Skoll Scholar 2009/10
Prior to attending the Saïd Business School, Louis Dorval had been working with Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Canada for nine years, first as a volunteer and finally as a the Director of West Africa Programs. At the very beginnings of the organization, he co-chaired EWB’s first national conference and founded the Global Knowledge Partnership awarded SCALA Program, a livelihood training program for Filipino youth still enrolling thousands of out-of-school recruits yearly. Since graduation, he has been working in six African countries and now leads four of EWB’s overseas program areas, facilitating change towards improved governance and economic growth. Last year, as a Gordon Global Fellow, Louis ran a policy influence project promoting new accountability structures for African civil society organizations.
Louis also co-founded CommEx Mission, a start-up that offered trade consultancy and trade mission services to Canadian small and medium size enterprises in Latin America. Louis graduated in Mechanical Engineering from McGill University where he received the Gretta Chambers award for leadership.
Louis decided to study business administration because of the lack of management (and change) capacity he observed in his partners in Africa. He opted for a specific focus on social entrepreneurship because he wants to better understand how market-driven incentives can help promote the behavior changes that are needed to accelerate economic growth in Africa. He chose to study at Oxford because of the excellence of its student body, the reputation of its academic staff and the support to Skoll Scholars.