Matthew Caruana succeeds Fiona Captur as JAYE Malta CEO

Junior Achievement Young Enterprise (JAYE) Malta announced that, after a three-year tenure, CEO Fiona Captur will be handing the reins to Matthew Caruana as of February 2022.

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

“It’s an honour for me to take on this responsibility with an organization 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.

Having benefitted first-hand from JAYE’s projects as a student, Mr Caruana 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.

From 2016 to 2021, Mr Caruana headed ZAAR, Malta’s leading crowdfunding platform. 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.

“I am delighted to be handing the baton to Matthew Caruana,” Ms Captur said.

“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 organization to new place. Exciting times lie ahead,” she concluded.