Working on creating the social entrepreneurship ecosystem in Latvia since 2018 when hired to develop many aspects of the growing “Social entrepreneurship association of Latvia” both long and short-term strategy and routine.
Founder and CEO of social enterprise LLC “Ligero” – the mission is to engage young people with disabilities into work-life by offering innovative testing methods created together with pedagogues and psychologists.
As a Social project manager at social enterprise “Sonido” being in charge of social project development and expansion of the “Let’s talk!” concept.
I consider myself a true European and I have dedicated most of my working life to promote European values: as a Communications officer at the European Commission and as a lawyer-linguist at the College of Europe.
What drives your work and mission?
I have been indoctrinated in the belief that one must work hard from an early age. I also always wanted to be self-sufficient in a field that draws me. Initially public communication answered this need but after I discovered social entrepreneurship, I understood that I can both satisfy my personal drive and benefit society.
I furthermore saw a solution to the acute lack of workforce for entrepreneurs, a trend that will increase in the future. “Ligero” was established to both fulfil my determination for interesting work, my need for sustainable profit, and as a means of resolving the future problem of lack of staff.
Creating such a business is a group effort. My role is to bring the team’s best characteristics out to fulfil a common goal: to integrate those traditionally marginalised by social norms into the workforce. They are all around us yet we don’t see them.
These potential, but still invisible employees are people with a disability, especially – youth. And seeing societal change keeps me going when growing the business becomes difficult.
