This incredible group of innovators, investors, entrepreneurs, and seasoned change makers represents only a third of all of the mentors that will be attending the Unreasonable Institute in the summer of 2010. Each mentor will spend at least one evening at the Institute and will present to, engage with, and personally mentor our Unreasonable Fellows. It is a privilege for both us and for our Fellows to work with such an outstanding group of practitioners and thought-leaders.
Diana Ayton-Shenker
Founding President at Fast Forward Fund, Sr Fellow at Philanthropy and Int'l Affairs at Bard College, President at Global Momenta
The birth of the Fast Forward Fund, whose mission is to transform young people in their twenties into social investors for life, is closely related to the experience of its founder, Diana Ayton-Shenker. She grew up during the movements for Soviet Jewry and Anti-Apartheid and wound up self-financing a trip to the Soviet Union in 1984, where she became inspired to pursue the promotion of human rights through international law. After obtaining her LLM from the University of Essex Law School, she lived all over the world, falling into the intersection of private sector resources and social sector causes for the next 20 years. She taught at the American University of Paris, at Hunter College, and at Bard College where she holds a Sr. Fellowship with Bard Globalization and Int'l Affairs program. She served as a consultant for various branches of the United Nations and held senior positions with Mercy Corps, PEN, and Human Rights Watch. Realizing there was a need to mobilize resources and talent for social investment, she went home and honed the idea of Fast Forward Fund in her kitchen, talking to her husband. Diana grew up in Portland, Oregon, is the mother of three children, and now lives with her husband in upstate New York. She is the author and editor of two books on the United Nations, as well as a collection of original poetry, "Tumbalalaika." Watch the video of Diana discussing what the ideal youth investors look like on the Unreasonable Blog.
Neal Baer
Executive Producer of NBC TV Show Law and Order: SVU, Former Executive Producer of NBC series ER, Co-Founder of Institute for Photographic Empowerment, Pediatrician, M.D. from Harvard Medical School
Dr. Neal Baer is Executive Producer of the NBC television series Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. Prior to his work on SVU, Dr. Baer was Executive Producer of the NBC series ER. A member of the show’s original staff and a writer and producer on the series for seven seasons, he was nominated for five Emmys as a producer. He graduated from Harvard Medical School and completed his internship in Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles. Recently, Dr. Baer co-established the Institute for Photographic Empowerment at USC’s Annenberg School of Communications, which links photographic story-telling projects around the world and makes that work available to NGOs and policymakers. He has worked in South Africa and Mozambique since 2006, teaching photography to mothers with HIV and to AIDS orphans so that they can tell the world their own stories. Dr. Baer also produced the documentary short, “Home Is Where You Find It,” directed by Alcides Soares, a seventeen-year-old Mozambican AIDS orphan, which chronicles one young man’s search to find a family after his parents have died of AIDS. The film has screened internationally at sixteen festivals and has won four awards for best documentary. Dr. Baer lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Gerrie Smith, and his son Caleb, who will be attending Williams College in the fall.
Elmira Bayrasli
Vice President of Partnerships and Outreach at Endeavor
Elmira Bayrasli is the Vice President of Partnerships and Outreach at Endeavor, a New York-based nonprofit supporting high-impact entrepreneurship in emerging markets. Before joining Endeavor, Elmira was the Chief Spokesperson and Director of Press and Public Information at the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo. In 1994, she joined the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, working for then Ambassador Madeleine K. Albright. From 1997-2000 she was a Presidential Appointee at the Department of State, in the Secretary of State's office. She also served on the negotiating team in the Office of the Special Cyprus coordinator. She received her MA from Columbia University and BA from New York University. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has contributed to several books and publications, including several book reviews and op-eds. She loves the New York Mets and hates onions.
Mekayla Ichneumon Beaver
Founder and Principal Design Researcher / Strategist at Gloworm, Former IDEO Designer
Mekayla Beaver is a design researcher and strategist who knows that developing a solution that will truly change lives requires developing a deep empathy for the people involved. She is a specialist in guiding teams towards innovation not just for the sake of innovation, but for the benefit of people and the world. Her expertise lies in asking the right questions in order to understand and uncover the factors that determine how people adopt and use products, services, and environments. She guides teams from initial user insight discovery through the translation of these insights into design opportunities and requirements. In addition to having worked in markets across the US, Mekayla has led research in countries including China, Russia, Bangladesh, New Zealand, and throughout Europe. She has worked in many industries, with a particular focus into ways to bring about change for positive social and environmental impact. Before starting her own consultancy, Mekayla worked for many years at IDEO, a world-renowned design and innovation company.
Greg Berry
Benevolent Dictator at W1SD0M, CXO at Business Catapult, Principal at Nuance Intelligence
Greg Berry has been an independent, innovative thinker and a media architect for over 20 years, connecting ideas in a manner inspired by systems thinking. Greg holds several roles that support and inform each other. He is the Benevolent Dictator at w1sd0m, a nascent network designed to increase the flow of social, intellectual, human and financial capital to global sustainable enterprise; Partner and President at nuance intelligence which provides media strategy and development consultancy for world-changers; and is a Network Partner at nuPOLIS, the web home for Innovation Network for Communities and Urban Sustainability Associates, which comprise a diverse and powerful national network of experienced professionals who focus on creating scalable social innovation. If that weren’t enough, Greg is also the CXO and Managing Partner of Sustainable Business Development at Business Catapult which builds tools that connect entrepreneurs and investors in community. w1sd0m uses Business Catapult tools, and the two companies have co-created the Whole Systems Risk Management survey. Greg writes: I’m an Agent of Change and a systems thinker. Since my early teens I have been a cross-cultural networker, connecting people in networks as diverse as Silicon Valley technologists, Boulder sustainability innovators, European thought leaders, Arab intellectuals, African entrepreneurs, New York City media moguls, Boston academics and globetrotting change agents.
David Bornstein
Founder at Dowser, Author of "How to Change the World," Author of "The Price of a Dream: The Story of Grameen Bank," Systems Analysis at STS Systems
David Bornstein specializes in writing about social innovation. His newest book is Social Entrepreneurship: What Everyone Needs to Know, co-authored with Susan Davis. He is also the author of How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, which has been translated into 20 languages, The Price of a Dream: The Story of the Grameen Bank, and the 2005 Hart House Lecture. He co-wrote To Our Credit, a two-hour documentary series about micro-finance, which premiered on PBS. Bornstein is the founder of Dowser.org, a new media site which covers the field of social innovation, featuring interviews, stories and news. His next book will tell stories of social entrepreneurs in Canada and the United States. He grew up in Montreal and now lives in New York with his wife and son. He enjoys painting, guitar and ice skating.
Kevin Braithwaite
Director / Co-founder of RootSpace
Kevin Braithwaite is an entrepreneur focused on ventures that tackle key global challenges such as poverty, climate change, disease and international conflict. He is a director and co-founder of RootSpace, a social venture incubator in Beirut, Lebanon, that works to foster sustainable social and economic development through innovation, technology and entrepreneurship. Kevin has founded and built multiple technology companies and advised a wide range of early stage investors, incubators, universities, multinational corporations and non-profits. For a number of years, he worked with the venture incubator at the University of Cambridge, where he mentored and supported a wide range of young entrepreneurs. Kevin is also an advisory board member for cleantech, mobile and web ventures focused on social and environmental impact in developing and emerging markets.
Stephen Chen
Co-founder at GreenSoul Shoes, Former Vice President at Bear Stearns
Stephen Chen is a financial services professional and expert in creating platforms for innovation. Stephen is the former Vice President of Business Strategy at Bear Stearns where he helped launch BearXplorer™, an award-winning international hedge fund software company. BearXplorer was a macroeconomics analytics platform that helped asset managers quantify the impact of economic shifts on their portfolios. It was named Best Risk Analytics Initiative of the Year by the American Financial Technology Awards in 2006 and Buy Side Innovation of the Year by The Banker in 2007. Stephen is also the cofounder of GreenSoul Shoes, a charitable, 100% recycled shoe company. It is a platform built on public private partnerships that has created a network of local shoemakers, orphanages, and large NGOs to donate one pair of shoes for every pair sold. By identifying local shoemakers in communities of shoeless kids, GreenSoul Shoes is using a market-based restoration model to provide microfinancing opportunities for Third World entrepreneurs while shoeing their community’s youths. He has spoken at Yale, Brown, NYU, and Columbia University on topics of social entrepreneurship and technology platforms. He has been covered by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, ABC and NBC. Stephen is a member of the International Association of Financial Engineers. He holds a Bachelor of Science from Brown University.
Lindsay Clinton
Associate Vice President at Intellecap
Lindsay Clinton leads the Publications team at Intellecap, a social investment advisory firm based in India, where she is the Managing Editor of the leading industry publications Microfinance Insights and Beyond Profit, a magazine she conceptualized. She directs publication strategy, editorial content creation, drives advertiser and subscriber outreach, and guides the direction and brand development of the magazines. Additionally, she leads the creation of surveys and data analysis for both publications. Lindsay has a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the University of Virginia, and is a freelance writer for the The New York Times, the Austin American Statesman, and MINT, the Indian affiliate of the Wall Street Journal. She is also a regular blogger for The New York Times travel blog, Globespotters. She has extensive knowledge of microfinance, social enterprise, brand strategy, gender and women’s leadership, publishing and multi-platform marketing.
Mike Del Ponte
Founder and Executive Director of Sparkseed
Mike Del Ponte has had entrepreneurship running through his veins since he ran his first national organization at the age of 18 and now currently the founder and CEO of Sparkseed. Sparkseed invests in the top social entrepreneurs of tomorrow as they lead social ventures today. He has served as a humanitarian on four continents, most recently as a microfinance consultant in Nepal. Mike received his B.A. from Boston College and an M.A.R. from the Yale University Divinity School. His interests include social entrepreneurship, public speaking, and spirituality. He currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Kjerstin Erickson
Founder and Executive Director of FORGE
Kjerstin Erickson is the founder and Executive Director of FORGE, an international NGO that uses a unique social entrepreneurship model to facilitate peace building and development in war-torn African countries. Kjerstin started FORGE in 2003, while a junior at Stanford University. Now she continues to manage FORGE's operations, growth and development. She has developed partnerships with UN agencies and has worked with multiple African governments to bring FORGE's work to 70,000 refugees per year. An avid blogger and pioneer of ‘radical transparency,’ Kjerstin’s social media efforts have been profiled in outlets such as the Wall Street Journal and the San Francisco Chronicle, and in 2009 FORGE was honored with the Jenzabar Foundation's "Social Media Leadership Award." Kjerstin has also been named a Public Service Fellow at Stanford, a "Top 10 College Woman" by Glamour Magazine, and a "Person You Should Know" by CNN.
Nick Fellers
President of The Suddes Group
Nick Fellers is an entrepreneur and technology wiz who started his first business from his college dorm room. As a student at the University of Notre Dame, he created a first-of-its kind online student community for members to share course feedback and class ratings, and to learn about campus events, books and discussions. It made such a splash that other major universities came knocking, requesting similar portals for their schools. After building a successful enterprise as college students, Nick and his business partners eventually sold their tool to a dot com to allow time to focus on their interests in the nonprofit world. “My experience taught me the amazing power of scaled impact - what can happen when you share your system with an enormous number of people and the impact it can have on their lives,” Fellers explains. “I decided to take my expertise in technology and use it to somehow impact nonprofits, to really make a change in the world.” Nick enjoys life as a practitioner, coach and trainer. He has trained hundreds of organizations and regularly contributes to ForImpact.org. He began working with Tom Suddes and now serves as President of The Suddes Group.
Robert Fenwick-Smith
Founder of Aravaipa Ventures, Chairman at AWhere Inc. and Sunflower Corporation, Director at RavenBrick
Robert Fenwick-Smith is a true citizen of the globe, having learned three languages by the age of five and having lived seven countries. Robert and his wife Felice’s passion for green and sustainability brought them to Boulder, Colorado about two years ago. They built the second LEED Platinum home in Colorado, featuring the first Greywater Reuse system in the City of Boulder. Through his role on the Board fo Legacy Land Trust in Fort Collins, Robert also brings his passion to preserving the natural spaces and beauty of Colorado.
Ryan Fix
Founder at PUREPROJECT, Co-founder at OPENHOUSE GALLERY, Co-founder at PICNICK
Ryan Fix is the founder of PURE, an organization that uses creativity and innovation to promote sustainable solutions that advance a common good in the world, which they call "PUREPROJECTS." Examples include Openhouse, a pop-up retail exhibition gallery located in SoHo/NoLiTa with a triple-bottom line considering social, environmental and financial sustainability; and Picnick, a restaurant concept launched in NYC in 2007 that serves as a mini-model of consumer and eco-conscious food service. PURE is a founding partner of the annual participatory arts festival FIGMENT*. The organization also helped catalyze PUREPLANET, an initiative aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions through reforestation programs, the first of which was launched in Peru in September 2008 (Full Disclosure: Ryan is also a member of the Unreasonable Council).
Rafe Furst
Angel Investor, Co-Founder of Pick’em Sports, Co-Founder and CTO of Expert Insight, Professional Poker Player
Rafe Furst is an entrepreneur, angel investor, cancer awareness advocate and part time professional poker player. He currently works on and advises many projects that involve technology and social entrepreneurship. He regularly blogs about Complex Systems on EmergentFool. His ideas about the intersections between his different pursuits have been frequently cited on the Freakonomics blog. Furst holds an M.S. in Computer Science and B.S. in Symbolic Systems, both from Stanford University and began his career as an artificial intelligence researcher at the Kestrel Institute. He eventually left academia to co-found his first company, Pick’em Sports, in 1996. After Pick’em Sports was sold to a public company in 1999, Furst co-founded and served as Chief Technical Officer for Expert Insight, an educational media company. Furst is a technical advisor to iTripTV, a destination marketing company that helps travelers connect with destinations through rich media across multiple platforms.
Pamela Hawley
Founder and CEO of Universal Giving
Pamela is founder and CEO of Universal Giving, a nonprofit organization whose vision is to "create a world where giving and volunteering is a natural part of everyday life" by allowing people to give and volunteer in over 70 countries with top-performing, vetted projects. Universal Giving Corporate (UGC) is a customized service that helps companies manage their global Corporate Social Responsibility Programs. After witnessing extreme poverty in Mexico at age 12, Pamela committed herself to a lifetime of international service, specifically interested in strategically addressing global poverty. She spent time working and volunteering with microfinance institutions in rural India, participated in crisis relief efforts in the El Salvador earthquake, led digital divide training in Cambodia’s killing fields, and worked on a sustainable farm in rural Guatemala. Pamela also co-founded VolunteerMatch, which has connected over two million volunteers with non-profits. She is now a guest lecturer at USC School of Business and has spoken at Business for Social Responsibility, Ethical Corporation, Forbes' Conference for Women and UCLA and Stanford Business Schools on numerous topics including corporate social responsibility; international strategy and expansion; global philanthropy and volunteerism; social entrepreneurship; and the web. Watch the video of Pamela discussing how Universal Giving measures its impact here.
Paul Hudnut
Co-Founder at Envirofit International, Co-Director Global Innovation Center for Energy, Environment and Health
Paul Hudnut is an entrepreneur, an unrepentant optimist and an educational arsonist. He helped start Envirofit International, a company that develops and commercializes environmentally friendly technologies for "Base of the Pyramid" markets. As a board member, he advises Envirofit, New Belgium Brewing Co and Inviragen. He is a Co-Director at the Global Innovation Center for Energy, Environment and Health and he teaches entrepreneurship at Colorado State University and Bainbridge Graduate Institute. Currently, he is excited to be teaching in CSU's graduate degree program in Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise.
Michael Karnjanaprakorn
Co-Founder at All Day Buffet
Michael Karnjanaprakorn is the co-founder of All Day Buffet, a company that changes the world through creativity and business. Through All Day Buffet, he has launched The Feast, By/Association, and TBD. Previously, he was the Director of Brand and Business Development at Behance, and has worked at advertising agencies Naked Communications (London) and Trumpet (New Orleans). He's a graduate of the University of Virginia and VCU Brandcenter. He's an avid poker player, HBO fanatic, New York Foodie, and Foursquare Mayor of Sweet and Vicious.
Marc Mathieu
Founder at BeDo, Former Vice President Global Brand Marketing at The Coca-Cola Company
Marc is the founder and CEO of BeDo, a Company founded to help "inspire and free the good in all of us". Prior to founding BeDo, Marc was with the Coca-Cola Company from 1996 to 2008 and beforehand with the Danone Group, living across Europe, Asia and North America. Most recently in Coca-Cola's World Headquarters as Senior Vice President of Global Brand Marketing, Marc's work continuously broke new ground. Whether crafting the Manifesto for the Revival of an Icon, which drove the business turnaround of Coca-Cola's 120 year-old brand; conceptualizing and championing Live Positively, Coke's sustainability platform; or creating the Coca-Cola DNA, a redefinition of Coca-Cola's way of marketing as a fusion of art and science, Marc's contributions helped to redefine the company and shape it's culture.
Pawan Mehra
Managing Director at cKinetics, Executive Director of GIVE Foundation, Board Director at Intellecap, Vice President of Parsec Interact
Pawan Mehra has been involved in building and scaling early-stage ventures: first as a venture capital investor in his early career with GVFL and McKenna Capital and, since then as an entrepreneur with Parsec Interact, Intellecap, and cKinetics. He serves on many boards, including Global Impact Investing Network which represents global investors looking to make socially relevant investments, and continues to advise a number of companies in Asia and the US. He is also actively involved with and serving on the US board of the Give Foundation, the largest online non-profit exchange connecting donors with projects in India. Pawan has a Bachelors Degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering and a Master of Business Administration from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Pawan enjoys long-distance running and meeting real-world heroes. His most precious moments are spent re-learning the finer truths of life from his children.
Gregory Miller
Former managing Director at Google.org, Former CFO/Treasurer and General Counsel of the Google Foundation, Closed more than 100 significant corporate finance transactions totaling over $19.8, Avid adventurist
From early 2006 through August 2009, Gregory Miller was Managing Director at Google.org leading its philanthropic investments, grants and legal teams. Alongside Executive Director Dr. Larry Brilliant, Greg helped initiate and develop Google.org's programs and funding initiatives addressing global economic development, global public health and climate change. During that 3+ year tenure, Google.org grew to 42 persons, awarded approximately $100 million with 120 grants, led 11 philanthropic investments, and was recognized in widespread news articles, blogs and conferences recognizing its data-driven, outcome-based approaches. Prior to Google, Greg worked with and represented with start-up companies, principally with businesses competing in the Internet, networking, communications, and software markets, including as an equity partner with Silicon Valley's Gunderson Dettmer law firm and Of Counsel with Latham and Watkins. Greg lives in San Francisco, has a JD from University of Virginia Law School and has a BA in Economics and Philosophy from Colgate.
Thomas D. Nastas
Founder of Innovative Ventures, Inc; Former Senior Advisor to the Russian Venture Company, the Russian government’s $1 billion Fund of Funds
Thomas D. Nastas is the founder of Innovative Ventures, Inc., a venture fund investing on US-based technology companies. His investment experience is extensive and includes the creation of venture funds in the US, Canada, Europe, Africa, CEE and the CIS with total capitalization of $750 million. In 2008, he completed a senior advisory assignment for the Russian Venture Company, the Russian Government's $1 billion fund-of-funds located in Moscow.
Mr. Nastas works actively in the Russian community to develop future leaders and help place talented Russians in companies he is involved with. From January 2002-May 2009, Mr. Nastas served as Professor of Marketing at the American Institute of Business and Economics in Moscow, an evening MBA program for Russians, teaching courses including “Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital,” “Intro to Marketing” and “Sales Management." Mr. Nastas is an avid writer with articles on venture capital, technology and innovation published in the Harvard Business Review, Russian Investment Review, African Technology Development Forum Journal, Development Outreach (publication of the World Bank), Asian, Canadian, European and US Venture Capital Journals. His profile can be viewed by clicking here.
Bob Pattillo
Founder, Gray Ghost Ventures; CEO, First Light Ventures; board member of Catalyst, ASA Foundation, PFNC, MIT-Legatum Center for Social Entrepreneurship, Racemi
Bob is an entrepreneur. He likes to start stuff. Some folks find him permanently outside the box. He began work in microfinance in 1998 and sold his real-estate business in 2003 to focus solely on social investment and enterprise development. He founded Gray Ghost Ventures in 2003 as a regional microfinance equity fund incubator. The success of Gray Ghost has led to investment in enterprises serving low-income customers in developing countries. Current investments within the Gray Ghost family include Cell Bazaar, a mobile-phone “Craig’s List” service for farmers in Bangladesh, D.Light, the inventor and distributor of solar-powered LED lamps in rural India; and the Indian School Finance Company, a lender to schools serving low-income families. Day-to-day, he serves as the CEO of First Light Ventures, a sister enterprise to Gray Ghost Ventures that invests in social entrepreneurs at the idea and pilot stage. First Light is also executing the Village Bank, a global pilot of entrepreneurs selecting their peers for investment (Full Disclosure: First Light Ventures partnered with the Unreasonable Institute to establish the Unreasonable Village Fund as part of their global pilot).
Paul Polak
Founder of International Development Enterprises; Founder of D-Rev: Design for the Other 90%; Founder of Windhorse International, Enabled 17 million people to move out of poverty.
Dr. Paul Polak isn’t your everyday global poverty fighter. A 77-year old former psychiatrist, Dr. Polak has spoken to over 3,000 people earning less than $1/day a day. These conversations taught him that these impoverished people are actually viable entrepreneurs and consumers. Based on this principle, he founded International Development Enterprises (IDE), which has provided over 17 million people affordable agricultural technologies and enabled them to move out of poverty. After 25 years at the helm of IDE, Dr. Polak turned over leadership of the organization and is now focusing on fomenting two revolutions to end poverty: one in design and one in big business. The first, executed by his non-profit D-Rev: Design for the Other 90%, aims to reverse the fact that the world’s best designers spend 90% of their time serving the interests of the richest 10% of customers. The second, led by his new for-profit venture Windhorse International, aims to demonstrate how big businesses can profitably design and market their products and services to $1-$2/day customers. Practical solutions that work as well as stories about $1/day farmers are outlined in his book Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail. His work has been recognized by the likes of the Scientific American Top Fifty Award (2003) and the Ernst and Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” Award (2004).
Elnor Rozenrot
Director at Innosight Ventures
Elnor Rozenrot is a Venture Director at Innosight Ventures, a venture building and investing company with offices in Singapore, Mumbai, and Baltimore. Since joining Innosight, Elnor has worked with ventures in the US and Asia to bring to market new disruptive products and develop growth strategies. Elnor’s primary focus is on the incubation and early-stage business development for Innosight Ventures' portfolio companies. Prior to joining Innosight, Elnor has lived and worked in the United States and abroad. His most recent experience includes being Owner’s Agent at a telecommunications firm, where he managed turnaround efforts for select companies in the corporate holding portfolio. Prior to that he led two IT companies, one of which he founded, grew and merged with an ERP services firm. He received a Bachelors Degree in Law from the Academic College of Law in Tel Aviv and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, where he was awarded the Arnold F. Adams Jr. Entrepreneurship Award for Excellence in Entrepreneurship.
Watch the video of Elnor discussing Innosight Ventures’ disruptive innovation on the Unreasonable Blog here.
Revi Sterling
Faculty Director, ICTD Graduate Programs at the ATLAS Institute, High-level Panel of Advisors, UN-GAID
Revi Sterling, Ph.D., is the founding director of the only master’s degree program in the U.S. that trains what she calls “academic practitioners” in the field of Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICTD) at the ATLAS Institute at the University of Colorado. An active ICTD researcher and practitioner herself, she is focused on developing and deploying appropriate, sustainable and equitable technologies to enable other development efforts worldwide. She serves on several ICTD, gender, and development boards, and is a member of the High-Level Panel of Advisors to UN-GAID. She has active projects in Africa, South America and India, and when she’s not teaching one of her 5 courses in ICTD and “guerilla fieldwork methods,” she tries to be out in the field as much as possible. Prior to ATLAS, she was at Microsoft Research for a decade.
Taryn Miller-Stevens
Chief Connecting Officer at StartingBloc
Taryn knew when she walked into the first day of StartingBloc's London 2007 Institute for Social Innovation she had found her village. Taryn's role as Chief Connecting Officer (CCO) focuses on building relationships that breed blended value creation. Specifically Taryn leads strategic program and partnership development at StartingBloc. Taryn graduated from Tufts University, geeking out in inter-disciplinary education through the American Studies and Entrepreneurial Leadership Studies programs. While at Tufts, Taryn felt the pulse of a variety of organizations and businesses through the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service Scholars Program. One of her first tribes, Taryn was inspired by the power of bringing together diverse individuals who have a shared passion and vision for a better world - one where people can do what they love, make money and change the world. Prior to StartingBloc, Taryn worked in the Human Rights department at Reebok International, where she experienced Reebok's acquisition by The Adidas Group and saw multi-national CSR program expansion firsthand.
Tom Suddes
Founder of Suddes Group, Co-Founder of ForImpact.org, Founded 19 companies, Raised $1 Billion
Tom Suddes has made a name for himself as a thought leader, coach, consultant, speaker and writer. He has been labeled contrarian, radical, whacky, and is widely known as a maverick and an agent of change. He has founded 19 businesses and was the first Entrepreneur-In-Residence at the Gigot Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at Notre Dame. In 1996, Tom won a trip around the world when Success Magazine and Opportunity International awarded him a chance to share his social entrepreneurial experiences with third world micro-entreprenuers in Russia, Poland, India, the Philippines and Australia. In 1983, he founded The Suddes Group, which has managed over 300 campaigns, raised over $1 Billion, and helped generate 3 million new jobs in their work with 125 economic development organizations around the country. He is the author of “Take the Quantum Leap, The Change Manifesto” and the forthcoming “Just Ask!” Tom has also authored the content for the ForImpact.org website, where Tom and Nick Fellers have created a powerful ‘Open Source’ tool designed to help all ‘Nonprofit’/For Impact leaders to fund their vision. Tom served in the U.S. Army as an Infantry Officer, Airborne and Pathfinder; was a two-time welterweight boxing champion at Notre Dame; and has been the boxing coach at Notre Dame for 35 years. Throughout his crazy, eclectic, eccentric life, Tom has been anchored by his wife Trudy and his five wonderful children. Now, his six grandchildren, Savannah, Keegan, Calvin, Thomas, Tatum and Roscoe are the centerpiece of life.
Kerry Suddes
Director of Training at For Impact | The Suddes Group
Kerry Suddes started her career 16 years ago in the for profit training world where she built and facilitated ‘World Class Teams’ programs for thousands, including dozens of Fortune 500 companies like JP Morgan Chase, Nationwide Insurance, Medtronic, Merck, KeyCorp, General Motors and Sherwin-Williams. In 2005, Kerry joined the For Impact Team and has since coached and trained hundreds of organizations through successful funding efforts ranging from $100k to $15M. Kerry has worked closely with The American Cancer Society, The American Lung Association, and many private schools and social service agencies. Kerry Suddes leads the team in designing and delivering the Funding Boot Camp experience as well as working in the field with clients on funding initiatives. At the Funding Boot Camp, Kerry leads attendees through a Funding Road Map and incorporates experiential learning activities to accelerate the learning process and help raise millions of dollars. Kerry completed her degree Communications and Leadership Studies at the University of San Diego.
Nathaniel Whittemore
Founder at Assetmap Strategies, Advisor and Editor of Social Entrepreneurship at Change.org
Nathaniel is the founding Director of the Center for Global Engagement at Northwestern University, which works annually with hundreds of students in dozens of countries around the world through curricular programs and student project incubation. He is also the Founding Principle for Do Good Well, Inc, a consultancy focused on fusing business and philanthropy to advance social change. Most recently Nathaniel co-founded AssetMap, a web-based startup to help individuals and organizations better harness their assets for collaborative social change. You may also recognize him as the voice behind Change.org’s highly popular social entrepreneurship blog.
Dennis Whittle
Co-Founder and CEO of GlobalGiving
Dennis Whittle is CEO of GlobalGiving, which he co-founded in late 2000 after a career in the official aid sector. GlobalGiving is the leading marketplace for international aid and philanthropy. It connects donors with community-based development projects in nearly 100 countries, and over 50,000 donors have funded over 1,300 projects to date. GlobalGiving also does corporate programs with some of the most innovative Fortune 500 countries. From 1997 to 2000, Dennis co-led the World Bank's Corporate Strategy and Innovation units, which created the Development Marketplace. From 1992-1997, he led a variety of initiatives in the Bank's Russia program, including housing reform and energy efficiency projects. From 1987-92, Dennis was an economist in the World Bank's Jakarta office advising the Indonesian Ministries of Finance and National Development, and managing projects in the agriculture and forestry sectors. Before joining the World Bank in 1986, Dennis worked in the Philippines with the Asian Development Bank and with USAID. Dennis graduated with honors in religious studies from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead Scholar, and did his graduate work in development studies and economics at Princeton University. Dennis also completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. Watch the video of Dennis discussing the beginnings GlobalGiving, summarizing its impact to date, and providing some insights into what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur.