Meltwater Foundation Appoints Two New Senior Faculty Members as the MEST Class of 2012 Commences

London – November 05, 2010 – Meltwater Foundation, the non-profit arm of Meltwater Group, one of the world’s leading Software as a Service (SaaS) companies, today announced the appointment of two new senior faculty members for the Ghana based Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST). To coincide with this, the Class of 2012 has been announced and will commence training in the program.

The two senior faculty members are Peter Van Dijk and Jim Kaubisch, who are responsible for the development of the trainees of 2011 and 2012 respectively.

Peter Van Dijk joins with over 25 years’ experience of global management and consultancy work, in which time he has set up and managed large project organizations. As part of this he has provided tactical and strategic counsel on matters relating to a company’s regulation, culture, information supply, system integration and automation. As a business consultant, Van Dijk has managed the re-organizations of companies and departments, and has been on-hand to provide advice on mergers and acquisitions. In 2007, Van Dijk established the Interim Management and Consultancy firm. Prior to that, hewas the IT Director EMEA and Asia Pacific, and subsequently the Chief Information Officer Global at Initiative Worldwide, a global media, marketing and digital company with 90 offices in 65 countries.

Jim Kaubisch has extensive global experience in successfully building, training and managing diverse, global teams in both established and start-up companies. With a background in IT and telecommunications, he has previously been Group CTO at Sun Microsystems, where he transformed and delivered innovative business projects, from concept through to deployment. Kaubisch most recently set up his own project consulting and development partnership, CAPPDEV Partners, focusing on the implementation and maintenance of complex infrastructures that support the business process.

“Knowledge is the one factor that multiplies when you share it, and I’m very happy to be able to help young people move up in a challenging world by sharing what I have learnt and experienced,” said Peter Van Dijk.

“It’s a rare opportunity to be able to share your professional experience in such a direct and personal way with future entrepreneurs, and to be able to see the impact their development at MEST has on their future and their contribution to the community,” said Jim Kaubisch.

Furthermore, 21 Entrepreneurs-in-Training (EITs) have been selected for the class of 2012, with graduates from across Ghana specializing in areas such as physics, computer science, information management systems, mechanical engineering and laboratory technology.

MEST aims to provide ambitious graduates with the entrepreneurial skills to establish global software companies, helping to stimulate local economies and create jobs. Returns generated from investing in the incubated companies cycle back into the non-profit program, creating a sustainable model for enabling software entrepreneurs in Ghana.

About MEST

The Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) is a non-profit training and mentoring program with the objective to help young Africans to become software entrepreneurs. Founded in 2008, MEST aims to provide its students with the skills required to establish software companies in the global marketplace and thereby creating jobs and wealth locally in Africa.

Students receive two years of fully sponsored training in software development, business fundamentals and entrepreneurship. MEST also administrates an incubator and a seed fund dedicated to help the MEST graduates to convert their business ideas into viable companies in the global marketplace. The MEST program is fully funded by the Meltwater Foundation.  For more information, please visit http://www.meltwater.org/

About Meltwater Foundation

The Meltwater Foundation is the non-profit arm of Meltwater Group. Since its start in January 2007 it has launched the MEST program (Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology) in Accra, Ghana, dedicated to the encouragement and training of budding African software entrepreneurs. The Meltwater Foundation is fully funded by the Meltwater Group.

About Meltwater Group

The Meltwater Group is a privately held software company founded in Norway in 2001, serving more than 18,000 clients through 50 offices located across North America, South America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia. Meltwater is committed to challenging existing business models by introducing disruptive technologies.​The Meltwater Group delivers B2B solutions based on search engine technology, cloud computing and talent management software. For more information, please visit http://www.meltwater.com.  

 

Contacts:

Dan Purvis

Meltwater Group

+44 207 489 6406

dan.purvis@meltwater.com

 

Kimling Lang

Meltwater Group (US)

+1 408 718 4995

kimling.lam@meltwater.com