Jean-Jacques Degroof has spent many years as an investor, mentor, coach, and teacher with the goal of encouraging innovation. After success in academia and the financial services sector, Jean-Jacques Degroof turned to philanthropy as president of the Degroof-Van Massenhove Foundation in Belgium, which supports innovative solutions to improving the well-being of elderly people, and by supporting the Engineers Without Borders chapter at his alma mater, MIT.

1. Engineers Without Borders'
Worldwide Projects
Jean-Jacques Degroof

2. Introduction
• Jean-Jacques Degroof has spent many years as an investor, mentor,
coach, and teacher with the goal of encouraging innovation. After
success in academia and the financial services sector, Jean-Jacques
Degroof turned to philanthropy as president of the Degroof-Van
Massenhove Foundation in Belgium, which supports innovative
solutions to improving the well-being of elderly people, and by
supporting the Engineers Without Borders chapter at his alma
mater, MIT.
Engineers Without Borders (EWB) offers assistance to developing
countries by sending out student engineers who gain valuable
hands-on experience while helping communities fulfill basic needs.
The organization has nearly 300 chapters across the US with 16,800
members working in 42 different countries.

3. Engineers Without Borders
• Teams may be made up of students, public health
professionals, or established engineers, all of whom
work on a volunteer basis. These teams work directly
with affected communities to address issues like
improving access to clean drinking water and building
roads or bridges for better transportation.
Currently, the EWB team of engineering students from
MIT is developing a project in Tanzania that will recycle
plastic bags into more usable materials, as well as a
project in Ghana that will build a processing plant using
techniques for sustainable construction.