Business heroes for a better world
A society plants trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. Be an Atlas leader, set a high example to inspire others and leave a footprint for the generations to come.
The Business Heroes
Society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know shall never sit in
– Ancient Greek proverb
“I come from an Italian family with a long entrepreneurial tradition that goes back two centuries. From a young age, I learned that entrepreneurs have a moral obligation to their predecessors and to future generations for building a better world. We call this moral obligation an “E.S.C. approach”. E.S.C. stands for Ethics, Sustainability and Creativity and these are the values that inspired the foundation of Atlas World whose projects we hope will inspire other people facing this era of lightning-fast change to make a positive impact on our society.”
“Life is the biggest match we will ever play: we can win or lose depending on the quality of our game.”
An Italian enamoured with the “Paris of the East”, Budapest, where he lives.
In his first 50 years, he expressed his creative and entrepreneurial abilities, both nationally and internationally, in various areas: mentoring and personal growth, event management, political strategy and communication, online trend and community development, graphics, photography and marketing.
Continue reading Luigino’s story here
Dimitry Ljasuk is the founder of the creative Pozitivo Digital Kft., a leader, a community builder, a friend of nature, and a lover of the Tisza. His documentaries show what can be created from a piece of land, while also showcasing a mixture of human and natural values as well as encouraging the community to act for the environment and save its purity. As someone who stands for sustainability, showcases ethical awareness and leads a creative company, Dimitry Ljasuk was named the winner of the Atlas Award in 2022.
Giacomo Pedranzini is the founder and CEO of Kometa 99 Zrt., a company that shows true commitment to Hungary and to continuous growth and development. Their new initiative, HonestFood pays extra attention to ethical issues and showcases their dedication to sustainability as well. Through innovative thinking Pedranzini is tackling prevalent industry issues and fostering collaborations among stakeholders. His active involvement in community discussions and improvement, and recognition within the industry makes him a great example of a Business Hero, and therefore the winner of the Atlas Award 2023.
“Fear is an elemental part of the human make up. It’s been there from the very beginning: Fear of the unknown; fear of the uncertain; fear of the dark; fear of wild animals, of drought, or flood, or famine. It plays into our earliest survival strategy, one of the considerations the brain factors into the flight or fight equation.
Ultimately, “flight or fight” is a binary choice; you do one or the other, but you must do one of them, and that’s the rub, because too much fear can overload the process and leave you paralyzed, rooted to the spot, doing nothing. A victim waiting for the world to make its choice…”
Continue reading Robin Marshall‘s story on >> Fear is the mind killer
“Twenty years of filling corporate leadership roles taught me a lot. I’ve worked with great teams, come to understand the logic of consulting, banking, telecommunications, media, company information services. I always had a passion for SMEs from the very beginning – so much so, that I ended up being the owner of one, bridging the two worlds. A dream came true: a community, a premium business club for executives of very different sizes of companies being together. Sharing ideas, inspiring each other, having a sense of belonging and of course establishing lucrative, exciting new business opportunities. The year 2019 was a turning point and offered the start of a potentially great year, 2020…”
Continue reading Horváth János’s story on >> Fear is the mind killer
Tamas Botka is a leader who stands out for his commitment to ethics, sustainability, and creativity. With a background in a variety of fields, including finance and business, Tamas has consistently demonstrated a strong ethical compass in all his endeavors. His dedication to ethical business practices is reflected in his professional decisions and interactions, earning him a reputation as a trusted and principled leader.
The young entrepreneur and TEDx speaker, Albert Wettstein is well-known as the co-founder of the popular food rescue platform, Munch. He and his team represents great ethical commitment, a sustainable approach and creative innovations and they created an engaging and impactful community through their work. In 2021, he earned a spot on the Forbes list of 30 successful Hungarians under 30, alongside the other 3 co-founders of Munch. Albert Wettstein received a Special Mention prize at the Atlas Award 2023 ceremony.
Michele Orzan, is an Italian eco-social leader, and the president of EuCham – European Chamber, the institution representing international businesses and their ethical side. As a Digital Leader (Europe) of the World Economic Forum, he supports country leaderships, contributing to their countries’ adoption of innovation to provide a better life to their citizens. Michele founded the GREENWILL worldwide movement for a green globe and lately he is also designing GreenAdvisor, dubbed the TripAdvisor for the environment. Michele also passionately mentors young leaders and entrepreneurs, following his grand vision of enabling anybody with passion and drive to enter the leadership circle.
“Together with the government and civil society, business represents the proactive part of human activities, which is an important part of our society’s development. It’s interesting; you used to imagine heroes as people fighting for good causes and achieving great results when you were young. If I figure it out today, heroes are probably still fighting in a different dimension. Maybe dealing with politics, social issues and so on.”
Continue reading Michele’s story here
“Like probably for many of us, my personal reactions to the pandemic followed the classical change curve with a moment of shock, a period of disbelieve, denial, anger frustration and then moved on to acceptance, adaption of new behaviors and eventually a certain level of integration. Sometimes I am finding myself going back through the same steps in circles. And there are moments when I am feeling stressed and worried – thinking about several of my family members who are part of the “high risk” group and the financial security of family members and friends who depend on the airline and travel industry. At the same time, the glass is always half full!”
Continue reading Horváth János’s story on >> Fear as a catalyst
“My life lesson is to find those people with whom you have an excellent feeling of collaborating. When you have this 10/10 feeling, it is a hell yes that I would like to collaborate with this person. If it’s only an 8 or 9, think about why it’s just an 8 or 9. If you can get through it, make this collaboration; if not, maybe it’s time to put it aside and wait for the right moment. Perhaps the right moment will come, or maybe not, but at the end of the day, focus on those people with whom you can collaborate at the moment.”
Continue reading Gábor’s story here
“I am learning continuously, every single day, while acquiring experience and knowledge from every single person I manage to meet with. Through relations, cooperation, and reciprocal support I have learned that we can overcome obstacles that looked impossible. There is a statement that I continuously repeat to myself: “never stop learning as there is no knowledge that is not power”.
Continue reading Omar’s story here
“What makes the Club rather unique in Hungary? The fact that members with such different background and interests are getting together and argue calmly and peacefully is rather amazing in this highly polarized country. Politicans, diplomats, businessmen, academicians, historians discuss with reason and sometimes passionately, but always willing and able to listen to the arguments from others.”
Continue reading Dr Albert Royaards’s story on >> Fear is the mind killer
“Lockdown hit Italy first and we didn’t know whether to expect help from the government and for how long we would have to keep our businesses closed, however, we knew from the begging that we had to get ourselves out of this crisis. Fear was definitely present. It was present between my partners and I, between our teams, and in our customers. Our London restaurants started decreasing in sales even before the announcement of lockdown in Britain and our revenue in Italy had ground to a halt: we just knew we had to take the bull by the horns!”
Continue reading Gabriele Gori‘s story on >> Fear as a catalyst
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Continue reading Andrea Sartori‘s story on >> Fear is the mind killer
“30 years ago, there were 5 billion people. Today there are over 7 billion. The global market has risen by 30% – so that is at least 30% more companies available today, than when I started my company, Workplus, 31 years ago. The time, when Comecon fell apart and Hungary became a democratic republic in 1989.
It was the time of change.”
Continue reading Krisztina Varga‘s story on >> Fear as a catalyst
“Be open-minded to consider a change of mindset and brave to implement the action plan of the identified change. Although I recognize that a lot of discipline is required, focus your energy on the opportunities change may offer, rather than the challenges it presents. Like many of us, over the years in my personal and professional life, I have faced the fear and uncertainty created by catastrophic and completely unexpected events, or even life decisions that certainly presented challenges and were outside mine and most people’s comfort zone.”
Continue reading Augustus R. Jones‘s story on >> Fear is the mind killer
“People and animals has always been very important to me. Children and animals are at the mercy of us adults, so it is our duty to take care of our environment and their future.
This is the reason why I am very happy to be able to work for a company that strongly believes in sustainability. For us, BEAUTY means taking care of the present, with an eye to the future.”
“Experience first.”
Gábor Lévai is a B corp specialist, founder of several impact startups focusing on resiliency and development of purpose-driven organizations in the CEE region, an economist, coach and the leader of two different companies. One of them, Green Brands, is a franchise of the German and Austrian International Environmental Audit and brand agency, checking companies on how environmentally conscious they are. The other business is called Scale Impact which works with NGOs, develops them and helps them to grow their activity in a sustainable way.
Gabriella Ruff is the co-founder and managing director of Karrier Hungária, a recruitment agency with a special focus on customers, offering a service which represents high quality and care. She is recognized for her commitment to high ethical standards in both her personal and professional life. She ensures transparency, trust, and integrity in all interactions with clients, partners, and employees. She is a passionate and innovative business leader, whose creative thinking and commitment to ongoing improvement have allowed her to overcome challenges and remain a role model in her field. For her great representation of the E.S.C. values and mindset, she was the first winner of the Atlas Award in 2019.
Gábor Nemes is the Co-founder and CEO of Good People Everywhere, a pioneering platform designed to promote and celebrate acts of kindness and generosity. With a firm belief in the power of positivity, Gábor and his team developed this platform as a means to showcase the inherent goodness in humanity, fostering a sense of unity and shared purpose. “In regard to me I try to live my life by principles, like ‘always give more than expected’. I love the theory of ‘the Interrelated Structure of Reality’ which says we’re all connected so anything affects somebody directly it affects everybody indirectly. We would like to help people to find the best connections of their lives based on their personal values. ” Watch the whole interview on YouTube.
Mandy Fertetics is a sustainability and ESG expert and consultant as well as the managing director of Alternate Consulting Hungary. She is also working as a sustainability manager for MVÜK as well as educating and giving training at different universities, such as Corvinus University, METU or the Green Brands Academy. She represents the three core values of the Atlas World community, ethics, sustainability and creativity in her work life as well as her personal life. That is the reason why she has been invited to become a member of the jury of the Atlas Award prize. In the interview here, she shared some details about her business journey and the concepts of “business” and “heroism“. She opened up about the challenges she had to go through and highlighted the mentors and role models she met throughout her career.
Marco Veronese is a phygital artist, photographer, painter, sculptor, performer, writer, and poet and the co-founder of CrackingArt and Silicon Lake. He has been presenting his work at countless exhibitions worldwide since 1982. Marco Veronese is the creator of the Atlas Award statue, an art masterpiece that presents a remarkable fusion of Atlas and the Vitruvian Man.
„Good business by today has been transformed from win-win to win-win-win. To make businesses sustainable not only the interest of the parties affected by the transaction, by also indirect stakeholders’ interests should be very well considered. Our employees, communities and the world we live in should also be the winners of the best business deals.”
It took Andrea 30 years to learn and experience the logic, the pitfalls and the successes of various businesses as a marketing professional. 2 years ago she decided to turn her professional experience in the favour of a wonderful non-profit cause: she is now the fundraising director of the widely-known and respected Bátor Tábor Foundation – part of the Serious Fun Children’s Network established by Paul Newman – which helps seriously ill children to regain their mental health. She is a personal testament of the benefits business people can get in return by integrating engagement and support with social causes into their life. Being an individual or an organisation, if one looks for extra energies to drive goals forward, a major source of good vibes could be coming from paying attention, helping and supporting others.
ATLAS Business Heroes in number
40% – Hungarian
30% – Italian
30% – American
32% – CEO
31% – Board of Director
27% – Managing Director
10% – Head of Board
Frequently asked questions
An Atlas Leader is a person who believes in the E.S.C. approach, who shares the values of our manifesto and wants to make a concrete difference – by suggesting an event to change the world, or even to be part of an existing one.
To join the community you have to believe in our manifesto and be ready to take action.
You can engage in the action you prefer, or suggest one. This initiative provides a platform where we can actually do something, so start now to shape a better society and, together, we can do our best to make it happen.
You can contact us on this email, or we can meet for a coffee online or at ITL Group: Budapest vaci utca 81. We are really looking forward to getting to know you!
There are different ways of supporting the community, but what really makes the difference is actually PERFORMING, COMPLETING, DOING an E.S.C. action!
The easiest way to start is by helping us share the manifesto to inspire more people to shape a better society. But, if you want to be an Atlas Leader you can suggest a concrete action and share it with us to find project partners, or you can join an event created by some else.
When your project reaches the tipping point then promptly it starts working!
In this platform you can meet with like-minded people whose goal is to facilitate interaction between leaders to make a positive change via concrete actions.
Check out our LEADERS PAGE.
No. We only ask people to support actions and projects that they’d be delighted to see happen, when they harbor a deep desire to make a positive change in our society.
If you subscribe to Atlas World updates, we’ll make sure to keep you in the loop on our projects.
