MCS Foundation, Grupo Guayacán join to promote P.R.’S economic development
From left: Liana Marante-O’Drobinak, Executive Director of the MCS Foundation and Laura Cantero, executive director of GGI.
In an effort to expedite Puerto Rico’s full recovery following Hurricanes Irma and María, the MCS Foundation announced an alliance with Grupo Guayacán Inc. (GGI), a nonprofit dedicated to helping entrepreneurs in various stages of development.
The support from the MCS Foundation will allow GGI to support and promote small and medium-size companies looking to transform Puerto Rico’s healthcare industry, the company said.
The first year of the partnership involves a sponsorship of $36,500, which the MCS Foundation will distribute between the MCS Foundation Health Innovation Special Track Prize — which will be awarded under the new Health Innovation category at CGI’s annual EnterPRize business competition — and the MCS Foundation Growth Acceleration Scholarship, which awards a scholarship to the Guayacán Venture Accelerator.
This way, the alliance is supporting both startup companies, as well as growing businesses seeking to develop their business models in and outside Puerto Rico.
“In this historic moment that Puerto Rico has experienced, it is necessary, now more than ever, to promote initiatives that help individuals create their own businesses,” said Liana Marante-O’Drobinak, executive director of the MCS Foundation.
“When we help entrepreneurs with their own business projects, we are promoting the employment and economic development that Puerto Rico so badly needs,” she said. “Entrepreneurs also contribute to fostering innovation.”
“Given that healthcare is one of our entity’s pillars, this alliance will enable us to support entrepreneurs whose business or startup contributes to either improve the quality of healthcare in Puerto Rico in an innovative way, or reduce the costs incurred in the provision of these services,” she added.
For her part, Laura Cantero, executive director of GGI, said, “being able to formalize this alliance has a very positive effect on the business ecosystem, as it allows organizations such as the MCS Foundation to become directly involved in supporting entrepreneurs, and making resources available to them that they would not have access to otherwise.”
