Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship: Awards Ceremony

Speakers

• Playing For Change

  Performer

  , Playing For Change

  The PFC Band is a group of musicians united through the Playing For Change Songs Around The World videos. They come together from five different continents, and each musician brings a different culture, experience and sound to the group. From the streets to the stage to the hearts of the people, the PFC Band plays music that transcends our differences and inspires a world where we are going to make it as a human race, one heart and one song at a time.

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• Simon Taylor

  Speaker

  Director, Global Witness

  Simon is a director of the NGO Global Witness (www.globalwitness.org), which he co-founded together with friends and colleagues, Charmian Gooch and Patrick Alley in 1993. Simon is a Steering Committee member of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative (https://fossilfueltreaty.org/steering-committee). Simon was a co-founder of the Publish What You Pay campaign (www.pwyp.org), in 2002. He has extensive public-interest advocacy & policy making experience across multiple jurisdictions. His work has also sought to hold human rights abusers, the corrupt and corporate criminals to account, including using the law. He was a complainant to the Milan Public Prosecutor, which led to the trial of Shell and Eni for their corrupt deal for the OPL 245 oil block in Nigeria (See public documents: https://shellandenitrial.org/). Simon, Charmian & Patrick have concluded a succession process at Global Witness, leaving staff in November 2023. They remain on the board.

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• Jockin Arputham

  Speaker

  President, Shack/Slum Dwellers International

  Jockin Arputham worked for more than 40 years in slums and shanty towns, building representative organizations into powerful partners with governments and international agencies for the betterment of urban living. Arputham was the president of the National Slum Dwellers Federation which he founded in the 70s and of Slum Dwellers International which networks slum and shack dweller organizations and federations from over twenty countries across the world. The National Slum Dwellers Federation works closely with Mahila Milan, a collective of savings groups formed by homeless women and women living in slums across India, and with SPARC, a Mumbai-based NGO, and together they have been instrumental is supporting tens of thousands of the urban poor access housing and sanitation. Jockin realized that slum dweller organizations had to change their strategy. They had to make governments see them as legitimate citizens with knowledge and capacities to implement solutions. So they sought to work in partnership with government to address their housing problems – and other problems. He often said that how can you reduce urban poverty if you do not listen to and work with the urban poor. In this way, he built more than 20,000 toilet seats in Mumbai alone. He insisted on new standards on redeveloped housing. Over the years, Arputham built 30,000 houses in India, and 1,000,000 houses abroad. Funding for his work came from many sources. He visited many other countries to encourage and support slum or shack dwellers to organize and to encourage them to take their own initiatives to show government what they are capable of. He was the winner of the 2000 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Peace and International Understanding and an honorary Ph.D. from KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, in 2009. In 2011, the Government of India bestowed on him its fourth highest civilian honor, the Padma Shri award. The Skoll Foundation deeply mourns the loss of Jockin Arputham who passed away in 2018.

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• Yves Moury

  Speaker

  Founder, President & CEO, Fundación Capital

  Yves Moury is the Founder and CEO of Fundación Capital, a global organization aiming at asset-building for the poor and climate action. He has been honored as a Schwab Foundation (the sister organization of the World Economic Forum) Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2017 Awardee. In 2017 he was also named an Ashoka Senior Fellow, and in 2014 received the Skoll Foundation Award for Social Entrepreneurship, a global recognition for his work in education and economic opportunities. Fundación Capital is a pioneer in systems change for economic citizenship and inclusive finance, working to help the poor access formal finance and save; grow and invest their assets; insure their families, build resilient mechanisms against climate change; and chart a permanent path out of poverty. To achieve results at scale, the organization aligns advances in public policy, market mechanisms, digital technologies and data-based impact measurement.

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• Jay Coen Gilbert

  Speaker

  Executive Chair, B Lab

  Jay Coen Gilbert is Executive Chair of Imperative 21, a global network shaping economic narratives and reimagining systems so that everyone, everywhere can thrive. Imperative 21 catalyzes breakthrough narratives that tell a new story about the purpose of business and accelerate the movement to redesign an economic system that cares about people and not just profit. I21 builds on Jay’s experience as cofounder of B Lab, the nonprofit behind the B Corporation movement, with nearly 8,000 companies across 80 countries. Along with his B Lab cofounders, Jay received the UMKC Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, and the McNulty Prize at the Aspen Institute. Jay recently co-founded an antiracist community of practice called White Men for Racial Justice. Prior, Jay co-founded AND 1, a $250M basketball company and subject of a Netflix documentary. Jay grew up in NYC and graduated from Stanford University.

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• Malala Yousafzai

  Speaker

  Ambassador to Malala Fund, Malala Fund

  Malala is the ambassador and co-founder of the Malala Fund and global human rights activist. Born in 1997, Malala Yousafzai grew up in the Swat Valley in northern Pakistan with her parents and two brothers. From the age of 10, Malala has campaigned for the rights of girls to receive an education. Using a pseudonym, Malala wrote a blog for the BBC detailing her life under Taliban rule and her views on promoting education for girls. In October 2012, the then 15-year-old Malala was shot by the Taliban while travelling home from school on the bus with her friends. Since the attack, she has become internationally known for her courage in refusing to be silenced and continuing her fight for the right of everyone to receive an education. Following the outpouring of support that Malala received throughout her ordeal, she set up an international fund – the Malala Fund – which is dedicated to help promote education for girls throughout the world.

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• Sam Parker

  Speaker

  Founder, FIGURE80

  Graduating from Oxford University in 1983, Sam worked for 17 years in the agrochemicals and commodity trading businesses, with responsibilities across Latin America, Africa and Asia. During this time, Sam took a two-year break to work as a volunteer with street children in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In 2002, he moved into the development sector with the International Save the Children Alliance, leading the organisational development of its 30 national members. 2006, Sam joined Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP), as its first CEO, and became a Skoll Awardee in 2014. In 2015, Sam was appointed Director of the Shell Foundation, which funds the expansion of renewable energy to low-income consumers who have no access to electricity. Recognizing the crucial importance of business in achieving the SDGs, in 2021, Sam co-founded Agile Governance Inc., a B-Corp that helps social enterprises to transform business performance and raise more capital through smart, agile governance.

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• Charmian Gooch

  Speaker

  Co-Founder & Director, Global Witness

  Charmian Gooch jointly led Global Witness's first campaign, exposing the trade in timber between the Khmer Rouge and Thai logging companies and their political and military backers. Subsequently, Charmian developed and launched Global Witness’s ground-breaking campaign to combat ‘blood diamonds’; Global Witness was nominated for the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize as a result of this work. In 2014 Charmian was awarded the TED Prize, given to an ‘extraordinary individual with a creative and bold vision to spark global change’. In the same year, Charmian along with Global Witness co-founders Patrick Alley and Simon Taylor, received the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, awarded to ‘transformative leaders who are disrupting the status quo’. She was also named one of Fast Company’s 100 most creative people in business and is a Young Global Leader Alumni.

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• Sally Osberg

  Speaker

  Vice Chair and Senior Advisor, Skoll Foundation

  As the first President and CEO of the Skoll Foundation, Sally Osberg partnered with Jeff Skoll to build it into the leading philanthropy in the field of social entrepreneurship. During her tenure, the Foundation supported more than 100 entrepreneurial organizations driving equilibrium change on many of the world’s most pressing problems and developed innovative platforms for connecting civil society, government and private sector leaders with societal problem solvers. Among these platforms are the annual Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship, the Skoll Centre at Oxford University’s Said Business School, and the Sundance Institute’s “Stories of Change” initiative. In 2015, Sally and Roger Martin published Getting Beyond Better: How Social Entrepreneurship Works, which articulates a theoretical framework for social entrepreneurship and distills lessons for practitioners, academics and impact investors. Her thought pieces have appeared in leading social impact and business journals and books; in 2015, she and Roger Martin were honored by Thinkers 50 for their intellectual leadership in the field of social enterprise. Prior to joining Jeff Skoll and the Skoll Foundation, Sally served as the founding Executive Director for Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose, a pioneering institution in the field. Sally currently serves as the Chair of the Camfed (the Campaign for Female Education in Africa) USA Foundation, on the Philanthropy Advisory Council of the Royal Bank of Canada, on the Advisory Council of the Elders, as Vice Chair of the Social Progress Imperative and as a board director for New America and the Palestine-based Partners for Sustainable Development. She is also an Associate Fellow of the Said Business School of Oxford University. She received her M.A. in English and American Literature from the Claremont Graduate School and her B.A. in English from Scripps College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

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• Patrick Alley

  Speaker

  Co-Founder & Board Member, Global Witness

  Patrick is one of the three founders of Global Witness. Founded in 1993 Global Witness has become one of the world’s leading investigative organisations dedicated to rooting out corruption and environmental and human rights abuses around the world, with Patrick taking part in over fifty field investigations in South East Asia, Africa and Europe. Taking the findings to lawmakers and into the boardrooms of multinational companies Patrick and his colleagues have challenged the assumption that you can’t change things. Global Witness now has major focus on tackling the climate crisis. Patrick is the author of Very Bad People, published in 2022, which charts some of Global Witness’ key investigations. Alongside his two co-founders Patrick received the 2014 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, the same year that Global Witness won the TED Prize. Global Witness was nominated for the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize for their work exposing the murderous trade in blood diamonds.

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• Mabel van Oranje

  Speaker

  Founder, Girls Not Brides

  Mabel van Oranje is a global advocate for equality, justice and freedom and serial entrepreneur for social change. During the last decade, she played a catalytic role in the creation and growth of Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage, the Girls First Fund and VOW for Girls. Mabel is currently a board member of Fondation Chanel, the Lego Foundation, the Sigrid Rausing Trust and VOW for Girls (chair). She is also an advisor to Apolitical Academy Global, Co-Impact’s Gender Fund, Global Witness, the Graca Machel Trust and The Elders. Mabel is a champion of Girls Not Brides, and a co-founder and chair emeritus of the European Council on Foreign Relations. You can follow her tweets @MabelvanOranje

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• Josh Nesbit

  Speaker

  Former Chief Executive Officer, Medic

  Josh Nesbit is the co-founder and former CEO of Medic, a nonprofit organization founded to improve health with and in the hardest-to-reach communities. The open-source software helps over 35,000 community health workers provide care for more than 20 million people in Africa and Asia. These health workers deliver care and services, door-to-door, through more than 1.5 million home visits each month. Together with our partners, we envision a more just world in which health workers are supported as they provide care for their neighbors, universal health coverage is a reality, and health is secured as a human right. Before co-founding Medic, Josh studied global health and bioethics at Stanford University, where his qualitative research focused on pediatric HIV/AIDS in Malawi. Josh is an Ashoka Fellow, PopTech Social Innovation Fellow, Echoing Green Fellow, and Rainer Arnhold Fellow. He has served on the Board of Directors for Developing Radio Partners and IntraHealth International. Josh was selected by Devex as one of 40 Under 40 Leaders in International Development, received the Truman Award for Innovation from the Society for International Development, and was named by Forbes as one of the world’s 30 top social entrepreneurs. In 2014, Medic received a Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. In 2016, Josh accepted a Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award. Josh is continually inspired by health workers around the world.

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• Jeff Skoll

  Speaker

  Founder & Chairman, Jeff Skoll Group

  Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Skoll Foundation Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Participant Media Founder of Capricorn Investment Group Co-founder and GP of the RISE Fund First fulltime employee and President of eBay

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• Bart Houlahan

  Speaker

  Co-Founder, B Lab

  Bart Houlahan co-founded B Lab in 2006. B Lab is a non-profit organization with offices in 33 countries, driving economic systems change to build a more inclusive, equitable and regenerative economy. Its mission is to serve a movement of people using business as a force for good by shining a light on leaders through a corporate certification (6000+ Certified B Corporations in 70+ countries), and then providing easy pathways for others to follow. B Lab encourages all companies to manage their social and environmental impact using the B Impact Assessment (250,000+ companies engaged). The organization also advances policy initiatives to upend shareholder primacy and advance stakeholder governance (Benefit Corporation legislation passed in 43 states and 10 countries). Prior to B Lab, Bart was President of AND 1, a $250 MM basketball footwear and apparel company. Bart is a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute and a recipient of the 2014 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship.

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• Andrew Kassoy

  Speaker

  Co-Founder & CEO, B Lab

  Andrew is co-founder and board co-chair of B Lab, the nonprofit organization behind the B Corp movement. B Lab’s vision is stakeholder capitalism - an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economic system for all. B Lab drives systemic change by changing the culture, behavior, and structure of business and the capital markets. The movement is led by the example of nearly 8,000 Certified B Corporations in 80 countries. Before leaving the private sector to co-found B Lab, Andrew spent 16 years as a partner in private equity funds at DLJ, Credit Suisse, and MSD Capital. He and his co-founders have won numerous awards and recognition, including a New York Times Visionary, the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, and the McNulty Prize. He is a lecturer at Princeton University, where he teaches a course on stakeholder capitalism with his wife, Margot Brandenburg, and he has served on numerous for profit and non-profit boards. Andrew lives in Brooklyn with his wife and four children.

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