Rafael Salas – Liderazgo Joven

Rafael Salas-Vazquez

  Email: rafa.salas@liderazgojoven.com

Sustainability • Corporate Social Responsibility • Green Building • Socially Responsible Investing • Startups

Rafael is the founder and CEO of RASAVA Group, a business group conformed by Cilforsa, OrganiQuo, Global Institute for Standardization and Dividendee. Also he is President of Fundacion Liderazgo Joven, a NGO where he is promoting sustainability, socially responsible investments, organic food production, human rights and youth leadership. With Cilforsa, he addresses both the need of adequate housing and the recycling deficit in Mexico by converting soda and water bottles into unique, durable homes; Rafael is the patent holder of a machine that fills plastic bottles with earth, winning the 1st place in National Award “Innovative Youth for the Environment, Mexico 2010”.

Rafael was recognized by the Líderes Mexicanos magazine as one of the top ten entrepreneurs in the housing industry in Mexico. He is member of Rotary International, Harvard University Mexican Association of Students and Gen M. His projects are supported by Ashoka, New Ventures and Agora Partnerships.

Sponsored by CILFORSA and Fundacion Liderazgo Joven, Rafael designed the “Bottling the World Program” (Embotellando al Mundo) to promote worldwide the green constructions through innovative models of financial sustainability and social responsibility that have enabled it to scale their proposal and increase allies in countries like the U.S., Italy, Korea, Colombia and Peru.

During the Young Entrepreneurs Conference organized by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, in October 2011, Rafael was Ambassador from Mexico in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

In February 2013 he built in Harvard Yard the first structure with bottles and snow in the world. In July 2013, was nominated to the MTV Millennial Awards. In November of 2013, “Bottling the World Program” was considered by PitchBull and ITESM as one of the Top 20 successful startups in Mexico and, received the national award “Stop the Climate Change” (Rompe con el cambio climatico) by the Mexican government.

As CEO of Dividendee, a Brokerage Firm, attend the Global Round Table of the UNEP-FI in Beijing, China in November of 2013. In 2014 Rafael consolidated his initiative to promote organic agriculture in Mexico funding Organiquo, a company to help farmers to get certifications with CerPro in order to export their organic products.

In March 2015, Rafael was selected as Delegate to the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan. That month, the EXPANSION magazine has named he one of the “30 Promises for Mexico”.

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