Dennis Karpes

About Dennis Karpes

About eleven years ago Dennis Karpes called his boss at Levi Strauss and said: I dont come today. In one day Karpes put an idea on paper: Dance4Life was born. An organisation that gives information by means of educational projects and dance events to youngsters between 13 and 19 years about hiv and aids. He knew to commit stars and dj’s like Maxi Jazz and Tiësto. In the meantime Dance4Life has become an internationally recognised charity organisation that is active worldwide in more than 30 countries and gives education about hiv and aids.

Karpes is good at thinking out ideas and selling them. The marketeer seems to turn everything he touches into gold. As marketingdirector he initiated for example the sustainable jeans brand Kuyichi that is being sold worldwide nowadays. Karpes has already a new project. He brings the work of Peter Westerveld into the market: the fight against desertification. With his Naga Foundation he makes whole desertified areas green and fertile again and in this way he tries to fight the water shortage in Asia and Africa.

Following the Sustainable Top 100 of the dutch newspaper Trouw on which Karpes arrived at position 60 in 2011. In that same year he received from the mayor of his town of residence, Theo Weterings, the Royal Decoration of Knight of the Order of Oranje Nassau.

Karpes was appointed in 2008 by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader (YGL). The Forum of Young Global Leaders is a unique multistakeholder community of more than 700 exceptional young leaders who share a commitment to shaping the global future. They represent the future of leadership, coming from all regions of the world and representing business, government, civil society, arts & culture, academia and media, as well as social entrepreneurs. YGLs are younger than 40 years old at the time of nomination, have a recognized record of extraordinary achievement and a proven track record of sustainable leadership experience, have demonstrated a commitment to serve society at large through exceptional contributions, and have a global perspective.

Other YGLs are or were among others, Larry Page and Sergey Brinn (founders of Google), Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook), Evan Williams (CEO Twitter), Ian Thorpe (swimmer and founder of Fountain for Youth), Crown Prince Willem-Alexander of The Netherlands, Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, Johann Olav Koss (ice-skater and founder of Right to Play), Rahul Gandhi, Anoushka Shankar.

In 2009 followed an honourful appointment as Senior Fellow by Ashoka, the global association of the worlds leading social entrepreneurs.