39 Facts About Martin Burt

Martin Burt Artaza was born on 21 May 1957 and is a Paraguayan social entrepreneur, author and politician.

Martin Burt was the former chief of staff to Paraguay's president, known for founding Fundacion Paraguaya in 1985, a leading non-profit and micro-finance organization in Paraguay, and creator of the Poverty Stoplight, a poverty measurement tool and coaching methodology.

Martin Burt was determined to eliminate poverty in Paraguay from an early age, influenced by his father and grandmother who taught him that those more fortunate were morally obligated to give back to society by helping those less fortunate.

In 1980, Martin Burt received his Bachelor of Arts degree in public administration and inter-American studies from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, where he served as student body president.

Martin Burt then attended George Washington University for a Master's Degree in Science, Technology and Public Policy.

Martin Burt later received a PhD in 2016 from Tulane University in Development Economics and International Development.

Martin Burt founded Fundacion Paraguaya in 1985, while Paraguay was still under the authoritarian rule of General Alfredo Stroessner.

In 2006, Martin Burt co-founded Teach a Man to Fish, a UK charity based in London, England with Nik Kafka, a former intern with the foundation, in order to spread the student-led school business model.

Martin Burt has built a platform based on his Poverty Stoplight model of the same name, produced as a project of Fundacion Paraguaya.

The platform has been adopted by the Paraguayan government and Martin Burt is working with organizations in Mexico, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda to bring the stoplight model to their local efforts.

Martin Burt served as chief of staff, Cabinet Secretary and close adviser to President Federico Franco from 2012 to 2013, where he helped lead the government's adoption of the Social Progress Index, an alternative economic indicator to the Gross Domestic Product.

Martin Burt was twice elected as the president of the Paraguayan-American Chamber of Commerce.

Martin Burt served as Vice Secretary of Commerce from 1991 to 1993.

Martin Burt cofounded Pro-Paraguay, Paraguay's Export and Foreign Investment agency, in 1992.

On December 17,1996, Martin Burt began his five-year term as mayor of Asuncion, Paraguay's capital and largest city.

Martin Burt came into office leading a political alliance of his party, the Authentic Radical Liberal Party, and the National Encounter Party.

Martin Burt used these funds for a number of infrastructure projects, such as acquiring property for the city to build 80 public parks, developing pedestrian shelters, and recovering and developing a number of public spaces.

Martin Burt's administration restored and expanded a number of public arteries, constructed docks for public transport, renewed city automotive fleets, restored historical houses and sites, installed internet into classrooms in popular neighborhoods, and built urban walking trails, among other contributions to the public.

Martin Burt is currently a distinguished visiting professor at the University of California, Irvine and a social entrepreneur in Residence at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Martin Burt has held a number of other academic positions, including adjunct professor at the Universidad Catolica de Asuncion from 1983 to 1984, visiting professor of social entrepreneurship at the University of the Pacific from 2006 to 2007, as well as professor of entrepreneurship and management at the American University of Nigeria from 2011 to 2017, and adjunct assistant professor at Tulane University.

Martin Burt was co-founder of two of Paraguay's leading environmental non-profits.

Martin Burt co-founded the Mbaracayu Biosphere Reserve Foundation, which established a permanently protected biosphere in the Mbaracayu subtropical rainforest located in the northeastern region of Paraguay near the Brazilian border.

Martin Burt co-founded Lican Paraguay SA, a social enterprise that processes formerly contaminating animal blood from slaughterhouses and converts it into hemoglobin and plasma, profits going to save the Mbaracayu Forest Reserve.

Martin Burt has been involved in a number of other organizations as a co-founder, such as the Asociacion Paraguaya de la Calidad, Paraguay Educa, Club Universitario de Rugby de Asuncion, and Sistema B Paraguay.

Martin Burt serves on the board of directors of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, and is a member of the board of the Global Foodbanking Network.

Martin Burt has served as advisor to the WARC Group Sierra Leone since 2017.

Martin Burt is the nephew of well-known Paraguayan artist Michael Martin Burt.

Martin Burt has been widely recognized for his work as a social entrepreneur.

In 2020, Martin Burt was awarded the Wave Maker Award from HCL Technologies.

Martin Burt received a Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2005, and won the 2004 Outstanding Social Entrepreneur Award from the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.

Martin Burt was awarded the Microfinance Award for Excellence in Social Responsibility from the Inter-American Development Bank, the Eisenhower Fellowship Award from the US and Taiwan, the UNESCO Orbis Guaraniticus Medal, and the Argentina National Academy of History Domingo Sarmiento Medal.

Martin Burt has won awards from the Avina Foundation, Synergos, World Innovation Summit for Education, and Nestle.

Martin Burt was awarded the Albert Bandura Influencer Award in 2014, the 2011 Opportunity Collaboration Achievement Award, the Social Innovator of the Year Award from the Ballard Center for Self-Reliance of Brigham Young University in 2007, the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the George Washington University in 2007, and the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of the Pacific in 2006.

In 2016, Martin Burt co-wrote The Poverty Stoplight and its Psychological and Multidimensional Approach with Luis Fernando Sanabira, in Psychological Implications of Poverty.

In 1984, Burt co-wrote Paraguay: Laws and Economy with Guillermo F Peroni.

Martin Burt regularly attends the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, as well as the World Economic Meeting on Latin America and the Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions held in the People's Republic of China.

Martin Burt was invited as a speaker to a National Consultation on Building Cognitive Capital for Children organized jointly by UNICEF China and the Government of the People's Republic of China in 2017.

Martin Burt presented the Poverty Stoplight methodology at the 2017 Istanbul Innovation Days Conference organized by UNDP Turkey and Nesta.

Martin Burt made a presentation on Fundacion Paraguaya's work on poverty elimination to the European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion in 2014.