The Oryon Foundation is entering a new phase focused on helping hundreds of professionals over 50 reinvent themselves professionally through entrepreneurship. The organization has announced that it will place special emphasis on this group, which suffers most from long-term unemployment, and has set the goal of helping more than 200 professionals (executives or business owners who have stepped out of active work) transition in this first year.
According to the latest Active Population Survey (EPA), more than 792,000 people over 50 are in long-term unemployment in Spain. This problem is echoed by the OECD, which cautions that only 59% of adults maintain continuous professional activity after turning 50, and barely 31% stay active beyond age 60.
Assistance will be delivered through three lines of action: emotional and professional support, training geared toward employability and entrepreneurship, and personalized mentoring. To this end, the foundation has built a network of nearly 100 mentors, of whom 57 have participated in active processes in the last six months, predominantly comprised of senior executives and seasoned entrepreneurs who contribute pro bono.
Expanding the Board of Trustees
The organization strengthens this relaunch with a governance model formed by a board of trustees and an advisory council comprised of seasoned professionals in finance, business, and entrepreneurship, highlighting executives such as Víctor Giné (CEO of Oryon Universal), Álex Martínez Comín (board member of JPA International), or Frederic Bailly (Executive Vice President of Groupe SOS), among others. The foundation is working to bring in new business profiles to support its growth.
“In this new phase we are launching, our objective is to help professionals, when they switch jobs, to consider entrepreneurship as an option, something that can be challenging due to a lack of information. We want everyone to be able to make informed decisions,” says Oriol Verdura, CEO of the Oryon Foundation.
Oryon has designed a self-financing model for its foundation, inspired by American structures and still not common in Spain. Under the concept of profit for non-profit, the entity develops services and projects whose profits are reinvested entirely in its social activity, reducing dependence on external funding.
