Mark Laitflang Stone is an award-winning serial entrepreneur, motivational speaker and youth mentor. He is the Founder-Managing Director of AVENUES - Meghalaya’s pioneering personal development social enterprise. Under his leadership, AVENUES’ efforts over the last 20 years have impacted over 100,000 youths across Northeast India through programmes that significantly improve confidence, wellbeing and aspiration. The youth interventions imparted by Avenues nurture soft skills and career readiness, while also addressing the need to empower them with emotional resilience, wellbeing and 21st century mind frames.

For his pioneering work in life coaching and employability interventions for tribal youth, a regional panel of peers and leaders felicitated him with the first-ever Northeast Young Heroes Award for Education in 2020. In recognition of over two decades of Serial Entrepreneurship and Youth Empowerment Leadership, Mark was felicitated by AsiaOne with the inaugural edition of AsiaOne Asian Youth Empowerment Leader Award 2O2O-21 at the 15th Asia Middle East Africa Business & Social Forum Summit.

Over the course of more than 23 years, Mark has built innovative, high-impact businesses and teams in Hospitality Services, Skills Development, Events, IT, Telecom and Consulting. During the COVID crisis, he led AVENUES in leveraging its extensive network to operationalise and manage the Meghalaya State Covid-19 Helpline and assisted the State Government assess economic and social impact across a range of citizen services interventions. Mark’s experiences across these diverse fields echoes inspiration, courage and entrepreneurial resilience, all of it built on his passion to help young people prepare for a world of possibilities amidst a life of uncertainties.

To this day, Mark remains a coach at heart, and the training floor for soft skills, personal growth, leadership capacities and youth potential to be nurtured is where he feels most at home.