David Erasmus
David Erasmus was born in Kempton Park, Johannesburg, on December 5, 1985. Six months later, David moved to Cardiff, United Kingdom, where most of his family originate from. At the age of 4, he moved to Surrey, south of London, UK, where he enjoyed a state school education, growing up as the youngest alongside his 3 siblings and Mother and Father. At the age of 18, David left school with a conviction that he could achieve more in 3 years in the business world than he could by going to University. After 6 months, he set up his first business; broadplace.com After growing the business for 2 and a half years, managing £5million of advertising revenue and employing 20 staff locally and abroad, he sold Broadplace to pursue more socially minded endeavours. His journey took him back to his South African roots, to reconnect with his relatives there. He also spent time alongside Jane Goodall in the USA, asking the questions: what needs to be done? And how can we leave a legacy that multiplies after we are gone? That journey led him to engage with two key issues; creating entrepreneurial opportunities for employment, and creating sustainable educational opportunities for disadvantaged children.
Following this revelation, he co-founded clickego.com, a South African (Cape Town) based and majority owned online marketing business, created to inspire entrepreneurial activity amongst young Cape Tonian's and inspiring employment opportunities in the local area. He has also been involved with forming NoPc.org.uk, a sustainable solution for rural education powered by solar panels and 3G internet connection, which is amongst the most advanced in the world, in South Africa. In January 2010 he is looking to help put the first NoPc units in India
More locally, in the UK, after meetings with the centre for social justice, David and a team identified the same needs found in Africa, on our doorstep, amongst the gang culture in London. Young people desiring people to change their lives with no outlet to do so due to their chequered pasts and limited options for the future. The team decided to launch an alternative option for gangs in the form of Mustard. ([Askmustard.com]) Mustard is a community based business that gives young people an opportunity to be part of starting their own business that reaches out to meet their local communities needs through partnering with local businesses and authorities. In March 2010 3 trials will launch in Roehampton, Peckham (London) and Leatherhead (Surrey).
David is also a founding member of the Fellowship for Philanthropy, a Government initiative orchestrated by the cabinet office under Dame Stephanie Shirley, the ambassador for Philanthropy. For the last few years, he has also been an ambassador for the Government's initiative, Enterprise UK, formerly Make Your Mark, where he conducts various talks and interviews on topics of trust, relationships, and good business that benefits others. These include speaking to students at Imperial College London, in front of UCL and Kings College London students, speaking for SIFE, and Imperial Entrepreneurs.
He now primarily runs a business start up incubator, called Cubate.com, which facilitates web and mobile start ups that have a positive impact on our society. Projects include (see external links below): GetGiving, Mustard, xinspired, David is also a non-executive director at Metafour.com.br, Brazil's first Google Adwords specialist.