1. Who are you, What do you do and What did you have for breakfast?
I am dreamer, explorer, marathon runner, tango dancer, jazz music lover, adventure sportsman, environmental diplomat, social entrepreneur – Founder & CEO of Worldview Impact Foundation. I started my social enterprise after I graduated from the London School of Economics back in 2007 converting my thesis into a business plan with a mission to making an impact at the grassroots to create positive changes around the world starting from remote villages in Meghalaya, the land where the clouds come home in the north east region of India. I had an egg sandwich with pineapple juice and organic green tea from Sri Lanka mixed with jungle honey from India for breakfast.
2. What did you get up to last Tuesday at work?
I participated at the 6th Plasticity Forum – “Designing for the Future – Plastic and the Circular Economy” as part of the London Design Festival that was organised by our partner Ocean Recovery Alliance from the United States bringing together global experts from across the plastic spectrum to share experiences on opportunities and challenges with plastic sustainability and inclusion in the circular economy, thus bringing about the large scale changes that are required in order to reduce its waste impacts. We had a big conversation on the future of plastic and discuss where opportunities can be created related to recycled content, resource recovery, job creation and waste reduction. Then I met up with our partner Watertrek from France to lay out our Plan of Action for our joint Worldview Impact expedition starting from the cloud forests on the Himalayan foothills in India and ending in the mangrove forests on the Andaman Sea coastline in Burma to promote awareness on the health of our rivers and oceans in the context of local pollution and global climate change!
3. Who or what inspired you to do the job you do now?
When I was a boy my dad Eric Bremley Lyngdoh told me that it is always better to give than to receive and so I have grown up living with that principle in whatever I do in my own life. Like my dad my high school teacher Br. Eric D’Souza who taught me at St. Edmund’s School also really inspired me a lot and now I am trying to honour him by supporting a school that he established for children living in poverty called Providence in my hometown Shillong.
4. What is needed to succeed in your career?
The degrees that we get from the universities that we study in are just pieces of paper to put us in front of the door. However, our personality, attitude, positive outlook to life and the way we behave with people across status, cultures and generations will open the door to success for us no matter where we go on earth.
5. If you could go back and change one thing, what would it be?
If I could travel back in a time I would spend more quality time with my dad and go running with him every morning to the woods. Maybe I could have saved him from the massive heart attack that took his life back on 29th September 2012 as he was running by himself in the woods after his quite time praying for my safety as he knows that I go on different mission to dangers zones around the world.
6.What is your proudest moment?
When I was appointed by the Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to address the historic United Nations Millennium Assembly on 28th September 2000 as the Indian Youth Representative carrying the voices of 350 million young people from my country to the world leaders meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York to pledge their commitment on implementing the United Nations Millennium Development Goals in their respective countries.
7. What is your favourite quote?
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams – Eleanor Roosevelt
