By Lane Lambert
The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, Mass.
WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) Conor French is the CEO of Indego Africa, a nonprofit that works with more than 500 women in impoverished Rwanda, which is still recovering from the 1994 genocide. Indego Africa supports them with education and business training as well as access to companies such as the J Crew clothing line. He recently spoke to graduates of Milton Academy about challenging the status quo.
MILTON
A former corporate lawyer who now helps female Rwandan artisans find global markets gave Milton Academy graduates four pieces of advice Friday morning — starting with “caring is cool.”
Conor French, a 1999 graduate, also urged the 2016 class to “relentlessly challenge the status quo” and “stand bold,” and that “hard times require furious dancing.”
French is the CEO of Indego Africa, a nonprofit that works with more than 500 women in impoverished Rwanda, which is still recovering from the 1994 genocide. Indego Africa supports them with education and business training as well as access to companies such as the J Crew clothing line.
He told the graduates that he found his calling as a “social entrepreneur” while he was an attorney with the Latham and Watkins law firm, providing pro bono legal work for Ashoka, another international organization for social entrepreneurs.
“Empowering women keeps us safe,” French said, referring to the global economy and security. “And it is the right thing to do.
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As for “standing bold” — which he said a Rwandan told him — he said no single decision would define their future but that “every decision will be an opportunity to change you.”
He said he took “hard times require furious dancing” from the title of an Alice Walker poetry collection.
“We always have the strength to bounce back,” he said. “The question is not if we will fall but when … and if we will fall gracefully.”
