Ole Kassow (social entrepreneur)

Ole Kassow (born 26 June 1966) is a Danish social entrepreneur. He founded the nonprofit organization Cycling Without Age in 2012.

Not to be confused with Ole Kassow (rower).

Ole Kassow
Ole Kassow with Thorkild Thim who inspired him to start Cycling Without Age
Born (1966-06-26) June 26, 1966[1]
Odense, Southern Denmark (Syddanmark), Denmark
NationalityDenmark
OccupationSocial entrepreneur
Known forfounder of Cycling Without Age

Ole Kassow was born in Odense, Denmark. He grew up with a handicapped father and brother, experiencing early in his age stigmatization and exclusion of persons with certain disabilities. However, his father's practical jokes and humour to overcome the handicaps in their life and to infuse happiness into people around them, helped to develop Ole's positive attitude towards disabilities and old age.[2]

After completing high school, Ole travelled to various countries to learn more about different cultures and languages. He then attended the University of Southern Denmark between 1986 and 1990, where he enrolled in the programme International negotiation – economics, language and culture and finished it with a master's degree (cand. negot.).

Until 2012, Ole Kassow worked for several companies as product manager, director, CEO, and consultant. He also supported the founding of various commercial startup companies.

In 2004, he started his own business ″olekassow.com″ providing betterness consultancy to ″inspire and help companies [to] reach their potential″. In 2012, Ole Kassow and others founded ″The Bike Republic″ (Cykelrepublikken), an NGO supporting the fight for improvements to the city infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians.[3] Also in 2012, he started the company ″Purpose Makers″ which believes ″that the future belongs to purpose-driven companies and organizations. They will have strong cultures, engaged and happy employees and enthusiastic customers, patients, citizens and users. They're here to change the world.″[4][5]

His most prominent endeavour was the founding of the Cycling Without Age organization in 2012. This movement enables senior citizens with limited mobility to enjoy outings with volunteer-piloted trishaws. By March 2020, this movement has spread to more than 50 countries with 2,200 local chapters operating 3,000 trishaws, serving 1.5 million people by 33,000 trained cycle pilots.[1][6][7]

In 2017, Ole Kassow was awarded the Ashoka Fellowship – only the second Danish person to receive this notable award.[2]

Ole Kassow lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Awards
  • Danish Community Award (Fællesskabsprisen) (2014)[8]
  • Peter Elming Award (Peter Elming-Prisen – annual award by the Danish Cyclists Federation) (2014)[9]
  • Ashoka Fellow (2017)[2]

References
  1. "The Right To Wind In Your Hair". Cycling Without Age. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  2. "Ole Kassow – Ashoka Fellow". ashoka.org. 2017. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  3. Sandra Høj (December 2012). "The Bike Republic". Classic Copenhagen – A blog about Copenhagen. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  4. "Purpose Makers". Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  5. "Become more innovative by building values and purpose". A-Speakers – International Speakers Bureau. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  6. "The Right To Relate: Cycling Without Age". Forbes. 13 April 2020. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  7. Broom, Oli (6 February 2015). "Being 97 is no barrier to enjoying cycling in Copenhagen". The Guardian. ISSN 1756-3224. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  8. "Fællesskabsprisen 2014 – Cykling Uden Alder" [Danish Community Award 2014]. fællesskabsprisen.dk (in Danish). Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  9. "I cyklistens tjeneste – sagt" [In the cyclist's news – announcements]. Cyklister. No. 4–2014. Copenhagen, Denmark: Cyklistforbundet. Winter 2014. ISSN 0109-2790. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
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