TakingITGlobal - Member Profiles

Home

Make Connections

Member Profiles

konanrich

Member Map

	konanrich
	Richard Y. Konan , MBA


Title and Organization:		Ivorian Diaspora Inc, Executive Director
Gender and Age:		Male, 31
Location:		Chicago, Illinois
Country of Residence:		United States
Languages:		French , English



Website:		http://www.ivoriandiaspora.org
Instant Messaging:		To protect the privacy of members, Instant Messaging information is only available to logged in members of TakingITGlobal. Login or Sign up now, it's free!

About Me

Born and raised in Ivory Coast, West Africa, Richard Konan consider himself as a global citizen, he is founder and member of various youth organizations in his country of origin and in the United States as well, he has strong leadership and organizational skills.

He was the founder and former national president of the World Congress of Youth in Ivory Coast. Under his leadership, the WCY has become one of the leading youth organization in West Africa.
He was also the former moderator of the Youth Employment Summit 2002 forum and head delegate of the Delegation of Cote d"Ivoire at the State of the World Forum in Oct, 2000 in New York.

Under his stewardship, Richard was able to expand the global reach of the Yes campaign by rallying youth from all corner of the world.
He successfully led the brainstorming session of the creation of a Global Fund for Youth Entrepreneurship that will allow young entrepreneurs throughout the world to have easy and fair access to capital to start their small projects. The project under the Leadership of Poonam Ahluwalia is now a REALITY. Please check http://www.yesweb.org/fund/ and get involved.

He recently completed his Master in Business Administration ( MBA ) with concentration in Finance and International Business at Dominican University, River Forest, Illinois USA. As part of his program, Richard had the opportunity to experience first hand the chinese economical miracle. He was also fascinated to know that General Motors intend to make China its 1st market, but he was shocked to know that the company required chinese workers to have at least a bachelor degree to work on the assembly line and were getting paid less than $2/hour.

Prior to that, Richard Studied Advanced probability and statistics at Northern Illinois University( USA) , There, he has successfully started a local operation of AIESEC, which is the world's largest students organization. AIESEC is a global network of 50,000 members across more than 83 countries and territories at more than 800 universities world-wide. AIESEC facilitates international exchange of thousands of students and recent graduates each year.

In September 2003, Richard Konan was appointed Secretary-General of the World Congress of Youth , an international non-profit organization committed to empowering youth around the world. In the interest of promoting and protecting the welfare of fellow youth throughout the world, the WCY commits itself to serving, to representing, and to leading youth in the new millennium.

Recently, Richard Konan has decided to launch a new campaign to help his home country: the Ivory Coast which presently divided by a unjustified war. The Campaign "Ivorian Diaspora" aimed to reunite all IVORIANS from the diaspora together in order to work hands in hands, economically, culturally, ideologically and socially so that Ivory Coast can become peacefull and prosperous.

Ivorian Diaspora is now incorporated in the state of Illinois as a Not-For-Profit Corporation and has chapters in Europe, Africa and in the US.

Convinced that Microfinance Institutions are a great tool of poverty alleviation, Richard Konan is currently working with a staff of experts at the National Credit Union Administration to start a federal credit union for the Ivorians people in the US. The project requires a lot of intensive training and large amount of capital. With the help of his peers and also with God, the institution will open in mid 2008.

Countries Visited

This map requires Flash Player 8 or higher.
Click here to get the latest Flash Player.