good standing regarding its stability in the face of regulatory changes. As global industry standards change, Mpowa deftly navigates what Ryan calls the “interplay between the old way of working and the art of the possible, as enabled by new platforms and technologies like AI and blockchain.” It operates in the blockchain decentralisation space with authority and confidence, maintaining compliance throughout times of change. Ryan helps to ensure Mpowa’s outstanding performance by supporting missiondriven teams with a focus on the individual. Cultivating strong interpersonal relationships and fulfilling individual needs and goals is a key tenet of Ryan’s vision for a strong team. He personally values a “flat management structure and an open-door policy” with a view to encourage openness, frank discussions, and an atmosphere of mutual trust. He laments that bullying and excessive pressure are rife in the banking industry and aims in all he does to steer Mpowa away from the toxicity his career path has exposed him to. Ryan does not see organisational and personal challenges as a hindrance but as opportunities, seeing them as a necessary part of his development as a person and as a leader. As the platform nears its launch, the team is focusing on the go-to-market strategy and securing customers its Impactivator beta, and his experienced stewardship is driving the company towards an explosively successful 2025. We at CEO Monthly are excited to see Mpowa undertake its mission as a paragon of clean technological innovation and the development of the Global South in kind. M Contact: Ryan Lavelle Company: Mpowa Web Address: www.mpowa.io Email: [email protected]
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTY1MjI4