William N Bissell "I am passionate about Education...

Episode #28: Sandeep Dutt in conversation with William N. Bissell, one of the co-founders of The Fabindia School (a unit of Bhadrajun Artisans Trust - BAT), he collaboratively developed the vision and approach of the school since its inception.  In addition to his unwavering commitment to the school, William is best known as a leading social entrepreneur and is the Managing Director of Fabindia Overseas Pvt Ltd, a textile company started by his father, John Bissell, in 1960. After completing his B.A. from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, USA in 1988, William returned to India with the goal of working in the rural crafts sector to address economic development issues.  Living in Jodhpur, Rajasthan and travelling extensively throughout the state, William helped to form the BAT in 1988 which was initially envisioned as an artisan cooperative for leatherworkers and weavers based in Rajasthan.  After encountering a number of limitations in running BAT as an artisans' cooperative, he changed his approach and helped to launch a Jodhpur based company in 1990 called Desert Artisans Handicrafts (DAH) in which artisans over the next 6 years became shareholders.  DAH has grown to witness tremendous success for its artisan members whereas BAT has become solely focused on education, with The Fabindia School as its only project. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/learningforward/support