Entrepreneur To Give Away Company
 

Simon Cohen, Founder and Managing Director of London based communications agency Global Tolerance, today launches a unique global search process to find a new leader and beneficiary for this business. 
 
Cohen will be launching the first ever Open Leadership Exercise (OLE), handing over 95% ownership of the company, £10,000 in the bank, a state-of-the-art website, a decade of business contacts and all the company assets.  He hopes that business leaders around the world will consider their own version of OLE as a new type of exit strategy.
 
Global Tolerance is an established, profitable. 10 year-old communications agency, which includes His Holiness the Dalai Lama, HRH The Prince of Wales, Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson and TED, among its client roster.  In April 2013, Cohen because the first Managing Director in the UK to place their whole company on a one-year sabbatical to coincided with becoming a father.   It was during the sabbatical year that he decided to take the unconventional approach, and find a new leader and owner to drive the business forward.   Commenting on the initiative, Cohen said: 
 
This is a unique opportunity for someone to run and lead their own agency and it is truly open to all’. 
 
Cohen, and award winning social entrepreneur and writer, is well known for his unconventional Pause for Thoughts on Chris Evans Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2.  He founded Global Tolerance in 2003, aged 24 after studying Theology and spending to years in advertising.  
 
Cohen added:
 
“The Open Leadership Exercise is a new type of exist strategy for business leaders ad owners.  I am at a stage in my life where I want to focus on my family, but I am still have an unswerving belief in my company.  It’s a way I can not only leave the company, but also leave a legacy for those who follow me”.
 
The first of the OLE runs from March 24 – 15^th April.  The new owner and lead of Global Tolerance will be announced in the summer of 2014.  Members of the public can apply here:
 
http://globaltolerance.com/#/story/gtoleentryform/
 
The OLE is supported by organisations including Action for Happiness. The Dalia Lama Fellows, i-genius and the Peace and Collaboration Development Network.