On Tuesday 16 July 2024, Micro Rainbow’s founder and CEO Sebastian Rocca was honoured with the Pioneering Leader of the Year award in NatWest Social and Community Capital and Pioneers Post Social Enterprise Awards.
The NatWest SE100 Index and Social Business Awards is an annual programme created and delivered by Pioneers Post in partnership with NatWest Social & Community Capital – and supported by Buzzacott, Social Investment Business, Hogan Lovells and Impact Reporting. The programme aims to list, celebrate and learn from the UK’s 100 most impressive social enterprises every year.
Earlier in July 2024, Micro Rainbow was recognised as one of the Top 100 Social Enterprises in the UK for the fourth consecutive year. The Pioneering Leader Award recognises social enterprise bosses demonstrating excellent leadership, effectiveness and inspiration in taking the team on a mission-driven journey to success. Sebastian was awarded this prize alongside Lisa Stapanovic, founder of Social Ark, an organisation that helps young people bring their start-up ideas to life.
Sebastian founded Micro Rainbow and the Micro Rainbow International Foundation. Both these organisations promote equality of LGBTQI people through housing, employment and small businesses in the UK and internationally. In 2017, Sebastian created the first social housing scheme for homeless LGBTQI asylum seekers, and he is a pioneer in the use of social investment in the LGBTQI human rights sector. In 2021, Sebastian received honorary fellowship from Social Enterprise UK for his contribution to supporting the social enterprise movement.
Sebastian said this about winning the award:
“It is incredibly meaningful to win this award. As CEO of Micro Rainbow, I have worked hard to embrace vulnerability as a strength in my leadership style. I believe that authentic leadership is a key driver for success, and recognition like this further supports that belief.
“The team at Micro Rainbow and I are committed to eradicating the homelessness of people fleeing persecution in the UK. We continue to raise social investment to help us make that happen. This award recognises the many colleagues, supporters, corporate partners, donors and communities that support us and have helped us to work towards this goal”
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You can find out about the other awards Micro Rainbow has received on the Awards page.
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