The Fortune Forum Club comprises; influential entrepreneurs, heads of foundations, global leaders, captains celebrity activists and academics. The club hosts key leaders from business and philanthropy for a series of intimate discussions amongst fellow luminaries.

The club informs of philanthropic issues and provide opportunities to network, and learn of strategies from other peers. We also present forums with leading experts to assist influential decision-makers formulate more informed choices in specific areas of interest. The club hosts special private dinners. This presents a perennial opportunity to interact, discuss, debate and to map out initiatives to contribute to the pressing issues facing humanity.

‘Advancing social change in a challenging economy’

Tuesday 13th October, 2009
The Dorchester, London

Renu Mehta introduced Annie Lennox as ‘the woman who can heal with her voice and her heart’. Annie opened her talk by stating that after 27 years of us knowing about Aids, today in South Africa, around 1000 people die daily from it and 1 in 3 pregnant women are carrying the HIV virus. She made a powerful and passionate call to the audience to help promote widespread medication; life sustaining treatments and good nutrition to women and girls. There was short film which showed this type of work being carried out by the SING campaign, which she founded in 2007. www.annielennoxsing.com

The British Red Cross CEO Sir Nicholas Young joined Annie to raise awareness of the Aids crisis. Annie posed some challenging questions to Nick about the global pandemic. Nick said that one of the characteristics of the virus is that it is ‘underground’ or hidden because of the stigma attached to it. He praised Annie’s efforts for giving a voice to the victims. Nick said that “parents are dying at the feet of their children and grandparents are facing the challenge alongside the child-headed families.” Nick went on to talk about "the life saving work being carried out by the Red Cross; in communities there are education programmes for prevention via safe sex which are also addressing the stigma. Volunteers are playing their part too." http://www.redcross.org.uk

Appointed by the Prime Minister as the Government's Ambassador for Philanthropy, Dame Stephanie Shirley said that her top priority was to engage philanthropists and encourage them to come out and share their experiences and motives to give by giving them 'a voice' by video casting them on http://www.ambassadorforphilanthropy.com. She talked about the pleasure she receives when she sees her philanthropic gifts in action. She called it “A pleasurable act of desire and compassion to help change any aspect of society by raising the bar on our capacity to be generous”. Dame Stephanie will be making recommendations to the Government on what part they can and should play to further incentivise citizens to invest in charities and ideas serving society.

Sir Trevor Chinn, Chairman of The Mayor's Fund for London highlighted the problem of massive child poverty in London – currently there are 600,000 young people living in poverty. Trevor said that “the over-ridding way out of poverty was getting a decent job.” The fund is based on three principles; 1. Partnership: to partner with local authorities, communities, employers, central government, other funders and the voluntary sector to improve overall performance on child poverty. 2. Connectivity: It will develop connected services and projects providing a better customer experience for those children and families. 3. Evidence: the Fund will base its work on evidence not opinion - both in terms of what is needed in the first place and who is best to deliver identified services. http://www.mayorsfundforlondon.org.uk/

Keynote speaker Boris Johnson, Mayor of London Johnson who is the Patron of the Mayors Fund for London made a plea to the audience to invest in London’s human capital, particularly its young disadvantaged people; “those without fathers, those without hope those who are told everyday by society that they are useless leaving them without self-esteem. It is no wonder that these children find consolation in crime, delinquency which is not only catastrophic for them but for their families and wider communities.  This exacerbates the underlying fears and insecurity that causes violence. Targeted and intelligent intervention from the Mayors Fund for London urges the top of the society to help those at the bottom through no fault of their own. In these tough times, we should be generous about what we can achieve together”

Sir Ben Kingsley made a wonderful introduction to Ruby Wax and hailed her as “one of the greatest wits of our civilisation”. Ruby brought to fore the important issue of cognitive neuroscience and the proven relationship between the mind and body. She cited that “Mental illness is responsible for 50% of the UK’s disease burden leading to problems such as cardiac disorders, breakdown of the immune system, diabetes, respiratory problems and cancers.” She called for further research in to the issue because, put in a wider context, 1 in 4 of the population would have problems stemming from mental illness. As Ruby puts it ‘the brain is the mothership and that is where most of societal problems stem from and should be addressed at the core.’

‘Doing well and Doing Good’

Wednesday 2nd July, 2008
The Dorchester, London

It was a great honour for Renu Mehta to introduce Yusuf Islam as 'one the noblest spirits she has ever met'. Yusuf talked about a Small Kindness charity which he founded to help sustain the lives of Orphans and Families who are the casualties of war. “The mental scars inflicted on such innocent souls can take years to heal. the problems we face as human beings is the fulfilment of our duty to give help to those less fortunate than ourselves on this increasingly shrinking planet - The sight of bloodied faces in war scenarios, the pictures of fatherless children, roofless homes and the tragedies which beset our world with riveting punctuality, like an endless TV series, are always there to inform us.” Yusuf also spoke about tangible work that A Small Kindness is doing on the ground to help young adolescent girls who need education are also high on his priority list with Projects that help provide them skills and career opportunities for life. He treated the audience to rare and impromtu performance at the lecturn! http://www.smallkindness.org/

Supermodel Petra Nemcova talked about her work at The Happy Hearts Fund which she founded to improve children's lives through educational and sustainable programs in natural disaster areas. Nearly 300,000 people lost their lives in a tsunami that hit on December 26, 2004. Happy Hearts Fund was launched in 2006 with the ultimate objective of uniting people under the same umbrella of providing hope and opportunity to disaster-struck areas worldwide through the creation of educational and sustainable initiatives for children. “As we reflect on the past few years and look to the future, we quickly become aware of the growing need for our collective support in communities globally who are affected by natural disasters and our resolve to achieve real and measurable results by educating children and empowering communities through our sustainable programs only grows stronger by the day.” http://www.happyheartsfund.org/index.php

ICE Circle hosted the panel discussion ‘Doing well and Doing Good’ where fine examples of advancing green principles were being explored.

		Our moderator John-Paul Flintoff, Chief writer at The Sunday Times generously held court and invigorated the discussion. Robin Birley, Founder of Envirotrade and African Renaissance. Robin expressed how it is possible to plant trees and to build local livelihoods that address both poverty as well as bio-diversity? http://www.envirotrade.co.uk/html/home.php

Johan Eliasch, Chairman of Head HVand the British Prime Minister's Special Representative on Deforestation and Clean Energy. Johan communicated how we can assist the efforts of halting deforestation. http://www.coolearth.org/. The speakers included; Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannau, Founder of Easygroup and Serial Entrepreneur. Stelios gave examples of how one can integrate green models within one’s respective business.

		Pierre Lagrange, Founder of GLG Partners How can we make wise financial choices and propel the transition to clean energy technologies? Think about the trillions of philanthropic capital tied up in endowments that are only delivering in one dimension that is financial. Pierre described how there could be an integrated environmental and financial bottom line. David de Rothschild, Founder of Adventure Ecology. David articulated how is it possible to address climate change by combining Adventure, Education and Creative Art. http://www.adventureecology.com/

Essentially, all of the speakers on the panel conveyed that you can make great investments and propel sound values.