The founder of Inspiring Stories Trust, Guy Ryan, has been awarded Young New Zealander of the Year.
Inspiring Stories is a charitable trust set up by Ryan and is aimed at “growing a movement of young New Zealanders who can, and will change the world.”
The trust launched in 2011 and has seen nearly 5000 young people take part in their programmes, which includes Live The Dream, an accelerator programme made to help encourage young social entrepreneurs.
Ryan says the programme was developed to fill a gap for supporting social-and environment-focused projects run by young people.
“It’s really a unique time in life when you’re full of ideas, energy and optimism and usually don’t have the stress of mortgages or little kids running around,” he told The Wireless.
The New Zealander of the Year award was given to Sir Stephen Tindall, the man behind the Warehouse and the Tindall Foundation. He beat out KidsCan founder Julie Chapman and former All Black John Kirwan for the award.