A SCOTTISH entrepreneur, whose company is leading the fight against water poverty in developing countries, has received an invitation to join Barack Obama at a European town hall.
Alan Mahon, who founded craft beer company Brewgooder in 2016, was invited to the Obama Foundation event in Berlin which brought together hundreds of emerging young leaders from across Europe.
The event, which took place on 6th April, aimed to ignite conversation about what it means to be an active citizen and help advise how the Obama Foundation can help support emerging leaders.
When the event was announced last month, Bernadette Meehan, Chief International Officer at the Obama Foundation, said: “President Obama and the Foundation want to hear directly from emerging leaders from across Europe—about their aspirations, challenges, and issues of concern and opportunity.
“The future of Europe lies with these young leaders, and the Foundation wants to help them advance and scale their work.”
President Obama took questions from invited guests as well as questions submitted online by young people across Europe.
Alan said: “I felt honoured being asked to help represent Scotland, social enterprises and the fight against water poverty at this prestigious event.
“I can recall being 18 years old when I stayed up all night to watch Barack Obama become the US President in 2008 and having such a strong sense of hope in a better future then which was renewed by attending the Obama Foundation Town Hall with so many inspiring young leaders from across Europe.”
The 300-plus guest list included leaders from across Europe who are working in areas such as government, civil society, journalism, transparency, food security, entrepreneurship, anti-discrimination, integration issues, environmental sustainability, and technology.
Brewgooder is the world’s first Clean Water Lager and uses 100% of its profits to fund clean water projects in some of the world’s poorest areas and each case of Brewgooder sold provides a person with clean water for over five years.
Since launching in 2016, it has helped more than 64,000 people across Malawi through 132 clean water projects and aims to have helped over 100,000 people gain consistent clean water access by the end of 2019.
