Bill Liao

Founder, WeForest.com

His Story

Bill Liao is an Australian entrepreneur, business mentor, philanthropist, diplomat, author and speaker with a distinguished record in the areas of business, development and community activism. He is a co-founder of XING, a pioneering social networking platform, and CEO of Finaxis AG, a privately held company in the financial services industry. Bill also mentors entrepreneurs in the making, from diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. Bill served as a special envoy for St Kitt’s and Nevis, with an emphasis on sustainable development and the environment. Bill’s wide-ranging philanthropic endeavors include his participation as an investor and volunteer in The Hunger Project in Uganda, New York and Mexico and, more recently, the launching of a global citizenship initiative, Neo.org, and a commitment to the reforestation of twenty square kilometres of land, embodied in WeForest.com. Bill’s book, “Stone Soup; A Secret Recipe for Making Something from Nothing,” encompasses his vision for business, development, society and the future. Bill is a regular speaker at organizations including The London School of Economics, The World Economic Forum Meeting of The New Champions in China, The Globe Forum in Stockholm, Sweden, The Penny On Trust at The House of Commons, TEDx at the Tabernacle in London and Talent2Trade and Venturefest both in London and York.

Description of Organization

WeForest.com has a simple and achievable way to end climate change – through sustainable reforestation, addressing poverty, water shortage, loss of biodiversity and soil erosion. This organization started in October 2009, and since then has initiated 15 projects with many more in the pipeline. It achieves global coverage (15 different countries for planting, members and volunteers all over the world) with opportunities opening up in India, France, Denmark and the USA. It has a strong anchor in the Belgium corporate network.

Goal

WeForest.com aims to inspire everyone to take effective action in climate change. The goal is in getting fundamental science messages across in an understandable way, e.g. grasping concepts such as bioprecipitation. To expand this initiative, this organization strives to facilitate an international expansion into new countries, liaise to local, private or governmental initiatives.

Help Needed

• Create global awareness of our mission and the fundamental science behind it
• Facilitate international expansion
• Create cooperation with Corporate Social Responsibility programs
• Build a Grants research team
• Grow a fundraising team
• Attract public ambassadors
• Attract investors

His TEDx-Talk

Progress

Here’s a quote from Bill about what has happened after his pitch in Amsterdam:

The level of expertise and commitment coming out of this group is just amazing. This weekend a social network website was created for us, a plan for a video buz was suggested : people just want to contribute to our cause! It is overhelming, wonderful and much appreciated.