About the Founder
About Ye Pyae Thu
Born in Yangon, Myanmar (formally known as Burma), to a father from Shan State and a mother from Yangon State, Ye Pyae spent much of his childhood years in Mandalay, Myanmar. After finishing high school in Mandalay, Ye Pyae moved to Yangon where he was exposed to several startups and organizations that ignited his entrepreneurial spirit.
Before he began his college in Myanmar, he started out as the Founder of a non-profit foundation, called Youth Social Force Foundation. It was the start of many-core understandings and playing a key role in his leadership journey. Ever since he was young, Ye Pyae has always wanted Myanmar youth to be more professionally development and internationally educated.
Working his way through the university in the United States, with the help of seven scholarships and fellowships, Ye Pyae returned to Myanmar, almost twice a year, where he worked tirelessly by educating and empowering thousands of university students at about 90 public universities in Myanmar. That experience honed his belief in the power of educating students and youth about leadership and personal development to bring positive impacts in their communities.
Starting a career into the social entrepreneurship field, a path which he created for himself, is based on one question which he always finds him asking, "How can he prepare the future leaders of his country?". That was the question that started the passion which he called his career.
Ye Pyae is the candidate for Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Higher Education offered by the University of North Dakota, in the United States. He holds an M.Sc. in Strategic Management with an emphasis in Consultancy from the Universiteit van Tilburg, in the Netherlands, and a Master of International Business from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, in PR China. He completed his B.S. in Business Administration graduating Summa Cum Laude and University Honor, a Diploma in Social Entrepreneurship, and a Diploma in Civic Engagement, from Northern Illinois University, in the United States.
Currently, he is working as the Founder and Executive Director of the Taxila Institute, Founder and Executive Director of the Taxila Foundation, Founder of Youth Social Force Foundation, and Founder of Hexagon Social Enterprise Co.,Ltd. Aside from his organizations, Ye Pyae has served as one of the advisory board members of the Plan International in Myanmar, one of the world's largest international NGOs working in 71 countries for children rights, education, youth economic empowerment and etc. He has also worked as the project advisor of the Tonkar Learning, a U.S. Department of State's funded innovative e-learning program based in Laso PDR.
As a college student in Yangon, Myanmar, back in 2013 (when he was 16),he saw many youths of his age who didn't have enough opportunities and skills to advance their goals. Since he felt sorrowful and wanted to help them, he ended up with an idea to create a practicing field where they can develop their leadership and professional skills. Thus, he founded the Youth Social Force - Foundation which is a youth-led, non-profit organization in Yangon, on the 16th of November 2013.
Since the team members of YSF have had a shared vision of benefiting Myanmar society, it later grew into three branches across Myanmar and one international network involving eight countries. Together, we believed that involving more people would have a high impact on the community. Hence, in February 2016, YSF had about 95 officers between the ages of 16 to 25.
Although he is the Founder and Executive Director of YSF, he shares his leadership responsibilities with his officers which enables them to act, lead and advance their professional development. So far, 11 of his officers/volunteers have been selected for different leadership programs which have been funded by the U.S. Department of State and hosted by top U.S. universities. After these programs, they have become more empowered by acquiring deeper knowledge about leadership and are now more involved in the community.
Since 2013, YSF Foundation has been supporting vulnerable people within five different sectors: "1. Health, 2. Disaster & Civil War, 3. Education and 4. Environment".
1. For the Health Sector, YSF had recruited more than 70 doctors and dental surgeons to voluntarily support YSF mobile clinics to provide free dental and medical treatments to more than 1000 underprivileged children and orphans.
2. For the Disaster Sector, YSF received about USD $25,000 donated by Burmese Citizens from 12 countries to provide much-needed relief for flood victims. To provide humanitarian support to thousands of victims of the Shan Civil War, YSF had received more than USD $10,000 USD just within 24 hours.
3. For the Education Sector, YSF had supported about 3,000 underprivileged children, disabled individuals, and orphans with educational materials.
4. For the Environment Sector, YSF had reached an audience of 3,000 for environmental awareness by engaging with the public about environmental awareness and cleanup projects.
At the age of 17 (2014), Ye Pyae was selected as one of
the delegates to represent Myanmar in Southeast Asia Youth Leadership Program (SEAYLP) 2014. This program is annually funded by U.S. Department of State and brings 60 young leaders from 10 ASEAN countries to the United States for leadership studies. It was highly competitive since the U.S Embassy in Myanmar selected only 5 delegates out of hundreds of applicants. This experience was a life-changing accomplishment for him.
With the aim of empowering and educating Myanmar youth, he also founded Taxila Institute of Youth Leadership and Development in 2015. At that time, (he was only 18 years old). The institute offers affordable courses on leadership, management, and professional development to enhance students' capabilities. As one of the main lecturers of Taxila, he has been teaching and sharing his knowledge about leadership and management to more than 9,000 college students and 700 faculty members from about 40 national universities in Myanmar over the past two years.
Since Myanmar has now opened up, Taxila Institute is trying to rise to sufficient development index levels of Myanmar with the capacities of youth in order to no longer be included in the list of United Nations least developed countries (LDC). Taxila Institute is the only of its kind in Myanmar, with extensive networks and strong connections with Myanmar universities and officials from the Myanmar's Ministry of Education.
At the age of 19 (2016), Ye Pyae founded “Hexagon Social Enterprise Co., Ltd.”. Hexagon is a for-profit social business company and incorporated in Myanmar.
Besides the measurable and effective social impacts and values, Hexagon also donates around 20% of its revenue as to support underprivileged college students from our partnered National Universities around Myanmar. In July 2016, Taxila Institute and Taxila Business Consultancy become subsidiaries of Hexagon.scholarships
