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Prof. Dr. Kriengsak Chareonwongsak is an academic and a politician who keenly searches for transforming ideas that can shift society into a better world for future generations. For this cause, during his time at Harvard University in 2006, he found that all he has been doing for the last 27 years can be in line with the notion of, “Social Entrepreneurship,” (SE), a new field within which development practitioners and policymakers around the world have increasingly focused. SE concepts offer him an innovative way to solve contemporary social problems, with this approach providing more sustainable and operable solutions to elevate the living conditions of the people he serves.
The conception of Political Leaders for Social Enterprise (PLSE) first emerged in early 2007 when he broached the idea of initiating an international organization to proliferate social enterprises in every country around the world to his fellow leaders in various regions around the world. He sees that while the academic, social and business sectors are already deeply involved in SE, political leaders are conspicuously missing from this landscape. To make social enterprises a truly revolutionary engine for social change, political leaders must be fully engaged to create effective public policy and a more conducive environment for social entrepreneurship.
With support from Kriengsak’s fellow leaders at Harvard, PLSE’s inaugural meeting was held on June 4th, 2007. Bylaws were drafted and seconded by the participants. The first Board of Directors includes political leaders from Africa, Asia, Europe and USA.
The founders of PLSE passionately believe that political leaders are accountable for empowering citizens to solve problems. They also believe that citizens are capable of creating social change through social entrepreneurship. Therefore, an organization created to mobilize global political leaders to work with academic, social, and business sectors to implement public policies to promote social entrepreneurship is indeed needed.
In September 2007, PLSE was officially registered as a nonprofit corporation with the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, USA, but its activities hold potential for every region of the world. Since its official establishment, PLSE has been credited as being a promising catalyst in the world of social entrepreneurship development. |
PLSE’s History 
