Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business has named Patrick Struebi, founder and CEO of Fairtrasa, a Gabelli Fellow.
According to a press release from the school, Struebi will serve as adjunct professor, teaching a course called “How to Change the World.”
“I want to demonstrate that there are alternatives to Wall Street,” Struebi said in the press release. “I want to show students what entrepreneurship really means.”
He will also be a mentor for Fordham Foundry— a partnership between Fordham University and the City of New York– supporting entrepreneurial education, research and outreach. The independent, mixed-use business incubator provides services such as business consultation, a mentoring program, business education and workshops.
Struebi’s company, Fairtrasa, exports fair-trade and organic fruits from Latin America around the world. In doing so, it also helps lift more than 6,500 small-scale farmers out of poverty, according to the Gabelli press release.
“Not everyone is meant to move to another country and start an international business,” Struebi said in the press release, “but social entrepreneurship is about changing current systems, something that can be approached internally, within organizations and government.
Struebi is also Social Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Yale University and was named Social Entrepreneur of the Year by the Schwab Foundation. Previously, he held senior-level positions at Deloitte & Touche, Switzerland, and Glencore International, which he has stated gave him the skills he needed to succeed as a social entrepreneur.
In addition to Struebi’s course and the Fordham Foundry, Gabelli supports entrepreneurs with programs such as the Entrepreneur Society.