Creating Change

UMB welcomed Derreck Kayongo, business visionary, Global Soap Project founder, and CEO of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, on Oct. 31, 2017, to the SMC Campus Center.

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Derreck Kayongo

With his trademark panache, Derreck Kayongo inspires and empowers audiences with his courageous story of survival, social entrepreneurship, and humanitarianism, and the life lessons he's gathered along the way.

Kayongo is the founder of the Global Soap Project, which recycles used hotel soap and redistributes it to impoverished populations around the world. In creating this global humanitarian initiative, he demonstrated that a simple yet novel idea has the power to transform the lives of millions. He was a Top 10 CNN Hero in 2011, and his passion for helping others and commitment to innovative thinking earned him his current role as CEO of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights.

From Ugandan refugee to successful entrepreneur and renowned human rights activist, Kayongo urges audiences to dream big as he shares his vision for harnessing the power of observation to identify issues and solve challenges in any community or organization.

With palpable energy and enthusiasm, he brings his personal guiding principles, coined as S.E.L.F. (Service, Education, Leadership, and Faith), to life in emotionally packed presentations that linger long after his speech. Dynamic and empowering on stage, Kayongo inspires a spirit of entrepreneurialism and creative problem-solving, asking audiences to invent their own self-made mottos of success so they can create tangible change in the world.