Bert van der Vaart recently experienced a thrilling drive through Bulgaria.

First he saw a billboard touting a meat-processing company. Then he ate ice cream made at a famous monastery. He later topped that treat off with a croissant at a gas station.

Exciting stuff for the man whose nonprofit made all those business ventures possible.

Van der Vaart co-founded and is now CEO and president of SEAF, which encourages entrepreneurship in emerging economies — places such as Croatia, Bolivia and Poland. In its 12 years, SEAF has made 220 investments in 13 different countries. More importantly to van der Vaart, SEAF has created stable jobs and trained workers in fledgling nations.

It’s feel-good work that van der Vaart first experienced as a Morehead. During a Morehead internship, van der Vaart traveled to Indonesia, where he processed Vietnamese boat people whom authorities had detained in special camps. He was struck by the dire circumstances they faced to escape oppression.

“In a way, helping entrepreneurs in transition countries to flourish and their employees to grow, increase their salaries and better provide for their children really came from what I saw (as a Morehead),” he said.

Today, SEAF is van der Vaart’s thank you.

“I was extremely blessed to receive The Morehead, as well as . . . the Rhodes (Scholarship),” van der Vaart said. “I believe that I was not given these chances simply to take advantage of this excellent education, but to do something positive as a partial return.”

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