SE Forum consists of a network of people working to promote social entrepreneurship.

A social entrepreneur identifies a social problem/need and uses innovative and entrepreneurial skills and principles to create, organize, and run activities with the purpose of being part of the solution to the social problem/need. While traditional entrepreneurs only measure the results in terms of economic profit for the company itself, social entrepreneurs also put strong focus on measuring their results in relation to the effects on society as a whole.

Through our activities we aim to turn social entrepreneurship into a recognized way of doing business. According to us the social entrepreneurship is a sustainable entrepreneurship that should equal to any other entrepreneurship. Thus, the vision of SE Forum is to promote those activities that lead to sustainable ways of doing business on the private, public and civic level.

SE Forum wants to be a precursor in the field of social entrepreneurship and in the creation of new perspectives on making sustainable business. It is also within our wish to improve the communication between the business world, the public sector and the civic society. Furthermore, SE Forum strives for a proactive and ethical dimension of the current entrepreneurship and chooses to actively promote enterprises that decide to go from corporate social responsibility (CSR) to social entrepreneurship (SE).

SE Forum wants to see a world with no poverty, social injustice or threat against the environment; a world in which the universal recognition and the efficient use of SE will lead to a sustainable society and a new perspective on entrepreneurship.     

SE Forum is first and foremost a platform and a meeting place for people who want to promote social entrepreneurship. SE Forum shall work as a knowledgeprovider, catalyst, and initiator of the creation of projects within the field of social entrepreneurship.

SE Bar – a meeting place with the purpose of creating new and interesting discussions and encounters between people working within the field of social entrepreneurship with different backgrounds and experiences.

Learning Journey - the purpose is to research the subject of social entrepreneurship and promote international knowledge exchange within the area of social entrepreneurship. An example is the exchange program with Pioneers of Change from South Africa.

The Think Tank: The Role of Business in Global Development - a project in cooperation with Utrikespolitiska Institutet, the Swedish Institute of Foreign Affairs.

Location

SE Forum i based in Stockholm, Sweden

Members

SE Forum is a non-profit member organization and consists of approximately fifty members with different backgrounds and professions. SE Forum welcomes anybody who wants to work with the promotion of social entrepreneurship – you are welcome to apply for membership.

Members of the Board 2010

Maja Frankel

Maja Frankel is project leader, process manager, lecturer and motivator. She has a Bachelor degree in media and communication science and a leadership degree from Kaospiloterna. Maja is the founder and since five years back also the manager of the consulting firm Frankel & Friends Samhällsförändrande konsulter. Maja’s focus is value-driven leadership and organizational creativity. Previously Maja has worked as a Youth Ambassador for UNICEF Sweden, published the book Vår förbannade rätt and has among other things developed the concepts of Ungt Inflytande and Framtidsboxen. Maja is currently director of the Swedish Board of UNICEF.

Arne Forstenberg, Founder and Executive director GlobalFOCUS  

Arne is one of the founders of GlobalFOCUS – the global project platform for climate entrepreneurs. Since 2007, GF has been running dozens of projects about solutions to climate change in Sweden, China and several other countries.  Prior to starting GlobalFOCUS, he was the President of the Uppsala Association of International Affairs. In 2008, Arne received the “Future Leader of Sweden Award” from Junior Chamber International. 

Alejandra Fuentes, Performance Auditor, Swedish National Audit Office

Alejandra Fuentes has a masters degree in political science and a degree from Berghs School of Communication. She now works at the Swedish National Audit Office but has previously co-founded Sprong, a communication agency with the aim of increasing citizen participation in different areas of society.

 Kjell Hasslert, CEO Telge 

Kjell Hasslert is the CEO of Telge group, a company that is fully owned by the municipality of Södertälje.  The company involves, among other things, residential, commercial and public buildings, purchasing, energy and district heating, recycling, port, water and sewage and electricity sales.  Read more here.

Eliza Kücükaslan, President of SE Forum

Eliza Kücükaslan is chairing SE Forum since April 2009, where she initiated the think tank “The role of the private sector in global development” in cooperation with The Swedish Institute of International Affairs. She works as a consultant within the field of corporate responsibility and sustainability at Enact Sustainable Strategies. She is also engaged with the social work of the cathedral parish of Stockholm (Stockholms domkyrkoförsamling). Eliza has a M.Sc in Industrial Engineering and Management from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

Karin Larsson, International Economics Student, LiU School of Management 

Karin is about to conclude her Bachelor’s degree in International economics from the University of Linköping. In 2009 she carried out a Sida-financed internship at an Azerbaijani NGO to get more information on how the non governmental organizations collaborate with international grant givers. The result was a bachelor thesis on the possible impacts that foreign aid has on the sustainable development process. Concurrently she got involved in SE Forum which led to an internship at the organization. Karin has previously lived, worked and studied longer periods abroad; among other things she has worked at the Logistics Department of Securitas Direct España and studied development economics at ITESM in Monterrey – Mexico.

Harry McNeil, Founder THE GOOD GUYS

Harry McNeil is co-founder of SE Forum. Harry has studied applied Engineering Physics at Lunds Tekniska Högskola, has a degree from the Kaospilots  and a M.Sc in International Relations from Stockholm University.  Harry has worked in China, Uganda, the US and has a background as a senior risk management consultant and business developer, as well as from the Swedish Emergency Management Agency. Harry is also a co-founder of the youth camp association Protus Sverige and Framtidsboxen. Harry is currently setting up a new innovative communication and business development agency for good cause.

Josefin Uhnbom, Coordinator Folkuniversitetet

Josefin has a Masters degree in Political Science from Uppsala University and the Swedish National Defence College. After working mainly in the public sector, with the Swedish Council for Crime Prevention (Brå), Josefin discovered the endless possibilities of social entrepreneurship through working as Regional Manager for Oxford Language Center, a start-up business offering language and interpretation services in Guatemala. The experience opened her eyes for how private initiatives can provide hands-on approaches to community development and growth in developing countries.

Sara Wallén, Manager mjuka flytten

Currently Sara works as the manager of ‘mjuka flytten’ – the soft move – a consultancy working with and for Third Culture Kids. Sara founded mjuka flytten as a result of her anthropology thesis on third culture kids’ identity creation. The inspiration was gained from being brought up overseas – in Bangladesh, USA, and Vietnam. As an educated Kaospilot from Århus, Sara has traveled the world as an organizational consultant working in Shanghai, Tel Aviv, Copenhagen,  the Netherlands and has now landed in Stockholm. 

Advisory Board

Johanna Laurin Gulled, Head of Research and Communication, Proventus

Co-founder of SE Forum. Johanna is Head of Research and Communication at the private investment company Proventus and founder and Head of Glasshouse Forum, a network of concerned capitalists and researchers that provides an arena for critical reflection on the merits and demerits of capitalism. Before Proventus, she was Research Director and Project Manager at the Swedish think tank Centre for Business and Policy Studies (SNS). Prior to that she finished her Masters in Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics, her Bachelor in Media and Communication Studies at Lund University and worked as Arts Officer and Public Affairs Officer at The British Council in Stockholm.

Svenne Junker, EU Policy Officer, Naturskyddsföreningen

Svenne  is working as EU Policy officer at Naturskyddsföreningen, the largest Green-NGO in Sweden. As an expert of public affairs, he is lobbying activities on governmental politicians and Swedish MEPs, organizing public campaigns to raise awareness on the value of nature, travelling to Brussels several times per month with the objective to influence public policy for sustainable development. Svenne has a background as PR and public affairs consultant at Burson-Marsteller. With M.Sc in Business Administration from the Stockholm School of Economics and BA in Political Philosophy from Stockholm University, he is currently enrolled as PhD candidate at the Stockholm School of Economics, studying the construction of decision-making models which influence the value of life and nature.

Carl Jonas Michanek, Founder, SE Forum

Jonas has a B.A. from Uppsala University, has attended the Kaospilot program in Aarhus and has a Global EMBA from Stockholm School of Economics financed by a scholarship from the Wallenberg foundation. He loves doing business with a good cause – good business! Besides SE Forum, Jonas has founded three companies: Idélaboratoriet, an international innovation consulting firm; 2C – producing sport journalistic content; and Innovation Circus – celebrating and promoting innovation in Europe. Jonas has also co-founded digitalbridge, a NGO that brings the knowledge of digital storytelling to Scandinavia.

Johan Rutherhagen

Johan Rutherhagen is a graphic designer and art director. He runs his own design studio, based in Copenhagen and Stockholm. Studied at Berghs School of Communication and Beckmans School of design in Stockholm. Johan has among other things worked as art director and journalist at the Swedish news paper Dagens Nyheter. How to work on and solve environmental issues and change our consumption and production patterns are subjects close to his heart.

Intern

Sanna Leino

Having gathered great amounts of inspiration during two years of on- and off travelling around Latin America, Sanna took up development studies at the University of Uppsala. This fuelled her interest for questions of human rights, poverty reduction and global inequality, and led to further studies in politics. An article about Corporate Social Responsibility and sustainable business practices finally caught her attention in the spring of 2009. Searching the Internet for more information on the subject ultimately took her all the way back across the Atlantic to participate in a CSR-course in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Back in Uppsala, Sanna got in contact with SE-Forum and is now doing an internship for the organisation, constantly looking out for creative and constructive ideas of how to contribute to a more sustainable society.