Hugh Evans

Motivational speaker Hugh Evans is famous worldwide for being a humanitarian as well as a development advocate.

A World Vision mission to the Philippines ignited his interest in poverty eradication when he was only 14 years old. After witnessing the deplorable conditions of severe poverty, Hugh set out to challenge the status quo of extreme poverty. When Hugh returned from a trip to South Africa as World Vision’s first Youth Ambassador in 2002, he set out to establish the Oaktree Foundation, which would become Australia’s first youth-run relief organization. During his time as Director of Oaktree, Hugh was recognized for his leadership by being named Young Australian of the Year (2004). Furthermore, in 2005, he was named Junior Chamber International Person of the World.

Later, speaker Hugh Evans decided to expand the Make Poverty History campaign in Australia. He assisted in organizing and running the Make Poverty History Concert in 2006, which featured Bono of U2. The Government’s decision to boost the foreign aid budget was partly due to the success of these campaigns.

Hugh built the Global Poverty Project, thanks to funds from the Australian government, the United Nations, and the British government. GPP is an advocacy and education group dedicated to growing the number of people who take steps to eliminate extreme poverty and improve such actions’ effectiveness. For example, in 2010, the Global Poverty Project assisted in launching the million-dollar international fundraising campaign Live Below the Line. Furthermore, in 2011, it joined forces with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to implement The End of Polio campaign, which raised $118 million to end Polio.

The Global Citizens Movement has taken approximately 22 million actions in the battle against severe poverty. GPP inaugurated the annual Global Citizen Festival in August 2012 in New York City. This free music event happens in conjunction with the United Nations General Assembly gathering in September. This resulted in cash commitments totalling nearly $40 billion to aid the globe’s most marginalized individuals.

Forbes included him in the 30 Under 30 list in 2012. Later, in 2014, Hugh appeared on the list of 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company. That same year he obtained the GQ Man of the Year Award for Chivalry.

In 2018, Hugh received the Diamond Ball Award for his work on trying to end poverty. Hugh was also the executive producer of the One World Together at Home Concert in 2020.