Catalyst man chosen to attend G8 Summit

Clive Bawden, Business Development Director at Catalyst, was chosen to be part of the UK team attending the first ever official Young Entrepreneurs G8 Summit, held in Milan 2-4 July 2009.

The Summit, organised by the Italian Government in the official build up to the main G8 meeting of world leaders, saw young entrepreneurship organisations from each of the G8 countries discuss and agree the key factors affecting young entrepreneurs today and ways in which world governments can help them. Bawden was chosen by the British Council to attend in his role as IoD Young Directors Forum Chair, alongside fellow IoD Chair Jason Choy from Welcome Gate Solutions.

The main output of the summit was a joint declaration, completed during an all night working session on 2 July, and signed by all who took part. This was presented formally to world leaders in Italy during the main G8 summmit, and focused on the role of innovation and young entrepreneurs in creating new employment for all, a theme critically important at this time of worldwide downturn.

Bawden commented, “With an entire section of the declaration devoted to Green Innovation, an area particularly of interest to my firm, it was hugely encouraging to learn about other countries' work in this area within the G8. It was also great to learn from leading pioneers during our open sessions such as the inventor of the amazing Kyoto box for purifying water without any energy or chemicals, a truly stunning device in my opinion”.