DAI Begins Work with Shell to Spur Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Local Employment

February 21, 2019

DAI’s Sustainable Business Group has been awarded the Shell LiveWIRE Global Consultancy. In this three-year corporate social investment project, DAI will serve as Shell’s global advisor on the strategy and implementation of LiveWIRE, its flagship enterprise development program focused on stimulating entrepreneurship, driving innovation, and generating meaningful employment in host countries.

DAI will help Shell strengthen the program in the 18 countries where LiveWIRE currently operates by developing training programs for early-stage entrepreneurs and identifying opportunities for successful small and medium-sized enterprises to connect with Shell’s local value chain and relevant local markets.

Shell LiveWIRE entrepreneur-graduates in Brazil. Photo: Shell.

In addition, DAI will work with the LiveWIRE team to expand the program’s reach, by designing programs for new LiveWIRE countries, for example, and providing strategic communications support to the LiveWIRE global team and country offices.

“We are excited and humbled at the prospect of advising the LiveWIRE program,” said Kyle Gunther, who will serve as DAI’s executive director on the Shell LiveWIRE project. “We look forward to building on the thousands of successes LiveWIRE has enabled since its inception in the early 1980s.”

“This partnership with Shell LiveWIRE is a testament to our long history in youth entrepreneurship, digital innovation, and enterprise development, as well as our deep expertise in helping companies optimize local content,” said Zachary Kaplan, Vice President of the Sustainable Business Group. “We’re thrilled to join with Shell in its work to support entrepreneurs in sustainable, innovative ways.”

The Sustainable Business Group supports private companies to be smarter corporate citizens in their local business operations and assists public authorities to develop policy, regulation, and incentives that grow sustainable industries.