Beating the Odds: Lessons Learned from Social Innovators in Government

Session leaders

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  Maura ONeill Moderator

  Distinguished Teaching Fellow, University of California, Berkeley

  Maura O’Neill through her work in the public, private and academic sectors have created entrepreneurial and public policy solutions for some of the toughest domestic and global problems. Maura has started four companies in the fields of electricity efficiency, customer info systems and billing, e-commerce and digital education. In 1989, she was named Seattle Business Person of the Year. President Obama appointed her the first Chief Innovation Officer and Senior Counselor to the Administrator at USAID where she had responsibility for inspiring and leading breakthrough innovations in $22 billion of foreign assistance worldwide. Maura co-led USAID Forward, the Agency's major reform initiative as well as oversaw over 600 global public-private partnerships. Groundbreaking ones included mobile money; supply chain elimination of ingredients/packaging from virgin forests; water and health interventions; gender equity and entrepreneurship. Maura is most well known for adapting venture capital and drug discovery methods to development by co-creating the Development Innovation Venture Fund. She served on the White House Innovation Cohort assisting with innovation across the federal government. Maura was Senior Advisor and Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary at U.S. Department of Agriculture, and served as Chief of Staff in the U.S. Senate (Cantwell D-WA) addressing the 2008 financial crisis, oil price explosion, renewal of clean energy tax credits and range of domestic and international issues. Currently at the Business School at UC Berkeley Maura received 2016 Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching. She also has taught at Stanford and Columbia Universities and regularly advises early stage companies, global government institutions and foundations. Maura is founding Vice Chair of the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women (public charter school). She has M.B.As from Columbia University and UC Berkeley; PhD from University of Washington.

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  Diana Good Speaker

  Commissioner, Independent Commission for Aid Impact

  Diana is a Commissioner with the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI). ICAI is the UK independent body which scrutinises UK government aid expenditure in order ascertain its impact and effectiveness. It reports direct to Parliament. In 4 years ICAI has published 40 reports. Diana has been the lead commissioner on reports including Private Sector Development,Empowerment and Accountability, Security and Justice, Learning, Conflict Prevention in Nepal, and is now working on a report on Impact. Diana was previously as a senior partner of Linklaters LLP where for thirty years she was a litigator and regulatory investigations lawyer. For eleven years she held a part time judicial appointment hearing cases in the criminal courts. She also works in access to justice and access to education: she is the Chair of the Mary Ward Settlement which runs both a free legal advice centre and an adult education centre in London. She has also worked with Camfed on governance matters co-authoring the report “Accounting to the Girl: Working Towards a Standard for Governance in the International Development Sector “ which was launched at the Skoll World Forum in April 2010.

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  Mary Robinson Speaker

  President, Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice

  Mary Robinson is President of the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice. She served as President of Ireland from 1990-1997 and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997-2002. She is a member of the Elders and the Club of Madrid and the recipient of numerous honours and awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom from the President of the United States Barack Obama. She sits on the advisory board of Sustainable Energy For All (SE4All) and is also a member of the Lead Group of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement. Between March 2013 and August 2014 Mary served as the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region of Africa and from August 2014 to end of 2015 she served as the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Climate Change. A former President of the International Commission of Jurists and former chair of the Council of Women World Leaders she was President and founder of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative from 2002-2010 and served as Honorary President of Oxfam International from 2002-2012. Mary Robinson serves as Patron of the Board of the Institute of Human Rights and Business, is an honorary member of The B Team, in addition to being a board member of several organisations including the Mo Ibrahim Foundation and the European Climate Foundation. She serves as Chancellor of the University of Dublin since 1998. Mary’s memoir, Everybody Matters was published in September 2012.

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• 
  Sabri Saidam Speaker

  Executive Chairman (Netketabi), Former Presidential Advisor, Education/Government

  Senior lecturer at Birzeit University. Served as an advisor to the Palestinian President on Telecom, ITand Technical Education. Former minister of Telecom & IT. Led telecom market liberalization in Palestine in 2006 introducing the second mobile phone operator. Also led the introduction and ratification of the Palestine Telecom Regulatory Authority (PTRA) law. Introduced a series of initiatives inclusive of e-Gov, the National Academic Network, Falastinyia (enhancing women participation in ICT),the Palestine Education Initiative (PEI). Helped launch .PS, the Palestinian National Internet Naming Authority (PNINA). Founded the award winning Palestine Digital Library in 2004 and the Palestine e-Republic in 2007. Also co-founded the Internet Society- Palestine Chapter (ISOC-PS), PC & Net 4 All (for providing PCs and internet connectivity to deprived Palestinians. Holds a PhD from Imperial College and a certification in Human Development form Oxford University. Born 1971.

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