Chris Arnold is an entrepreneur and humanitarian born and based in Liverpool. He is the founder of Camp Leaders, Smaller Earth Group, World Merit, and Made Impact.
He started his first company, Camp Leaders in 1998 aged 25. It’s a business that provides opportunities for British and global youth to work at American summer camps. It grew quickly and diversified to develop various opportunities for youth to work and travel in numerous countries beyond the United States. It became Smaller Earth Group and at this point, provides international exchange programmes for 15,000 young people each year and employs 200 staff in 17 offices from Austin to Santiago, from Bogota to Budapest. In 2024, Chris transitioned Smaller Earth Group to become an Employees Owned Trust, passing ownership to the team that helped him build those companies.
In 2012 Chris founded and became CEO of a global youth movement and charity called World Merit. World Merit was designed to inspire and reward young citizens who work hard for their community. It developed a membership of more than 100,000 young global citizens that represent almost every country and soon grew an official partnership with the United Nations. World Merit runs initiatives all over the world with its members leading country and city councils that are designed to support the needs of their own community. Chris stepped down as CEO of World Merit in 2020 but as founder was involved in the development and support of 20 new World Merit councils in 2024 from Nigeria to Nepal.
Perhaps Chris’s favourite World Merit initiative was the Merit360 program. This brought 360 young people together to create solutions that address the Sustainable Development Goals. Each Merit360 program concluded with teams of youth pitching their solutions in locations like the United Nations in New York and the British Parliament. Global companies like Google and Bloomberg have been engaged, and iconic leaders like Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai have often lent their support.
Chris’s latest initiative, Made Impact, is perhaps his most ambitious. Chris believes that international exchange programmes are critical to the personal growth of young people, and that bringing youth together beyond borders defies division. He believes international exchange is the best long-term strategy for prosperity and peace in our interconnected world and as such, Made Impact has the vision of embedding exchange programmes as critical to the strategies of politicians, philanthropists and parents.
By collecting a million impact stories, Made Impact will prove the value and power of exchange programming. The reports compiled from those stories will form the basis of a Nobel Peace Prize nomination for the international exchange industry. The data and awards will amplify the importance of the industry, with one aim… building a Billion Dollar scholarship and subsidy fund that Chris has named the Opportunity Bank.
The Opportunity Bank is set to democratise international exchange—Chris believes that more people from more backgrounds should have the chance to work and study internationally and money should not be such a restrictive barrier to youth development.
Smaller Earth Group and Made Impact are both headquartered in Liverpool. Chris lives in Crosby with his wife Sarah and teenage sons, Finn and Isaac.
Exchange Station, 4th Floor, Tithebarn St, Liverpool L2 2QP
0151 363 9536
