Joke Le Poole

Biography

Joke Le Poole is Co-Founder and Director of international nongovernmental organization Max Foundation and the social enterprise MaxTapWater. Max Foundation started in 2005. Joke and her husband Steven lost their eight-month-old son Max and they sought to prevent other parents from suffering the same sorrow. They come from the corporate sector, Joke in marketing and logistics (Heineken), with an engineering background, and Steven from the finance sector. They brought their business expertise and entrepreneurial thinking to bear on child mortality, seeking to prevent it in the most (cost-) effective and long-lasting way.
They chose diarrhoea as a leading, preventable killer of children, and Bangladesh for the potential for impact. Joke committed fully to Max Foundation, becoming its chief executive, and leading it to impressive impact, improving 2,5 million lives to date through an evidence-based approach to child health, integrating water, saniation and hygine, nutrition and sexual and reproductive health.
In 2019, Joke set up a social water enterprise, MaxTapWater as a spin-off from Max Foundation. MaxTapWater, build and operate mini-grids for piped water supply in Bangladesh to supply easy, safe and affordable water to households.
About Max Foundation
Established in 2005, Max Foundation is an business driven international nongovernmental organization focused on reducing child mortality in the most efficient and sustainable way by improving poor people’s access to good nutrition, safe water, proved hygiene and sanitation in developing countries. We believe that development aid profits from a business-driven approach. We work with our heart ánd head in order to maximize our impact (www.maxfoundation.org)
About MaxTapWater
We see a future in Bangladesh without water crisis. A Bangladesh in which every person has safe, sufficient and affordable water delivered straight into their home. The social enterprise Max TapWater was established in 2019 as a spin-off from Ma