Bart Weetjens

founder, APOPO

Skoll Awardee

Biography

Bart is a Zen priest and celebrated social entrepreneur. In 1995 he founded the organisation APOPO, which saves human lives from disaster and disease by training HeroRATs. Based on the shared vision that inner wellbeing is a prerequisite to do sustainably well in society, he joined The Wellbeing Project in 2015, to shift the culture in the field of social change to a more caring and compassionate one. In 2017 he co-founded lagrandeterre.org, a permaculture/wellbeing center
in the French Ardennes. Bart has been elected an ASHOKA fellow and a SCHWAB fellow to the World Economic Forum. He won the Skoll Award for social Entrepreneurship in 2009. Bart holds a Masters in Product Design from Antwerp University, Belgium.

Regional Focus

North America, South America, Europe, Southeast Asia, Eastern and Southern Africa

Related Content

Bart Weetjens - APOPO, Charlie Richter - APOPO, January 23, 2020
For two decades, innovative social enterprise and 2009 Skoll Awardee APOPO, has researched, developed, and implemented detection rats technology for humanitarian purposes, most notably for demining operations. It has freed…
Bart Weetjens - APOPO, April 13, 2016
Fierce compassion: what a stimulating theme for deep connection at the 2016 Skoll World Forum. At first, fierce compassion may sound like a paradox. We tend to associate fierceness with…