Matthew Spacie

Matthew Spacie (born 19 January 1967) is India-based British entrepreneur, humanitarian, and a former international rugby player. He is the founder of Magic Bus (also known as the Magic Bus India Foundation), a non-governmental organisation working with children and youth taking them from childhood to livelihood. and Business Standard Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2018.

Career Born to an Army father in Cyprus, Matthew is a British citizen and currently lives in Mumbai, India, with his family. He spent much of his spare time practicing rugby at the Bombay Gymkhana. Outside his club, he observed a group of boys, hanging around its premises, watching the game with interest. He invited them into the club and began coaching them.

In 1999, Matthew founded Magic Bus with a group of street and slum-dwelling children from Mumbai. It was an opportunity for these children to engage in sports as a momentary relief from their day-to-day challenges. In 2001, Matthew resigned his job at Cox & Kings to focus full time on Magic Bus. Magic Bus has 3 million young people in its programmes from some of the most impoverished backgrounds and has placed nearly 500,000 young people in sustainable employment making it one of the worlds largest livelihood non-profits in the world. Magic Bus has nearly 4,000 full time staff in six countries.

In 2006, Matthew co-founded Cleartrip which is an online travel company rendering services across the globe.

Awards and achievements Year Title 2001 Awarded international rugby caps for India and playing in the World Cup Qualifiers. 2007 Awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by the Queen of the United Kingdom for services to children in the Commonwealth. 2014 His organisation's Magic Bus has been recognized at the Laureus World Sports Awards. 2016 His organization Magic Bus won Charity of the year award at the Asian Voice Charity Awards, UK. 2016 Magic Bus won UEFA Foundation for Children Award. 2017 Magic Bus won the Sports Illustrated, Special Award for Services to Sports Award. 2018 Recognized as India's Top educational influencers by Scoo News. 2018 Won the Business Standard Social Entrepreneur of the year. Matthew met Ashima in Mumbai. Ashima is a wildlife photographer and documentary filmmaker. She has shot documentary films titled The Last Dance and In the Pink.