Matthew Caruana will be succeeding Fiona Captur as CEO of Junior Achievement Young Enterprise (JAYE) Malta, the organisation has announced.

JAYE Malta has provided high-quality education programmes to young people aged eight to 30 living in Malta and Gozo for the last 30 years.

The Foundation aims to nurture economic development and broaden the horizons of the next generation by providing education, opportunities, and hands-on experience in the areas of business, economics, employability, and entrepreneurship.

Mr Caruana has long been involved with JAYE Malta, first taking part in the Foundation’s projects as a student.

He brings a wealth of entrepreneurial experience to his new role, with the aim of driving JAYE’s reach even further. As a business innovator, coach and mentor, Mr Caruana has a proven track record for propelling grassroots projects to success.

Mr Caruana is best known for heading ZAAR, Malta’s leading crowdfunding platform, from 2016 to 2021.

He transformed the organisation’s impact and reputation, driving numerous start-up projects through their critical early days to success and building the platform into a nationally recognised brand.

Recently, Mr Caruana has also coached and mentored students through JAYE programmes, as well as the Climate KIC accelerator programme, and in the international Masters’ programme SMARTUP.

He has been a speaker at numerous conferences about crowdfunding, entrepreneurship and alternative finance, and has also made his mark as Malta’s Alternative Finance and FinTech expert at the European Commission workshop, DG GROW Workshop.

“It’s an honour for me to take on this responsibility with an organisation that has contributed so much to the development and education of so many individuals over the years,” Mr Caruana said.

“JAYE gave me a lot when I was a student, and now I am delighted to offer my services and build on the excellent work that has been done so far to enable the organization to reach out to more young people,” he continued.

Ms Captur meanwhile added that she is delighted to be handing the baton to Mr Caruana.

“Apart from the fact that he is a JAYE alumnus himself and has been one of our mentors for quite a few years, his work in entrepreneurship and crowdfunding will bring a new angle to JAYE that will take the organisation to new places. Exciting times lie ahead,” she concluded.