FBN Next Generation Lombard Odier Award 2019 champions the next generation of entrepreneurs

The FBN NxG Lombard Odier Award was created in 2009 to celebrate and support outstanding intrapreneurial and entrepreneurial projects initiated by the next generation of family business owners.

The 2019 finalists were chosen by a jury of senior business leaders, entrepreneurs, and academics who reviewed candidates aged between 18 and 40 from 10 different countries. The finalists and their projects were selected based on the following criteria: Innovation, Viability, Sustainability, Communication.

This year, the FBN NxG Lombard Odier Award partners with Babson College who offered each finalist coaching sessions to help them pursue their ambitions. This included helping the finalists to prepare to present their innovative project and how they awaken their entrepreneurial spirit at the FBN 30th Global Summit. The winner will also receive complementary participation at one of the School’s international entrepreneurship bootcamps to improve their leadership and management skills, and academic tutorship to fine-tune their business plan.

The three finalists for the 2019 edition of the NxG Award are:

• WINNER: Robin Pho, Singapore, 2^nd Generation at Right People Renewable Energy – Founder of “From Doom to Bloom”
• FINALIST: Yashraj Khaitan, India, 4th generation at Gram Power – Founder of “Gram Power - Smart Grids for Sustainable Electrification”
• FINALIST: Manuela and Juliana Trujillo, Colombia, 3^rd Generation at Trujillo family group companies – Founders of “Madre Tierra”

Frédéric Rochat, Managing Partner at Lombard Odier said: “We offer our congratulations to Robin as the recipient of the award, and to Yashraj, Maneula and Juliana for the fantastic achievement of reaching the final stage. Entrepreneurship and innovation sit at the heart of family businesses, and we are very proud to be a partner in the FBN Next Generation award to celebrate these values and nurtures future family business leaders.”

“As an independent seventh generation family business, Lombard Odier has survived and thrived for more than two centuries thanks to our “Rethink Everything” philosophy which allows us to continually reinvent ourselves and stay in tune with an ever-changing world.”

“At Lombard Odier, we believe the Sustainability Revolution, where our economic model must transform to find new, more sustainable ways of generating growth, is already underway. The businesses that will succeed are the ones that have the vision and strategies to lead the revolution - “the Eagles” - as we have named them. On the other hand, there are companies with their heads in the sand - “the Ostriches” - focused on short-term profits, hoping that nothing will change. We are glad to see that all the finalists in the programme have committed their project to the theme of sustainability. All our finalists are true “Eagles” and with this mindset, we are confident that their family businesses will continue to thrive for the future generations to come.”

The Winner

Robin Pho is the oldest of three children and from the second generation of the Right People Group of companies. The original family business specialised in providing manpower services to the energy industry in Indonesia. Today, the business has pivoted to help commercial and industrial clients switch from fossil fuel energy to clean renewable energy.

Robin leads the business to focus on the triple bottom line of People, Planet, Profit. He strongly believes in sustainability and that family business can be a force for good and the business achieved B Corp certification this year.

The project, ‘From Doom to Bloom’ was initiated in 2018 with the aim of helping clients based in remote off-grid locations and using fossil fuels switch to clean renewable solar energy. The business aims to create customer value through helping the community in which clients operate (People), helping clients improve their environment by eliminating noise, air and water pollution (Planet), and helping clients save money on fuel expenses (Profit).

Commenting on the award, Robin said: “Everyone needs energy to live and we address that need by generating energy which is cleaner, cheaper and renewable. We work in remote off-grid locations where there are many problems – it is expensive to ship and transport fuel to these locations and diesel generators are pollutive, but there is a high capital requirement to purchase clean energy equipment. We solve these problems by producing clean solar energy directly on site, producing no emissions or waste, and offer a monthly instalment plan to make it easier for the client to afford the purchase.”

“We want to provide jobs and meaningful employment to our local community, and we are doing so by providing clean energy to industries and businesses that need it most. This conscious capitalism allows us to focus on putting purpose into profit and think in generations and not quarters. I have twin boys who are two years old and raising them daily reminds me that we need to be responsible stewards and let them inherit a healthier, cleaner, greener planet.”

Robin left banking to join the family business in 2008. He graduated from SMU with double majors in marketing and law, has an Executive Diploma in Directorship from the Singapore Institute of Directors, and an EMBA from INSEAD, where he specialised in family business.

The finalists’ profiles:

Yashraj Khaitan, India, 4th generation at Gram Power – Founder of “Gram Power - Smart Grids for Sustainable Electrification”

Yashraj Khaitan is the Founder & CEO of Gram Power, an energy technology company founded out of Berkeley, California. While the company started off with building low cost solar products and microgrids for rural electrification, today it is the market leader for smart metering solutions for the national grid in India and is managing over 100,000 kW of power in over 15 cities across the country. Yashraj has recently been awarded Forbes 30 under 30 Asia - Industry, Manufacturing & Energy 2019. He is the 4th Generation of an Indian enterprising family in the textile and paper machinery manufacturing industries.

Gram Power was initiated in 2012 and is in the business of radically reducing power distribution losses for State Utilities and Businesses in India - a $31B/year opportunity - by providing them our patented smart meters and online platform to detect and control leakages and losses in power infrastructure.

Yashraj said: “My education at UC-Berkeley taught me a lot about inclusive growth and encouraged me to dedicate my learning to solve large problems. It's these core values coupled with my father's entrepreneurial journey that pushed me to drop out of college and pursue my dreams with Gram Power. While I had a lot of options and freedom from my family to join the family's existing business, join a larger company or even pursue higher studies at Berkeley, everything seemed frail in front of the experiences I had in rural India which got me motivated to solve the large energy access and energy lost problems of India. Despite all the struggle, there's nothing for which I would give up this decision of pursuing and scaling Gram Power.”

Manuela and Juliana Trujillo, Colombia, 3^rd Generation at Trujillo family group companies – Founders of “Madre Tierra”

Juliana is a 24-year old business manager passionate about social impact and people. Manuela - 25 years old - studied fashion marketing and communication and has always been passionate about the environment and animal well-being. They are both from Bogota, Colombia, and part of the 3rd generation of the Trujillo family group companies.

As an intrapreneurship project for textile company Pizantex, they co-developed a company called Madre Tierra, which produces a line of ethically-sourced textiles that are less harmful to the environment.

This project has led them both along a path of sustainability, honesty, and love for the planet. It is their dream to make the textile industry an engine of change and they believe that together we can save water, eliminate toxic waste, reduce carbon emissions and use less oil in the manufacture of textiles and products.

Nominations for the 2020 FBN Next Generation award are now open – for further information, please visit https://www.fbn-nxgaward.com/