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The Innovadores Foundation is a non-profit company based in Greenwich, Connecticut. [1] [2] [3] Innovadores is best known for its exchange program, which brings Cuban students to the United States for six weeks to work and study at Grand Central Tech, a startup accelerator in Manhattan. [4] The foundation states that it encourages young entrepreneurs in Havana, by helping with internet access and mentorship to Cuban-run startups. [5] As of January, 2017 the program was paused, pending direction on applicable local regulations.
A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is dedicated to furthering a particular social cause or advocating for a shared point of view. In economic terms, it is an organization that uses its surplus of the revenues to further achieve its ultimate objective, rather than distributing its income to the organization's shareholders, leaders, or members. Nonprofits are tax exempt or charitable, meaning they do not pay income tax on the money that they receive for their organization. They can operate in religious, scientific, research, or educational settings.
Greenwich is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town had a total population of 61,171. It is the 10th largest municipality in Connecticut, and the largest that functions as a town.
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is a country comprising the island of Cuba as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean where the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean meet. It is east of the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico), south of both the U.S. state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Haiti and north of both Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Havana is the largest city and capital; other major cities include Santiago de Cuba and Camagüey. The area of the Republic of Cuba is 110,860 square kilometres (42,800 sq mi). The island of Cuba is the largest island in Cuba and in the Caribbean, with an area of 105,006 square kilometres (40,543 sq mi), and the second-most populous after Hispaniola, with over 11 million inhabitants.
The Innovadores Foundation was created in 2015 by Miles Spencer and John Caufield, who had been Chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba. [6] It was founded in 2001 as Kayak for a Cause and known briefly as the CAA Foundation. [6] Innovadores now works exclusively to promote STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) programs. [5]
Miles Spencer is an American angel investor, media entrepreneur and explorer. He is best known for his role as co-host and co-creator of MoneyHunt, a reality-based show where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to a panel of experts. MoneyHunt was distributed to PBS stations in the US beginning 1997 and overseas beginning 1999. Spencer and co-host Cliff Ennico are known for their direct, fast-paced questioning and constructive criticism of entrepreneurs. The two developed the program after a classroom experience at a local continuing education class. The show is considered the original program of the genre, and has been copied in several markets worldwide, most notably Dragons' Den and Shark Tank. Spencer, who was born in Norristown, PA, readily admits in his book MoneyHunt to having been inspired by Enterprise, a French show hosted by Bernard Tapie, while he attended school there in the early eighties as an exchange student from Choate Rosemary Hall.
John Patrick Caulfield is the former Chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba, a position he held from September 2011 to July 2014. Caulfield now works as an independent consultant and an advisor to the Innovadores Foundation.
The United States Interests Section of the Embassy of Switzerland in Havana, Cuba or USINT Havana represented United States interests in Cuba from September 1, 1977, to July 20, 2015. It was staffed by United States Foreign Service personnel and local staff employed by the US Department of State, and located in a multi-story office building on the Malecón across from the Plaza de la Revolución in Havana. The mission resumed its role as the Embassy of the United States in Cuba on July 20, 2015, following the normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
