Melissa Rancourt, Greenlight for girls (Belgium)

Abstract: NGOs are plagued with the continuous challenge, arguably even more than traditional companies, to deal with the never-ending lack of resources and funds. Though, scarcity of finances does not equate to an inability to be innovative – quite the contrary! In fact, NGOs are an excellent source of know-how and ingenuity on innovative approaches. Learn from one grassroots initiative, called greenlight for girls, as the Founder takes you through their international journey using examples of innovative approaches to reach their market and to inspire others with their motto – the future is full of possibilities.

Biography: Melissa Rancourt is considered a social entrepreneur and enjoys working with teams and companies to improve the society in which they live and work. She is the founder of the international NGO, greenlight for girls, a social initiative with the mission to encourage young girls to consider a future in math, science and technology by introducing them to the world of science in fun and exciting ways. In the course of fourteen months, the greenlight for girls foundation is a network of 500 strong, with rapid growth, and operates in Europe, US, Africa and Asia. This is what keeps her busy on weekends and during pockets of spare time created when possible. During the business day, she leads an international project management firm, Greenlight, specialising in projects bringing new business creation to all industries, driving change management and improvement initiatives and implementing community and social initiatives. She works with companies across Europe on creating excellent practices within their business and has spoken at several business events, TV programmes and press conferences in recent years. Ms. Rancourt is also an evening professor at Boston University Brussels since 2003 and teaches a wide repertoire of courses including Operations Management, Negotiations, Project Management, Communication and International Marketing. She is an Industrial Engineer (BS, Rochester Institute of Technology) and MBA (Babson College) by background specialising in creating efficient operations and effective communication. She believes that innovation and creativity gives the necessary spark to drive growth and success in any business.