Katleen Jeanty is the founder and chief executive officer of Madan BelFwi Fruit Mixes (BelFwi), Haiti’s first all-natural fruit, juice and smoothie bar. The bar is renowned for selling tasty, refreshingly-cold and yummy concoctions, made with fresh local fruits.
Jeanty started BelFwi to take advantage of Haiti’s abundant natural fruit supply that go to waste every year due to poor cultivation, transportation and packaging. As a result, she creates employment opportunities for many of the country’s unemployed.
In July 2013, Jeanty’s hard work with BelFwi was recognized when she was selected as one of 10 finalists of Technoserve’s Mon Entreprise, Mon Avenir (MEMA) Business Plan Competition. She won US$10,000 for BelFwi.
A year later, Jeanty also won first place in Haiti Renewal Alliance’s Investor Pitch Competition, winning US$3,000 for BelFwi. She was recently approved for a US$75,000 matching grant from the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Leveraging Effective Application of Direct Investment for Haiti (LEAD) Program. She said this will better enable her to expand the company.
With BelFwi, Jeanty said she is now on her way to realizing her personal dream of creating employment opportunities for 1,000 low-skilled Haitians, while developing a global brand that will help to sell a better image of her beloved home.
Before starting BelFwi, Jeanty started InnerLeaf Communications, a marketing, communications consulting firm, in 2003 in Philadelphia, PA. She provided management, marketing and business development, along with fiscal leadership, to the firm – growing it to 26 clients, three offices and a team of 12.
Jeanty holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Babson College in Wellesley, MA – ranked as the #1 school for Entrepreneurship in the United States by U.S. News & World Report in 2014 for the 18th consecutive year.
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:
Haiti
EDUCATION:
Babson College, Business Administration
OCCUPATION:
Entrepreneur
FAVORITE QUOTE:
“My favorite quote is simply: ‘Why not?’”
PERSONS I ADMIRE MOST:
“I have several people I admire a lot, but the two that I admire the most are my mom and Sir Richard Brandon. They are both such fierce fighters when it comes to what obtaining/accomplishing they want and have both accomplished a lot,” she says.
