The Global MSME Influencers: The Power Ten is a prestigious recognition presented annually by the International Council for Small Business (ICSB). This honor celebrates dynamic entrepreneurs, visionary leaders, and transformative changemakers who have made a profound impact on the global landscape of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).
The awardees are trailblazers from various fields, including government, multi-national organizations, academia, corporate leadership, and non-profit organizations—driven by a shared mission to elevate entrepreneurship as a force for economic growth and societal transformation. Renowned for their visionary leadership and global influence, these influencers deeply understand MSMEs’ pivotal role in fostering resilience, driving job creation, and promoting social equity.
Highly respected in their industries, these individuals are sought-after speakers at global conferences, thought leaders whose insights shape policies and practices, and prolific creators of impactful content. Their articles, posts, and publications are widely read, inspiring action and innovation across the MSME ecosystem. Beyond their intellectual contributions, they excel in organizing dynamic events that ignite collaboration and spark progress in the MSME domain.
ICSB firmly believes that the pulse and wisdom of the MSME sector thrive through the dedication and expertise of these global influencers, who serve as beacons of inspiration and catalysts for change. The Power Ten is not in any particular order.
Camille Burns is a globally respected champion of women’s entrepreneurship, inclusive leadership, and enterprise growth. She currently serves as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO), the world’s premier peer-learning network for women presidents, CEOs, and managing directors of multimillion-dollar companies.
Camille’s leadership journey is both rare and powerful. She joined WPO in 2000 and, through more than two decades of service and strategic stewardship, rose to become CEO in 2019. Under her leadership, WPO has dramatically expanded its global footprint, influence, and membership — strengthening a worldwide community of women business leaders who collectively generate billions in revenue and employment across economies.
At the heart of Camille’s work is the belief that women scale faster, stronger, and more sustainably when they grow together. Through WPO’s global platform, she has built one of the most sophisticated peer-learning ecosystems in the world — enabling women CEOs to exchange insight, strengthen leadership capacity, expand markets, and accelerate impact.
Her influence extends well beyond WPO. Camille serves on advisory boards and global initiatives dedicated to advancing women’s entrepreneurship, innovation, and access to opportunity, helping shape the future of inclusive business ecosystems worldwide.
Camille Burns stands at the forefront of global women’s leadership, architecting networks of trust, knowledge, and collaboration that unlock extraordinary economic and social impact.
Skye Blanks is a globally engaged business leader, strategist, entrepreneur, AI expert, and advocate for small business development. He currently serves as Chief Operations Officer of the International Council for Small Business (ICSB)—the world’s oldest and largest global nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). In this role, he helps shape the strategic and operational direction of a worldwide movement supporting entrepreneurs across economies and regions, while also leading major initiatives on AI adoption and digital transformation for MSMEs worldwide.
Beyond ICSB, Skye is the founder of Premo, co-founder of the Premo Cannabis Company, and principal of Herman Todd Consulting Group, where he advises businesses on growth, strategy, and scale. His entrepreneurial career is deeply informed by his background in international development and public policy. Before joining ICSB, he worked internationally as a research fellow. He served with the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Development Results and Accountability, focusing on international economic development policy and performance.
In addition to his responsibilities as COO, Skye serves as Director of the ICSB Knowledge Hubs (KHubs) program, building a robust international network of institutions and partnerships. Skye is also recognized as a leading AI expert, delivering global training programs that equip entrepreneurs, executives, and institutions with the tools and frameworks needed to harness artificial intelligence responsibly and competitively in today’s rapidly evolving economy.
Skye holds an MBA with a certification in Financial Management from the George Washington University School of Business and a BA in International Affairs with a concentration in International Development from GW’s Elliott School of International Affairs. A double alumnus of the prestigious GW Presidential Fellowship program, he continues to invest in the next generation of leaders as a start-up mentor for Yale University’s Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking (Tsai CITY)
Jonathan Potter is a globally respected economist, policy strategist, and thought leader in entrepreneurship and SME development, rooted in the influential academic tradition of Professor David Smallbone, one of the world’s most important scholars in entrepreneurship and SME research. He currently serves as Head of the Entrepreneurship Policy and Analysis Unit at the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE) in Paris, where he leads international efforts to design, evaluate, and strengthen entrepreneurship policy worldwide.
With over 25 years of experience at the OECD, Jonathan has become one of the organization’s most authoritative voices on entrepreneurship ecosystems, SME competitiveness, regional development, and inclusive entrepreneurship. His work bridges rigorous academic research with real-world policy design, shaping national strategies across OECD member and partner countries. He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and has authored and led numerous flagship OECD publications that continue to influence governments globally.
Jonathan has been instrumental in advancing the global agenda on women’s entrepreneurship and inclusive growth. Most recently, he played a central role in the launch of the landmark OECD–Global Women’s Entrepreneurship Policy Network (GWEP) publication,
Bridging the Finance Gap for Women Entrepreneurs: Insights from Academic and Policy Research — a significant contribution that rigorously examines persistent financing barriers and outlines concrete, actionable policy solutions.
At the same time, Jonathan’s leadership has shaped the foundations of modern entrepreneurship policy by developing major OECD frameworks and tools, including the Framework for the Evaluation of SME and Entrepreneurship Policies and Programmes, now a global reference for evidence-based policymaking. He regularly advises governments, represents the OECD in high-level international forums, and works closely with global partners to translate research into measurable economic impact.
Perihan Tawfik is a leading force in global employment policy and entrepreneurship development, bringing more than twenty-five years of experience at the International Labour Organization (ILO) to the forefront of youth empowerment and enterprise-led growth, specifically in Egypt. Throughout her career, she has worked across diverse employment and entrepreneurship initiatives, shaping policies and programs that translate opportunity into tangible economic outcomes, particularly for young people navigating fragile and evolving labor markets.
Currently, Dr. Tawfik leads the landmark Public–Private Partnership initiative “Decent Jobs for Egypt’s Young People: Together to Develop the Youth in Damietta,” an ILO program funded by Methanex Egypt. This project exemplifies her ability to align global development frameworks with local impact, strengthening enterprise ecosystems while creating dignified, sustainable employment pathways for the next generation.
Her influence extends deeply across Egypt’s entrepreneurship ecosystem. She has been instrumental in adapting ILO entrepreneurship training toolkits into Arabic, overseeing their piloting, dissemination, and national institutionalization—ensuring that high-quality entrepreneurship education reaches the widest possible audience nationwide. Since 2008, she has served as a principal architect of ILO entrepreneurship events, convening policymakers, scholars, educators, practitioners, and students to co-create more innovative policies and stronger frameworks for self-employment and youth entrepreneurship. Her leadership also shapes the future of innovation through her role as organizer and jury member in major business competitions.
Dr. Heba El-Ashry is a globally respected academic leader, entrepreneur-educator, and ecosystem architect advancing entrepreneurship education and innovation across the Arab world. She serves as Director and Co-Founder of the Entrepreneurship Center at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT), a flagship institution of the League of Arab States with campuses spanning Egypt and the region.
Background & Academic Leadership
Dr. El-Ashry brings a rare blend of scholarly depth and practical impact. She holds two PhDs — one in Business and Management from the University of Huddersfield (UK) and another in Quality Management from PQI–Cairo/AASTMT — along with multiple MSc degrees in Quality Management and International Transport & Logistics. This interdisciplinary foundation shapes her work at the intersection of entrepreneurship, strategic management, quality systems, and institutional development.
Over the past decade, she has emerged as one of the region’s most influential voices in entrepreneurship education, mentoring thousands of students, founders, and educators while building programs that translate theory into high-impact practice.
Dr. El-Ashry has built one of the most comprehensive university-based entrepreneurship ecosystems in the Middle East — operating across multiple campuses and serving as a bridge between students, startups, industry partners, policymakers, and global institutions. Under her leadership, the Center has become a powerful platform for venture creation, youth empowerment, and regional economic development.
Her impact has been recognized internationally. In 2025, the AAST Entrepreneurship Center received the ICSB Entrepreneurship Center Global Impact Award, honoring its sustained contributions to entrepreneurship education, innovation, and ecosystem capacity building across diverse communities.
Ambassador Oh Joon is a distinguished South Korean diplomat and global leader who has played a meaningful role in advancing entrepreneurship and small business development on the world stage. He served as South Korea’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations. He was the 71st President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)—a key UN body addressing economic and social development.
Beyond his diplomatic career, Ambassador Oh has been a valued partner of the International Council for Small Business (ICSB). Under his leadership of ECOSOC, the inaugural MSME Day business panel at the 2016 ICSB World Congress at the United Nations was welcomed by the Council, with Ambassador Oh presiding—a pivotal moment in the journey toward global recognition of the contributions of micro-, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).
His support helped strengthen the momentum behind the United Nations General Assembly’s adoption of June 27 as “Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day” (MSMEs Day)—a landmark resolution recognizing the vital role MSMEs play in sustainable, inclusive economic growth worldwide
Ambassador Oh Joon’s legacy blends multilateral diplomacy with a steadfast belief in the power of small business and entrepreneurship as essential drivers of resilient economies, job creation, and global development.
Today, Ambassador Oh continues to shape global discourse on entrepreneurship and innovation through his work with the Jinju City Global Conference on Entrepreneurship and Human-Centered Innovation. At this influential forum—rooted in Jinju City’s legacy as a cradle of Korean entrepreneurial heritage—he brings together scholars, policymakers, and practitioners from around the world to deepen understanding of entrepreneurship’s role in human development and ethical innovation. His diplomatic leadership has been instrumental in forging strong collaboration among Jinju City, the K-Entrepreneurship Foundation, and ICSB, helping to elevate Jinju as a global beacon of human-centered entrepreneurship.
David A. Kirby is a globally respected pioneer of entrepreneurship education, academic innovation, and enterprise development. Widely regarded as one of the founding architects of modern entrepreneurship education in the United Kingdom, his career has shaped how universities, governments, and institutions cultivate entrepreneurial mindsets, ecosystems, and impact around the world.
David’s professional journey is marked by rare longevity and reinvention. In 1989, he became the first Professor and Chair of Entrepreneurship in the UK at Durham University — a defining moment that helped establish entrepreneurship as a serious academic discipline. Over the decades that followed, his leadership transformed entrepreneurship education from a peripheral subject into a central pillar of business, innovation, and economic development within higher education.
Yet David’s story is not one of arrival and rest — it is one of continuous evolution. In what many now describe as his second and even third act, he has turned his intellectual energy toward the urgent challenges of sustainability, inequality, and responsible capitalism.
In 2020, together with Dr. Felicity Healey-Benson, David co-founded Harmonious Entrepreneurship. This bold 21st-century business paradigm integrates economic performance, human wellbeing, and environmental stewardship into a unified system of value creation. Rooted in systems thinking, the framework reimagines entrepreneurship as a force not only for wealth generation but for restoring balance between markets, society, and the planet.
Dr. Amson Sibanda is a globally respected development economist, policy leader, and champion of inclusive growth who stands at the heart of the United Nations’ global efforts to advance sustainable development. He currently serves as Chief of the National Strategies and Capacity Building Branch in the Division for Sustainable Development Goals at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), where he leads international initiatives that strengthen national institutions, policy systems, and development pathways in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Dr. Sibanda’s leadership journey is marked by both intellectual depth and institutional impact. Before his appointment in January 2020, he served as Chief of the Social Policy Analysis Section in the Division for Inclusive Social Development at UN DESA, where his work helped shape global policy discourse on poverty reduction, inequality, employment, and social protection.
Dr. Sibanda has been a steadfast global ally and strategic partner of the International Council for Small Business (ICSB). He has played a pivotal role in supporting and advancing MSMEs Day at the United Nations, helping elevate the global recognition of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises as foundational engines of economic inclusion, job creation, and sustainable development. Through his guidance, partnership, and advocacy, MSMEs Day has become a cornerstone moment on the international development calendar — amplifying the voice of entrepreneurs worldwide within the UN system.
Dr. Rico J. Baldegger is a globally respected entrepreneur, academic leader, and thought architect of innovation and sustainable enterprise. He serves as Research Professor of Strategy, Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Suffolk University.
A long-standing global leader of the International Council for Small Business (ICSB), Dr. Baldegger has served as an ICSB Board Member and ICSB Fellow, contributing strategic and intellectual leadership to the world’s foremost organization dedicated to advancing MSMEs. In 2024, he served as Chair of ICSB’s MSMEs Day in Geneva and Chair of the ICSB Signature Event in Paris on Women’s Entrepreneurship, convening global leaders to advance inclusive growth and women-led enterprise.
With experience as a former CEO, entrepreneur, board member, and business angel, Dr. Baldegger bridges scholarship and real-world enterprise. He is the author of over 100 academic publications and several influential books, including the best-selling The Future of Business Schools, shaping global dialogue on innovation and higher education.
He also serves as President of the Board of Trustees of the Swiss Sustainability Foundation, advancing responsible enterprise and long-term value creation.
Dr. Rico Baldegger stands at the forefront of global entrepreneurship and innovation leadership, shaping institutions and ecosystems that empower businesses to thrive while serving society and the planet.
Dr. Wael Bedda currently serves as Secretary General of SKSEED (Saleh Kamel Sustainable Entrepreneurship & Enterprise Development), an emerging international organization affiliated with the Islamic Chamber of Commerce & Development, where he leads regional and global initiatives to strengthen entrepreneurship ecosystems and accelerate SME growth across OIC member countries through integrated programs, strategic networks, and policy engagement.
A globally respected entrepreneurship leader and ecosystem architect, Dr. Bedda is also a long-standing partner of the International Council for Small Business (ICSB). His work has helped shape some of the most impactful entrepreneurship platforms in the MENA region and across emerging markets. He notably served as host of ICSB in Alexandria, Egypt, convening global entrepreneurship leaders, policymakers, and ecosystem builders to advance MSMEs as engines of inclusive growth and sustainable development.
Previously, Dr. Bedda was the Founding Director of the AAST Entrepreneurship Center (AASTEC) at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport, an organization of the League of Arab States. For more than a decade, he led one of the region’s most ambitious ecosystem-building efforts, launching national and regional incubators, accelerators, competitions, conferences, executive training programs, and entrepreneurship education platforms that empowered hundreds of entrepreneurs, start-ups, and SMEs.
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The Honorable Dr. Winslow Sargeant is a visionary leader whose career spans entrepreneurship, investment, and advocacy, making him a global force in empowering small businesses. He is the immediate past chair of the International Council for Small Business (ICSB). Dr. Sargeant is leveraging his global expertise to help countries build robust small business infrastructures while mentoring entrepreneurs to accelerate growth. With degrees in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University, a master’s from Iowa State, and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Dr. Sargeant embodies the intersection of innovation, education, and advocacy, driving forward a powerful vision for small business success worldwide.
In addition to his business ventures, Dr. Sargeant has built a robust private equity and venture capital career, serving in limited and managing partner roles.
A Kauffman Fellow, he contributes to innovation and education as a Trustee for Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), Northeastern University, and the Morgridge Institute for Research, and as a founding board member of First Women’s Bank (FWB). His leadership also extends to his role in the Presidential Leadership group at Stevens Institute of Technology, where he continues to shape the future of entrepreneurship and research.
Dr. Sargeant’s public service is equally distinguished. Appointed by President Obama and unanimously confirmed by the Senate in 2011, he served as Chief Counsel for Advocacy at the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). In this role, he was the independent voice for small businesses, representing their interests before the White House, Congress, and Federal Courts. His tenure was marked by his unwavering dedication to advancing policies that support small businesses and entrepreneurship at every level.
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