Our Team
At InSTED, our team is a passionate group of changemakers, dedicated to driving sustainable development and creating opportunities in underserved communities. Led by our visionary founder, Tony Elvin, we bring together diverse expertise in social enterprise, community development, strategy, and education. With a shared commitment to empowering local economies and fostering innovation, our team collaborates with partners and stakeholders to build impactful, lasting solutions that transform lives. Together, we are reimagining possibilities for sustainable global fragile communities.
Tony Elvin
Development Director
Tony Elvin has been at the forefront of social enterprise (SE) development and innovation internationally for 25 years. He developed his passion for SE establishing Jamie Oliver’s international network of social enterprise restaurants ‘FIFTEEN’. Balancing the opportunities and managing the tensions inherent in an integrated ‘people-planet-profit approach, is what he enjoys and excels at. Tony is never happier than when securing a win-win-win outcome. In 2008, he relocated his consulting business, Tony Elvin Associates (TEA), to Cape Town, driven by the belief that his approach to social enterprise, rooted in fairness, inclusion, and practical experience, could effectively address the complex challenges in post-apartheid South Africa.
In 2013 Tony established Ikhaya le Langa NPO in Langa township in the belief that sustainable meaningful change happens in communities from the ground up. Tony moved to Langa township permanently in 2017 reflecting a deep commitment to his work, the people, and the community. Tony has been a pioneering figure in social enterprise innovation, providing strategic advice to both the public and private sectors. Additionally, he uses his extensive experience, insights, and skills as an award-winning stand-up comedian at corporate, academic, and public speaking engagements to promote social enterprise methodology. Following extensive research and a decades-long immersion in Langa, Tony Elvin founded the Institute for Sustainable Townships Enterprise Development (InSTED) to share knowledge, replicate programs, connect and network South Africa’s 73 formal townships in a mission to shift the narrative of townships as problems spaces to centers of creativity and innovation.
