OLIVER-WYMAN

Oliver Wyman announced today a new partnership with Ashoka, the world’s largest network for social entrepreneurs, to support a new inclusion fund called Hello Nordics.

This fall, ten social entrepreneurs – eight from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden and two internationals – will kick off a large-scale inclusion effort across the Nordic region. The entrepreneurs each bring their own unique approach to fostering integration and inclusion. Their common goal: to scale their solutions to better both social and financial inclusion of marginalized people in the Nordic region.

The ten entrepreneurs have all been carefully selected based on their ability to address root causes in a systemic way, by involving policy makers, lawmakers, communities and target groups. The participants are Catalysts (NO), Sisters in Business (NO), Foreningen Nydansker (DK), GAME (DK), Startup Refugees (FI), Icehearts (FI), Mitt Liv (SE), Idrott Utan Gränser (SE), Welcoming International (USA/Germany) and ACAF/Winkomun (Spain). (Learn more about each participant here: http://www.hello-europe.eu/nordics/ )

Hello Nordics is part of a larger European integration effort and has been taken to the Nordic region by Ashoka in partnership with Oliver Wyman and several other organizations including Nordea, Acando and Vinge. The entrepreneurs enter a six-month accelerator supported by the partners to significantly scale up their activities, primarily by entering one or several Nordic countries outside their origin. Leveraging its expertise in wealth management and as part of a global ambition to use its core capabilities to achieve wide-reaching social impact, Oliver Wyman’s Stockholm office designed the innovation fund that will enable the entrepreneurs to scale their initiatives.

“Oliver Wyman has been active on a global as well as Nordic level in promoting inclusion. Developing a fund to support entrepreneurs scale up their already successful activities was an easy decision,” says Sean Cory, Nordic Market Leader at Oliver Wyman and member of the Hello Nordics Advisory Board.

“Ashoka’s ambition is to create positive systemic change in society. We know that these ten entrepreneurs can create a more inclusive Nordic region by bringing their concrete and proven solutions to scale,” said Emma Lindgren, head of Ashoka in Sweden and part of the Ashoka Nordic team.

About Hello Nordics

Hello Nordics is an accelerator program focused on scaling proven solutions around social and financial inclusion/integration across the Nordic region. Hello Nordics seeks to identify leading social entrepreneurs, provide support to scale impact and broaden the outreach. Between September 2018 and February 2019, the Hello Nordics project will support 10 leading social entrepreneurs focusing on inclusion/integration – eight initiatives from across the Nordic countries and two global initiatives with plans to spread to the region. Through the project the participants will get support to work on their scaling strategy for greater impact. Two main accelerator modules will include training, mentoring and workshops led by experts around a number of topics such as leadership, scaling strategies and impact goals. A final event will connect the participants with key scaling enablers in the region.

About Oliver Wyman

Oliver Wyman is a global leader in management consulting. With offices in 50+ cities across 26 countries, Oliver Wyman combines deep industry knowledge with specialized expertise in strategy, operations, risk management, and organization transformation. The firm's 3,700 professionals help clients optimize their business, improve their operations and risk profile, and accelerate their organizational performance to seize the most attractive opportunities. Oliver Wyman is a wholly owned subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies (NYSE: MMC). For more information, visit www.oliverwyman.com . Follow Oliver Wyman on Twitter @OliverWyman.

About the partners

Ashoka is the world’s first and largest organization for social entrepreneurship and changemaking. Since 1981, Ashoka has supported more than 3,500 social entrepreneurs and over 50,000 young changemakers in 98 countries with the vision “Everyone a changemaker”.

Nordea is the largest financial services group in the Nordic region and one of the biggest banks in Europe. Nordea want to make a real difference - for their customers and for the communities in which they operate - by sharing its broad expertise based on 200 years  in the banking business.

Acando combines deep technical knowledge with an understanding of human behavior. They innovate, streamline and mobilize organizations to achieve sustainable change.

Vinge has many of the most prominent business lawyers in Sweden. Together they number 450 co-workers in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, Helsingborg and Brussels.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180925006128/en/

Contact:

Oliver Wyman Media: Julia Klein, +44 20 7852 7372 julia.klein@oliverwyman.com