The plan
How
Through fundraising, connect the region's capital and talent with entrepreneurs who have identified promising business opportunities.
A shared goal.A common dream.
Drag
Fighting poverty.
ACUMENWAU
PLAN
Strengthening Acumen's presence in East and Southeast Asia
Made to fit.
Built to ignite.
0 of 3 in place
The case
Why WAU? And why Acumen?
There’s money to get started!
The launch budget is within reach with donor and HQ support: Acumen has already attracted over US$1 million in donations for expansion in East and Southeast Asia and raised US$43.2 million globally in a single year.
They already have a foundation in the region.
They have established relationships, run leadership programmes and support a growing community of changemakers on the ground.
It’s their specialty!
25 years delivering credible, tangible results by raising and managing money dedicated to investing in companies that improve people’s lives.
Let’s not forget what they have been able to achieve…
A proven track record.
796M
lives impacted
$370Minvested in social enterprises
253companies backed
1.5Mjobs created or improved
2,000entrepreneurs and leaders trained
Cumulative figures since 2001, as reported by Acumen.
A wau is a Malaysian kite made from bamboo and paper.
To make a great one fly takes skill, persistence and people working together.
The full plan
Every number on this site is explained in the report: the roadmap, the team, the governance model and the ten-year forecast.
PDF · 3 pages
Executive summary
The plan in a few pages.
Open summary
PDF · 91 pages
Full report
What, why, how, who and how much, including every role description.
Open reportDownload PDFFinancial forecast
Income statement, headcount and funding need, Year 1 to Year 10.
Download forecastThe person behind the plan
Companies and businesses are not just about making money; they are a TOOL for creating social value and fighting inequality and poverty. For helping one another. For loving one another. I would like to be able to devote my life—and, if necessary, die—to making this approach known, widely spread, and put into practice.
Without really knowing why, from a very early age Juan Camilo became obsessively interested in joining the fight against poverty and inequality affecting the vast majority. An accumulation of deeply shocking experiences in the years that followed has surely made his hunger for justice increasingly insatiable: coming, like many others, from a country where injustice, horrendous violence, poverty, and inequality are the order of the day; painfully witnessing poverty and misery firsthand, day after day, as well as their devastating consequences, among those around him and even his loved ones; having seen both extremes, from informal settlements and slums in Bogotá or the Amazon to the entrance of Bill Gates’s mansion in Medina, Washington, United States; or, worse still, moving from living and working in France—a paradise in terms of working conditions and salaries—to call centers in Latin America that represent modern slavery; and, certainly, having lived through both wealth and, far more traumatically, poverty himself.
Foundations fight to solve problems and build a better world—one worth being born into, where everyone can live a better life. THE WORLD WE DREAM OF. Yet the vast majority of them struggle to survive and can barely carry out their work, while a staggering number have already closed because the long-established traditional model that governs how they operate and fund their work is deeply flawed and ineffective—problems compounded by a lack of business skills and a business-oriented vision. Companies’ profits can help fund these foundations, making them stronger, long-lasting organisations capable of delivering unimaginable results.
Juan Camilo’s major objectives
Objective1
To understand how businesses work and acquire business, commercial, and management knowledge, skills, and competencies.
Objective2
To understand how foundations and nonprofit organizations work, their needs, and the shortcomings of their operating models, and to devise and design one or more models that enable them to achieve lasting financial self-sufficiency through capital generated by business profits.
The steps to achieve them
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Understand how businesses work
Bogotá, Colombia
Universidad de los Andes
He studied Business Administration at Universidad de los Andes, the sixth-best university in Latin America. His undergraduate thesis, “The Case of a Colombian Palm Oil Company Seeking Certified Carbon Emission Reductions under the Rules of the Kyoto Protocol,” focused on finance and sustainable development.
Toulouse, France
Toulouse Business School
He was selected for a dual-degree program that allowed him to continue his studies and earn a master’s degree in Management (MSc in Business Administration). His final research project, “Corruption in Transnational Business and Its Impact on Multinational Companies,” focused on business ethics.
Young Juan Camilo in China during a one-year exchange program at Nankai University, 2006 · spoke Mandarin and English. I love businesses! Learning how others build and run theirs, conceiving businesses of my own, and running them. It’s exciting, fascinating… It gives me an adrenaline rush and makes my heart race. It’s like playing a really difficult strategy game, but in real life. It’s about creating, designing, inventing, solving problems, persevering, overcoming obstacles, adapting, changing, learning, refining, winning, and most importantly… losing.
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Understand businesses from the inside and build hands-on skills
Accounting Assistant at a successful, medium-sized domestic clothing company.
(Don Luis, Bogotá, Colombia, May–August 2006 · Industry: Apparel manufacturing · worked in Spanish)
Business Consultant for a small agricultural company.
(Tomacol, Bogotá, Colombia, February–June 2009 · Industry: Business consulting · worked in Spanish)
Business Consultant for a small technology company.
(Consilium, Toulouse, France, February–June 2009 · Industry: Business consulting · worked in French)
Junior Human Resources Project Manager, focusing on competency management and career management at the headquarters of a European transnational corporation with 52,000 employees and yearly sales of about €27 billion. Prepared the report and presentation of his project for the Vice President of Engineering, who reported directly to the CEO, and took part in the meeting where it was delivered.
(Airbus, Toulouse, France, 2010–2011 · Industry: Aerospace · worked in French and English)
Project Manager and Executive Assistant at a small environmental megaproject consultancy, with average project budgets of about US$750,000. Presented the deployment phase of an environmental project in person to one of the ministries of the Ecuadorian government in Quito, Ecuador.
(Aïgos, Bogotá, Colombia, 2013–2016 · Industry: Environmental consulting · worked in Spanish and French)
Head of Compensation and Recognition at one of the largest American companies in the digital world, for its nationwide call center operations serving Brazil.
(GoDaddy, Bogotá, Colombia, August 2017–February 2018 · Industry: Internet technology and cloud services · worked in Portuguese, English and Spanish)
Entrepreneur, founder, and director of a successful language training center with an innovative, socially oriented model built for large-scale expansion in a later phase and designed to reach substantial numbers of customers and beneficiaries.
Now (HABLABLA!, Bogotá, Colombia, 2018–present · Industry: Education · worked in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Mandarin)
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Understand how foundations and nonprofit organizations work
2016 · Bogotá
He completed a diploma program in Nonprofit Organization Management.
Fundación Universitaria Empresarial de la Cámara de Comercio de Bogotá
2003–2026
He volunteered on several occasions for different foundations and organizations:
Volunteer construction worker for a local community in Villavicencio, Colombia, 2008. 
With his friend Jenn, campaigning as activists for the signing of the peace agreement in Colombia, 2016. See all 9 volunteer rolesShow less
August 2026
Donor and Donation Handling Volunteer for people affected by the August 10 earthquake in Colombia
Fundación Galería Aborigen
August and December 2017
Fun Day and Gift Giveaway Organizer
Local public elementary school serving a low-income community — Institución Educativa Distrital Agustín Fernández
September–October 2016
Volunteer Founder and Promoter
Activist movement — Consciously Defending Our Peace (Lucha Consciente por la Paz)
September–October 2016
Peace Education Committee Volunteer
Activist movement — Peace Camp (Campamento por la Paz)
September–October 2013
Volunteer Agronomy Assistant
Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms
June 2008
Volunteer Construction Worker
Local church — Centro Cristiano Villavicencio
February–April 2006
Volunteer Teacher
Shakira’s Barefoot Foundation — Fundación Pies Descalzos, Colegio Gabriel García Márquez
November 2005–February 2006
Volunteer Singer
Steve Green Concert Backing Choir
January 2003–January 2005
Volunteer Singer
Local church — Centro Cristiano Santafé de Bogotá
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Spread the word about purpose-driven businesses
Negocios con Sentidos
“Businesses with Purpose”
Founder of “Negocios con Sentidos” (“Businesses with Purpose”), a movement promoting for-profit ideas that aim to use profits more wisely and generously, with the goal of establishing its own organization.
Giving an interview on Solidaria Stereo, a local radio station, explaining what ‘Negocios con Sentidos’ is.
Step 5 · Today!Where both objectives meet
I am ready, and I cannot wait to help manage projects like Acumen! They are made for me, just as I am made for them!
TOGETHER WE CAN DO MORE! LET’S JOIN FORCES!
More Reasons Juan Camilo Fits WAU
360° Perspective and Long-Range Vision
ClickTap on each part to expand!
ClickTap each reason to discover it
With his one-of-a-kind Brazilian team at GoDaddy, 2017–2018.
Speaks Mandarin (at an intermediate level).
Is familiar with East Asian cultures. He lived in China for a year and spent a month in South Korea.
Cross-cultural fluency.
Highly fluent in English, French, and Portuguese, visited 19 countries across 4 continents, lived or spent extended periods in 4 of them, this helped him understand different perspectives, bridges differences, and help people work toward a common goal.
Global teams.
Most recent role Managed 4 people on average. Team members represented 6 nationalities and worked across 7 countries and 5 continents
GoDaddy Managed incentives and benefits for 60 Brazilian employees based outside Brazil.
Airbus Revitalized a 700-person employee community through networking events in 4 countries. Worked daily from France with representatives in Spain, Germany, and the UK.
Both sides.
Has been both an employer and an employee.
Personal Understanding of Entrepreneurship.
Has built a business, taken part in calls for investment, and lived through the highs and crises of entrepreneurship. Knows firsthand where the systems meant to support entrepreneurs fall short.
Personal Understanding of Poverty
Has experienced poverty himself and spent much of his life around people facing poverty, inequality, and injustice, including people close to him. Understands firsthand where institutions and traditional aid models fall short.
Learning from Failure.
Has a long history of mistakes made, lessons learnt, and odds overcome.
Choosing Him Means Helping Many
Juan Camilo comes from a low-income country and has seen the hardships that can bring to people close to him. He also belongs to minority groups that face discrimination. His education and experience have brought him to a point where he can be heard, an opportunity many in his community have had fewer chances to access. He sees the richness of his background and the knowledge he has gained as a privilege that comes with a moral obligation to help others around the world and fight for them.
Entrepreneurship is one of the keys to making progress, fighting poverty, and improving life for all of us. If governments, business leaders, and nonprofit organizations understood even one thousandth of its potential to solve so many of our problems, they would make it a top priority and rally everyone to give it their all.
Other passions
- Languages
- Governance models
- Politics
- Sociology
- Education
- Art
- Fashion
- Philosophy
- World cultures
Hobbies
- Writing
- Books, films and TV series inspired by true stories
- Travel
- Singing
- Dancing
- Gastronomy
- Cooking
Business Developer✦Strategy Expert✦Kindhearted Businessman✦Company Founder and Owner✦One-of-a-Kind Language Trainer✦Business Administrator✦Business Consultant✦Project Manager✦Business Creator and Manager✦
20 Countries✦5 Languages✦Everywhere Agency✦HABLABLA!✦Negocios con Sentidos✦Airbus✦GoDaddy✦Ecuadorian National Agency for Water Regulation✦Universidad de los Andes✦
ESC Toulouse✦Nankai University✦Tianjin University of Finance and Economics✦Bogotá Chamber of Commerce✦Ambassador for Purpose-Driven Businesses✦Activist for Justice✦Citizen of the World✦Proud Colombian✦LOVER✦