Allon Raiz

Overview

Allon Raiz is regarded both locally and globally as a pioneer and maverick in the business incubation industry. He is the founder and CEO of Raizcorp which according to The Economist is the only genuine incubator in Africa and currently supports in excess of 500 businesses.Allon is the author of two bestselling entrepreneurial books Lose the Business Plan and What to Do When You Want to Give Up. He hosted the first national radio show on entrepreneurship in South Africa in 2004 wrote and hosted the first South African prime time entrepreneurship reality TV show and also created and published an ongoing entrepreneurial cartoon strip. Allon is the host of his sixth season of the popular The Big Small Business Show on BusinessDay TV and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine and The Star newspaper.Allon is the co founder of the Entrepreneurs Organisation South Africa and Rural Roots and sits on the advisory and judging boards of numerous local and international NGOs and entrepreneurial awards. Allon s passion and focus on the development of entrepreneurs attracted the attention of the World Economic Forum (WEF) which on 11 March 2008 awarded Allon as a Young Global Leader.As an accomplished international speaker Allon was invited to speak at the 2011 WEF Annual Meeting held in Davos Switzerland. In 2011 Allon was also invited to become a member of the WEF s Global Agenda Council on Fostering Entrepreneurship making him one of 15 recognised global experts in this field. More recently Allon became a member of the WEF s Global Future Council.In 2013 Allon received the Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the Oliver Transformation and Empowerment Awards. The following year he was recognised as the country winner regional winner and continental winner of the Titan Award for Building Nations.Since 2014 Allon has guest lectured every year at Oxford University where he is recognised as the Oxford University Said Business School s Entrepreneur in Residence.In 2015 Allon received an invitation from the White House on behalf of President Barack Obama to speak at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit held in Kenya.