The Emerging Leader Award is presented to those alumni who have made a significant impact in their profession or community at large since graduation. This award honors alumni who graduated from 2010 to 2020.
2021 Honoree
Fernando Restoy ('16 BSBA)
Fernando's journey of self-actualization began in Cambodia in 2014, when he first went to volunteer for Pour un Sourire d'Enfant (PSE), an NGO dedicated to changing the lives of Cambodian children suffering from defeatism and the vicious cycles of drug addiction, prostitution, gambling, and violence. He observed that Cambodian suffering didn't end with the Khmer Rouge genocide and saw a need for children and adults to develop emotional self-awareness and empathy. After reading Emotional Intelligence, Dr. Daniel Goleman's bestseller, Fernando realized how he could be of service.
After graduating with a degree in Business Administration from Saint Louis University-Madrid and earning a master's degree in International Relations, Fernando interned at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. There he initiated, planned, and coordinated the first UN Conference on Emotional Intelligence. Dr. Goleman and his team, who participated in the conference, invited Fernando to participate in their Emotional Intelligence Coaching Certification training program and work for their company, Goleman EI.
As the appointed School Continuity Program Supervisor in Pour un Sourire d'Enfant, Fernando delivered workshops on Emotional Intelligence for children and educators in Cambodia, reaching more than 3,000 children. He has been invited to speak at the World Economic Forum in New York and at the Egmont Institute in Brussels, he participated in several webinars and podcasts and wrote the Emotional Intelligence and the Sustainable Development Goals chapter in the Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Fernando's dream is to help adults, children, and youth worldwide build Emotional Intelligence and improve the future of communities that have been stricken by war and poverty in particular. He, therefore, founded The Ripple Effect to help people create for themselves the conditions they need to thrive, using Emotional Intelligence.
Fernando believes in the democratization of Emotional Intelligence and the ripple effect this can have all over the world. The Ripple Effect directs part of its revenue towards financing Emotional Intelligence training programs for organizations serving children and youth in developing countries, such as Cambodia.