Denise Tawwab, CEO

I am a social entrepreneur, a business owner, and a mom from Raleigh, North Carolina. I went to UNC-Wilmington for college and worked for many years as a technology trainer, training project manager, and software developer.

Today I own my own business and run a local nonprofit designed to help kids become leaders. I am passionate about using the Internet and social media technology to increase access to education, to reduce poverty, and to encourage entrepreneurship among teens and women.

I am originally from Willard, North Carolina. Willard is a poor county with limited opportunities for the children who grow up there. On the flip side, Willard was a perfect place for me to grow up and I owe all that I’ve been able to accomplish to that place and those people who raised me.

Everything that I learned that is worthwhile was taught to me by plain old “country folks”. People like my grandmother (Mary Lillie Wilson) who had more wisdom than money and who possessed an amazing ability to make us all feel special, loved, and responsible for making this world a better place than we found it.

This incredible woman raised 10 children and then took me and my two siblings into her home. She dedicated 23 years of her life to bringing us up and caring for us — long after she should have been done with child-rearing. She loved us when she didn’t have to and gave us hope and a real-life example of what philanthropy in action should look like.

Because of Willard and because of my grandmother, I carry a special torch for rural communities. Six years ago
I started NC Connected. I work with my daughter and some really neat volunteers to run technology camps and to set up computer labs in rural communities. We teach kids (ages 12-17) web design, internet programming, social media marketing, and leadership. What I know is that these kids just need an expanded vision, focused training, and someone to tell them that they can do anything.

In 2009 I started a social media training firm called Bus 23. At Bus 23 we teach businesses/nonprofits to leverage tools like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to connect with their customers, clients, and other constituents. This business is just plain fun. I love having tools that level the playing field so that a small business owner can reach an audience that she could have only dreamed of reaching a few years ago.

I get a major kick out of helping people overcome the fear of “Web 2.0″ tools and showing them what’s possible. I enjoy standing in front of a skeptical audience and making the case for embracing social media now rather than later. Many people are able to see the potential gain but are stymied by the fear of trying and failing. I tell my clients to jump in, fail fast and fall forward.

My dream is to use the power of love, the platform of the internet, and all of my business skills to improve the options available to poor people, especially women and children. I am always pleased to meet others who are doing the same.