Editors Note: This event has unfortunately been canceled. ChangeUP will no longer take place on November 2nd.
He started out small, like most entrepreneurs, in the basement of his home with a great partner – his six-month pregnant wife.
Now, 15 years later, he has a $2.3 billion company that has been recognized for it’s contribution to global change.
Photo Credit: Okanagan ChangemakersMurad Al-Katib of AGT Foods.
Murad Al-Katib is the founder of one of the world’s largest lentil companies, handling almost a quarter of the world’s supply, AGT Foods and Ingredients, based in Saskatchewan.
He says entrepreneurship is the future in solving the world's problems.
He was named Ernst and Young's Global Entrepreneur of the year award in 2016, and was also awarded the Oslo Business award in 2017 for his work in the response to the Syrian refugee crisis.
Celebrating #EOYPrairies with the 2017 World EOY winner Murad Al-Katib. Exciting night! pic.twitter.com/zr56nsV3wi
— Debra L. von Storch (@EOYDebra) October 20, 2017
His business was responsible for delivering meals to millions of Syrian refugees during the emergency response, which saved the United Nations and the International Red Cross millions in distribution costs.
“It shows how entrepreneurs and companies with social conscience can approach and solve a societal problem. In this case, feeding those refugee families was a crisis,” says Al-Katib.
The program that he pitched to the UN and the International Red Cross successfully fed 700 million refugees.
The #REDGala being held in #Regina tonight raised over $400,000! Thank you to event co-chairs @muradagtfoods & Tami Wall pic.twitter.com/OpVIvSPNNj
— Canadian Red Cross (@redcrosscanada) September 8, 2017
“Not only were we profitable doing it, with a social conscience and responsibility, but the agency that we worked with was actually able to feed millions of more meals because they were able to do it so efficiently, and that was a very rewarding part of watching this program unfold,” he says.
Al-Katib has been invited as keynote speaker at ChangeUP in Kelowna on November 2nd, where he will talk to aspiring entrepreneurs about building a profitable company that is focused on social responsibility.
“It's about feeding the world, it's about the environmental sustainability of agriculture, it's about refugee settlement and feeding programs and we’ve done that in the commercial business and that’s kind of cool,” Al-Katib says. “I’m excited to come and share the story of how I started a company that has grown to a couple billion dollars, and social purpose has been interwoven into the whole business strategy.”
ChangeUP is a pitch competition featuring local social entrepreneurs making a difference in our community. Six organizations will be presenting their innovative solutions to social and environmental challenges for a chance to win cash prizes.
Tickets are available through the Okanagan Changemakers website.
