Biography
Biography
Jenk is a 18- year-old social entrepreneur, public speaker, social change activist, and DJ as well as the Founder & CEO of Thred Media, a social enterprise focused on Publishing, Media, Consulting and Production aimed at Generation Z.
The central tenet of the business is the 100% social change-focused website Thred where the writing team covers all aspects of youth culture seen through the lens of social change in 17 different languages. It reaches 350k+ teens and young adults from 220+ countries/territories a month and has won several awards including Next Gen Media Company 2021, Digiday Greater Good Award, Vodafone Small Business Award, four W3 Awards, an International Davey Award, and an Amazon AWS Activator Award. Jenk has recently launched a second website Thred Media, where he houses his consulting business with a focus on helping brands, agencies and research houses better understand Gen Z beliefs, behaviours and upcoming consumer trends.
Jenk has been featured in 300+, articles including Forbes, Business Insider, Fortune, Fast Company, AdAge, Campaign, Oracle for Startups and Great British Entrepreneur Society as well as having won several awards including Forbes 30 Under 30, MediaWeek 30 Under 30- Newcomer 2023, Professional Publishing Association- PPA Next Gen 30 Under 30, the Diana Award Honour Roll 2021, Digiday Future Leader Award, Webby-Anthem Young Leader Award, Top 100 Digital Leaders 2021, Great British Entrepreneur Awards- Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award Finalist, Start-Up Awards- Young Entrepreneur of The Year, Rise Scholarship Foundation Finalist, ‘Progress 1000: Most Influential Person- Science and Tech’ from The Evening Standard, the ‘Tech London Advocates: 25 under 25’ award, PMI 50 Future Leaders and he was voted ‘Top 20 Young Entrepreneurs To Watch’ by Start-Up magazine.
On the speaking circuit, Jenk enjoys talking about the future of Generation Z, Young Entrepreneurship, Social Change and Youth Employment with the hope of helping other young people develop their impactful ideas. He has spoken at more than 90 conferences including three TEDx Talks entitled ‘Ideas Ink.’; ‘Breaking the Pattern’ and 'Can a 'Like' change the world- the power of clicktivism' as well as having spoken at 7 Model United Nation conferences including Oxford University: Model United Nations Conference- London. Others include Vox YMS NYC Marketing Conference- New York City; Knowledge Summit- Expo Dubai; Oxford Global: Summit For Young Leaders- Athens & London; Amazon AWS Summit- London; SES Student Employability Summit- London, NACUE Enterprise Conference and SME Beyond Borders Conference- Dubai.
Jenk is a member of the Google Z-Council, Oracle for Startups, Microsoft Surface young entrepreneur team and The Knowledge Society (TKS).
He also sits on the Marketing Board for Founders4Schools, WorkFinder App, UpNext Education, BeMe Health and Prospect 100 as well as being an Ambassador for Global Citizen (poverty/climate), Climate Science (climate), Earth Day (climate), Force of Nature (climate), Youthtopia (climate), Bite Back 2030 (school food programs), Youthify (climate), Youth Climate Database (climate), Ivy House (education), Let's Localise (education), BeMe Health (mental health), SoundMind (mental health), and The Song Academy (youth empowerment).
Jenk has been seen in West End theatre, TV, commercials, music videos, short films, voice-overs and several commercial print campaigns. Jenk's hobbies include piano, gaming, rowing and rugby.
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The Back Story
Born and brought up in London, Jenk has over eight years of training at the likes of The Juilliard School NYC, National Youth Music Theatre (NYMT), Sylvia Young Theatre School, Young Actors Theatre Islington, Pineapple Dance Studios, Royal Academy of Dance, The Song Academy, The Rhythm Studio, and the London Sound Academy. He has studied music theory, singing, acting, street dance, ballet, tap, jazz and plays 4 instruments to a high level. Jenk has worked professionally in TV, Film, West End theatre, documentaries, commercials, print & video campaigns, music videos, recorded original music and done film voice-over work.
From a young age, Jenk attended numerous performances and live events with his family which made him realise how he wanted to spend his free time. As a result, Jenk started going along to some after-school classes which included everything from acting to street dance, graffiti art and even DJing and music production, to gradually build up the resume he has today.
At the age of 8-years-old, Jenk suggested an idea to his mother about sharing all the extra-curricular activities he was taking part in every week, as well as the cool shows and performances he was going to see, so his classmates could join in the fun. Soon after that, Jenk presented that same idea at Show & Tell during a school general assembly. What started as a simple email to his classmates about the latest in fun things to do, extreme sport, sneakers, gaming, music and much more, was soon being shared across wider communities and schools by both parents and peers. This concept, combined with his mum's passion to support and share the journey with Jenk, led him to further develop and later build out the idea of iCoolKid Ltd. Launched in early 2017, it became a one-stop digital publishing company producing original content aimed at young people.
In 2019, Jenk decided to rename the company to Thred Media, refocus the content entirely toward social change, reposition the demographic upward (teens and young adults) and restructure the company (add Consulting and Insights services). July 2020 saw the official launch of Thred the 100% social change focused news site and January 2023 saw the official launch of ThredMedia.com hos Gen Z consulting agency.
Thred Media
Thred Media is a Media, Publishing, Consulting and Production company aimed at teens and young adults- currently referred to as Gen Z. Thred hopes to be a unifying force that will galvanise social spirit by supporting & integrating with the Gen Z movements globally. For more on Thred Media, see the 'Entrepreneur' section.
Jenk’s ethos is one of hard work and persistence, stating that if you follow your passions, you can make anything a reality. Without my family and friends helping me think through iCoolKid & Thred at every turn, my idea would still be a Show & Tell poster gathering dust in a corner.
"If you treat your idea like a dream today, you'll have a dream tomorrow
but if you treat your idea like a company today, you'll have a company tomorrow
Think it, Ink it, Watch it take flight!"
The Knowledge Summit, Dubai Expo, Dubai, UAE April 2022