Caroline Casey Award winning Social Entrepreneur, Business Woman and International Speaker
Caroline Casey a serial social entrepreneur, Founder of Kanchi, The Ability Awards, Co-Founder of Elephant Family, has been recognised internationally for her pioneering and innovative approach to changing attitudes and perceptions of disability focusing on business and media. In 2000, Caroline left her Management Consultant position with Accenture and founded Kanchi, an organisation established to influence this change, which she named after the elephant she trekked across Southern India on during a 1,000km personal journey.
Designing products and initiatives around the Disability Business Case Kanchi is leading a global business movement that will drive societal change for people with disabilities. Kanchi’s multi-stakeholder approach, designed to engage critical top level leadership is core to its success. Kanchi devised its flagship programme - the Ability Awards to recognise and build awareness of the Business Case for Disability creating a standard of best practice that can be practically replicated throughout the business community. The awards are now being rolled-out internationally, initially with partner, communications giant, Telefonica across five countries in the next five years with the focus on Europe.
Caroline is invited around the world to speak on her leadership work at eminent events including the Global Competitiveness Forum, the Clinton Global Initiative, TED and Davos.
She became the first Irish person to be appointed a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, is an Ashoka Fellow, Eisenhower Fellow and received an Honorary Doctorate from National University Ireland. She currently sits on the boards of a number of media and charity organisations in Ireland. Caroline is visually impaired to the degree that she is registered as legally blind.
Scaling up and financial sustainability
Kanchi, a recipient of the Ashoka Globalizer award is currently scaling its Irish operations to meet the market demand for its Ability Awards programme internationally with the establishment of a new company, Kanchi International. In response to a constricted funding environment Kanchi is also focusing its attention on developing a revenue generating business based on licence fees and provision of training, consulting and gap analysis offering to business. Due to the success of the Ability Awards in Ireland Kanchi has also developed the Kanchi Network, the first business membership organisation in Ireland focusing on the competitive advantage of inclusive business. Central to the Kanchi Network is the Kanchi Benchmark and training modules. The Kanchi Benchmark, based on the assessment and verification process of the Ability Awards, is a best practice tool for business that will enable continuous learning around the Disability Business Case, providing a standard of excellence that companies can work towards. In time, both the Kanchi Network and Kanchi Benchmark will be replicated internationally in countries that have been successful in running the Ability Awards.
Through her work in Kanchi, Caroline has been involved in many consultative forums on social entrepreneurship and has a particular interest in the areas of scaling, mentorship, access to funding and multi-stakeholder engagement.
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Testimonials
"I want to extend a very special Thank You to you for organizing Caroline Casey as our guest speaker. The atmosphere during the day was excellent from arrival right through to the late hours and the overall feedback for Caroline was tremendous - our guests felt Caroline was one of the top speakers we had over the 25 years – a truly accomplished, inspirational, thought provoking and overall natural speaker." Michelle Murphy, President BPW Galway, May 2011
"Whoever said “you can’t please everyone all the time” has not met Caroline Casey. Caroline managed to capture our audience for a full hour in her presentation on Career Development. It was the first time that we got 100% top marks for a presenter with comments of “inspirational”, “highly motivational” and “just so authentic”. Many thanks Caroline" Joan Byrne, Product Marketing EMEA, Dell. 11th November 2010
"Your speech was informative and thought-provoking can can only have encouraged those present to be even more proactive..." Gabrielle Fitzpatrick-McCrickard, Manager, Employers Forum on Disability
"Caroline was fantastic and her talk was way above anything else as the highlight of the day. Everyone I spoke to thought that her talk was inspirational as well as being highly informative and charming" David Johnston, Chief Legal Counsel, O2 Ireland
"I was deeply impressed by her humour, honesty and highly expressive articulation of the lifepath that has brought her to her current position as CEO and founder of The Aisling Foundation. She was inspirational to the 500 delegates who attended that session and I am pleased to acknowledge the vital part she played in the success of the Céifin Conference. We have had many requests since the conference for contact details for Caroline ~ a testimony to the impression she made on the day." Liam Bluett, CEO, The Céifin Centre
"Caroline is a breath of fresh air. She gave us an insight to what is achievable once you are honest with yourself about what you want to do, and passionate about achieving it. She has a wonderful communication style that is warm, engaging & funny while delivering an impactful message. Truly uplifting!" Alice O’Brien, Microsoft, Ireland
"Caroline did a great job today for our talent program. Again, like in January, she delivered a motivational, enthusiastic speech to the audience with exactly these key messages (don't give up, go for a challenge, allow yourself mistakes) I expected from her. I received the overwhelming positive feedback from the participants directly after the session." Holger Kirchhoff, Hewlett Packard
"Caroline was fantastic and her talk was way above anything else as the highlight of the day. Everyone I spoke to thought that her talk was inspirational as well as being highly informative and charming." David Johnston, Chief Legal Counsel, 02 Ireland
"Firstly, let me thank you for your time last night, I thoroughly enjoyed your talk, it was so motivational. I was so taken with your passion and The Aisling Foundation that I would like to help, if you ever require any marketing in Scotland I would be delighted to do this for you on a free of charge basis. Thanks again for a great talk." Scott Simpson, Director, Powerful Stuff
"I attended the master class at Glasgow Caledonian University last night. It was truly fantastic. You make a difference every time you present." Paul McCafferty, Scottish Enterprise Network
"On behalf of network Ireland and the conference committee I would like to thank you for making a wonderful presentation at our national conference on 5th October last. Everyone commented on how inspiring and interesting all the speakers were and we were delighted with the positive reaction to the day." Gaye Moore, National President, Network Ireland
"I would just like to thank you sincerely for speaking at our recent Extraordinary Lives Event. Your speech was uplifting and really connected with the audience members young and old alike. It was a pleasure to meet and work with you….We would welcome the opportunity to work with you again at some stage in the future. Once again thank you for helping to create what was a fantastic evening. David Nevin, Suas Educational Development
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