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Change Makers: Gavin Poole and Nana Badu

Gavin Poole is CEO of Here East, the Olympic Park home to some of the country’s most vibrant innovators, from leading universities to the most exciting and disruptive creative and technology start-ups around. Over the past eight years, Here East has grown under Gavin’s leadership to become home to more than 4,500 entrepreneurs, creatives, visionaries and like-minded locals, all with the vision to deliver on the 2012 Olympic legacy and contribute positive social impact to east London. But Gavin’s journey didn’t start there; a former RAF officer, he tells his story and the life lessons that drive him to create opportunities for others.

Web Summit 2019 - Day Three
Gavin speaking at Web Summit in 2019.

With Badu Sports and the Badu Community, Nana Badu is on a mission to empower young people through sports and mentoring. Sharing his story that saw him move to the UK from Ghana aged 10 and face social exclusion throughout his childhood, Nana explains how sport motivated him, helped him to understand his worth and gave him a direction. Today he is using the lessons he learned through sport to mentor young people in east London, to stay on the right path and achieve their goals.

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Nana with his students at one of his teaching sessions.
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Chapter 1 outlines the concept of mission and how the breakthrough brands of today have succeeded by building a mission that inspires belief, generates a following and instils a purpose beyond profit.