The Peacebuilding Entrepreneur. Member Spotlight: Stefan Schwartzmann
Stefan Schwartzmann isn’t your typical entrepreneur. Yes, he’s started a successful company stretching across ten Latin American countries, and yes, he’s currently deep in conversations about “scalable growth.” But what makes Stefan stand out is his sense of purpose. He’s not in the startup world for the money or recognition, but rather the peace. If you think “startup” and “peace” sound in opposition to each other, Stefan might not totally disagree. “Right now,” Stefan says, “I’m working to find peace within myself.” In an entrepreneurial world where purpose can easily get sidelined in the pursuit of advancement, Stefan is finding it more important than ever to prioritize his passion for peace.
Stefan grew up in Peru, where he witnessed extreme wealth disparity and widespread corruption. While he himself was isolated from both of these poles, he nevertheless developed a sense of social justice. Throughout the course of Stefan’s childhood, Peru became increasingly wealthy thanks to its mineral extraction industry. Alongside this growth came the need for more awareness about the social-environmental side of the industry. Stefan thus saw an opportunity to apply his development and economics background to make real change for peace.
In addition to his degrees, Stefan has received certificates in the implementation of peace agreements, corporate sustainability, and social responsibility and community relations. He also won the 2017 Posner Prize for Young Researchers from the Latin American and Iberian Association of Law and Economics (ALACDE). Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Lima, Stefan’s company Katari has taken off as a pioneer in the field of stakeholder management software. Katari, however, does much more than even that.
At Katari, Stefan and his team connect companies and local stakeholders in a variety of sectors. Their vision is highly “community-oriented” and focused on “social conflict prevention.” Katari offers several softwares to assist in this mission, such as providing legal requirements and geographic information for engaging with local communities. And if a certain community is initially unsure about welcoming a company’s presence, mediators (oftentimes the Church or an NGO) host dialogue roundtables where trust can be built. As Stefan says, companies “need a social license to operate.” What’s more, communities often need support in building up their own local leadership before any bureaucratic decisions can be made. By enhancing the quality of communication between companies and civil society, Katari is helping to ensure more peaceful interactions.
Stefan discusses the theoretical framework within which Katari works. He acknowledges that stakeholders already have bureaucratic habits both good and bad. Katari’s goal is to encourage the good habits while reconstructing the bad. One big way in which Katari does this is through its effective local communities’ grievance process. When companies implement this step-by-step system, their department has fifteen days to address and resolve the grievance. This helps ensure swift and competent care for locals. And Stefan is particularly proud of the fact that the companies Katari works with are contributing positively to the communities in which they work.
With the advent of the Sustainable Development Goals, improved environmental and reporting standards, and civil society’s impressive self-advocacy, Stefan has observed the blossoming symbiotic relationship between the extractive industry and local communities in Latin America. Stefan has researched the positive economic effects of the mining and energy industry, as well as the financial, educational, and health benefits for civil society. With heightened transparency between these two actors, the potential positive peace which can occur is monumental. Stefan is adamant that locals benefit from their own natural resources, and through Katari, he is doing just that.
The current challenge for Stefan lies in the very passion which helped him create Katari in the first place. Stefan describes his business style as “creative”—he likes to be on the “fast-track,” full of quick-thinking honed by years of peacebuilding. But this can easily lead to burn-out, especially when Stefan’s sense of purpose risks being curtailed by outdated bureaucratic processes. Stefan cites the need for “democracy-efficient systems,” that is, progressive action not bogged down by ill-served regulations. This requires a balancing act, however, as passion still needs guardrails–especially when working with intimate local communities.
“MBBI is a beautiful organization,” Stefan says. He “fell in love” with MBBI at the recent summit in Lima, praising the choice of speakers, variety of points of view, and overall design as being highly informative and well-run. In Stefan’s professional life, he looks forward to expanding his enterprise into blockchain for peace. He envisions solidly constructing blockchain networks to allow for better transparency of international commitments—for example, the status of Ukraine’s 10-point plan. Stefan’s entrepreneurial spirit—however atypical—contributes greatly to peacebuilding in Latin America. His inner peace is becoming more and more visible from the top of the bureaucratic chain all the way to the most quotidian of life.
Article by Elsie Aleck, MBBI Writer