Intellectual property (IP) specialist and partner at leading South African law firm Adams & Adams, Darren Olivier has accepted a position as Trustee for The CEO SleepOut™ Trust, (No. IT00819/2015), the vehicle set up to receive donations from third parties in relation to The CEO SleepOut™ events and ensure that these are provided to the current beneficiary of the Trust namely, Girls and Boys Town (GBT).

Trustees are nominated or emanate from members of the Working Group; representatives from the event's various Stakeholder Partners who are charged with ensuring transparency and accountability in the dissemination, allocation and activation of the determined projects derived out of the funds raised from The CEO SleepOut™ event.

Ali Gregg, founder and CEO of The CEO SleepOut™ initiative in Africa, says that the Working Group and the Trustees ensure a “robust legal backbone” for The CEO SleepOut™ Trust (“the Trust”), and welcomed Olivier’s vast experience as a 20-year veteran of IP law and as a member of the editorial board of Oxford University Press: Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice.

“Darren’s participation as a member of the Working Group was invaluable in the setting up of The CEO SleepOut™ and its various divisions. Importantly, we have a group of people whose first responsibility is to the homeless and vulnerable children we support, and a group that understands the value of creating opportunities for donors to develop empathy with those they are assisting,” says Gregg.

About this appointment, Olivier says: “I was honoured to have been approached by Ali Gregg to become part of The CEO SleepOut™ as a trustee. This is the single biggest movement for positive change on the South African landscape at the moment, and I am humbled to be involved as a trustee.”

Olivier’s body of work includes the award winning Afro-IP™ blog - the largest searchable resource for free information on African intellectual property (“IP”) legal news, practise and policies. His practice at Adams & Adams includes advising on IP commercialisation strategies in Africa; litigating the first keyword trade mark case in Africa; advising the Zulu nation on rights management and legacy preservation; setting up IP outsourcing models for global rebrands using African resources; and - most recently - assisting the Steve Biko Foundation.

A pioneer in social capital, Gregg has forged sponsorship alliances and created initiatives that involve what she calls “capitalism with a conscience”. “Darren, along with fellow Trustee and SleepOut founder Bernard Fehon and our Working Group, understands the long-term value of social capital and the leading-edge methodologies required to ensure sustainable solutions for the homeless and vulnerable. We are delighted to have him on our board of Trustees.”