Navigating Uncharted Waters: For-Profit Companies with Social DNA
Friday, April 1, 2011
Session Description
Instead of the traditional nonprofit route, a new breed of social entrepreneur is birthing ventures with for-profit business models at their core. These for-profit entrepreneurs are reinventing capitalism and demonstrating how organisations can use profitable models as a force for sustainable social change. How do these new leaders balance the need for profits with their social mission? Do trade-offs change in different growth stages? This interactive session will highlight the various ways mission-driven for-profits are scaling their operations globally whilst staying true to their social values.
Time & Location
Time:
11:00 - 12:30, Friday, April 1, 2011
BST
Speakers
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Speaker
Chairman, Specialist People Foundation
Thorkil Sonne is founder of the not-for-profit Specialist People Foundation, which owns the For-Profit Specialisterne founded in 2004 to make a future for his son, who was diagnosed with autism at the age of three. Sonne has a background in IT and as chair of a local autism organisation. Sonne has been honoured with the Autism Prize 2004 by Autism Denmark and IT Prize by The Danish IT Industry Association. He was also named ‘Brave Thinkers’ by The Atlantic Magazine and ‘Intelligent Optimist’ by Ode Magazine.
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Speaker
Co-Founder and Director, Elvis & Kresse
Kresse Wesling is an environmental entrepreneur, building profitable businesses that solve environmental problems. In 2007 Wesling launched Elvis & Kresse, which turns industrial waste into a diverse range of innovative products and returns 50% of profits to charity.
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Speaker
Chairman and Communications Director, Red Redemption Ltd
Gobion Rowlands is the Chairman and Communications Director of Red Redemption, developers of social impact video games that brought climate change to the world. Hisenvironmental and gaming industry expertise has led him to be appointed a Fellow of The Royal Geographical Society, The Royal Institution and The Royal Society of Arts. He is also a board member for Games for Change, a non-profit that harnesses the extraordinary power of digital games to address the most pressing issues of our day.
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Speaker
President & CEO, Overseas Private Investment Corporation
Elizabeth L. Littlefield was appointed by President Obama as the President and CEO of OPIC, an Under Secretary level position. OPIC, as the US Government’s Development Finance Institution, manages an $18 bn portfolio of financing and insurance to support private investment in sustainable economic development, especially in the world’s poorest countries. Under Littlefield’s leadership, OPIC’s annual commitments to renewable resources projects grew ten-fold in three years to $1.5 bn, while generating increasing income for the U.S. federal budget. Littlefield has also instituted major reforms of the agency’s policies, systems, and processes, and has introduced new financial innovations to augment the agency’s development impact.
From 2000 until 2010 Ms. Littlefield was CEO of CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor), a policy and research center housed at the World Bank dedicated to advancing poor people’s access to financial services. Prior to joining CGAP in 1999, Littlefield was JP Morgan’s Managing Director in charge of capital markets and financing in emerging Europe, Middle East and Africa, among other positions. Littlefield spent 1989-1990 in West and Central Africa consulting several start-up microfinance institutions. She is a graduate of Brown University and also attended Ecole Nationale de Sciences Politiques in Paris.