Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship

Speakers

• Bono

  Speaker

  Founder, ONE Campaign

  Bono was born Paul David Hewson on May 10, 1960, in Dublin, Ireland. He joined U2 while still in high school. Their sixth album The Joshua Tree, made them international stars. Bono has used his celebrity to call attention to global problems, including world poverty, and AIDS. Bono was named a "Person of the Year" by TIME magazine in 2005, and Queen Elizabeth II made him an honorary knight in 2007. Throughout U2's career, Bono has written most of the band's lyrics, often focusing on untraditional themes like politics and religion. In fact, social activism has always been close to the singer's heart, and he has used his music to raise consciousness with performances at Band Aid, Live 8 and Net Aid, among others. In 2006, U2 joined forces with the punk-influenced band Green Day to record a cover of the Skids' "The Saints Are Coming" to benefit the rebuilding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The next year, Bono and the rest of U2 contributed the title track to Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur. Outside of music, Bono has used his celebrity to generate awareness about many global problems. Over the years, he has met with world leaders and many U.S. politicians to discuss such issues as debt relief for developing countries, world poverty and AIDS. Bono has also lobbied tirelessly on behalf of many causes, including two he helped create. DATA, which stands for Debt AIDS Trade Africa, is dedicated to fighting AIDS and ending poverty in Africa. Started in 2004, One is a nonpartisan campaign to "Make Poverty History" and is supported by more than 100 nonprofit organizations as well as millions of individuals, including celebrities like Ben Affleck, Gwyneth Paltrow and Brad Pitt. In 2005, Bono and his wife Ali Hewson established EDUN, a socially responsible clothing line. While it is a for-profit enterprise, its mission is to foster "sustainable employment in developing areas of the world, particularly Africa," according to its website. Bono was named a "Person of the Year" by TIME magazine for his charitable work that same year, along with Bill and Melinda Gates. Across the Atlantic, Queen Elizabeth II made him an honorary knight of the British Empire in 2007.

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• Michael Franti

  Performer

  Musician, Humanitarian, and Co-Founder, Do It For The Love Foundation

  A musician, filmmaker and humanitarian who is recognized as a pioneering force in the music industry. Long known for his globally conscious lyrics, powerful performances, and dynamic live shows, Franti has continually been at the forefront of lyrical activism, using his music as a positive force for change. ​ “I make music because I believe it can change people’s lives and make a difference in the world,” enthuses Franti, “music gives us new energy and a stronger sense of purpose.” He and his band Spearhead, known for their authentic and uplifting music, have found global success with multi-platinum songs like “Say Hey (I Love You)”, the chart breaking 2010 release of The Sound Of Sunshine. Franti and his band guarantee a show that will be thought provoking as well as energetic. ​ Franti has a brand new single, “Once A Day” from his upcoming debut album on Fantasy Records. “Once a Day” was inspired by his son’s diagnosis with a rare kidney disease called FSGS (Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis) in the hopes that this song would inspire anyone in the world who is going through challenging times. “My belief is that through music, dance and gratitude for this life we can all ‘rise up’,” explains Franti. “Once A Day” was produced by Supa Dups (Eminem, Damian Marley, Bruno Mars) and features special guest Sonna Rele. This new song has the same feel-good, inspiring vibe as “Say Hey (I Love You),” his 2x platinum hit single. ​ Giving back has always been at the heart of Franti’s mission, he has dedicated his life to spreading the joy of music and positivity to millions of people. Franti’s humanitarian, social justice, and peace efforts continue to inspire his music and are infused throughout his music.

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• Raj Panjabi

  Speaker

  Board Member, Skoll Foundation and President Emeritus, Last Mile Health

  The Honorable Dr. Raj Panjabi is former White House Senior Director and globally recognized as a distinguished authority in healthcare, public policy, entrepreneurship, and technology. Dr. Panjabi is Senior Partner at Flagship Pioneering, leading the Preemptive Health and Medicine Initiative, which is pioneering a new field to protect, maintain or improve people's health before they get sick. He is also on faculty at Harvard Medical School. As White House Senior Director and Special Assistant to President Biden, Panjabi served as the top pandemic and health official at the National Security Council. He played a pivotal role in the largest vaccination campaign in history against COVID-19 and responses to public health crises, including Mpox, Influenza and Ebola. He played a lead role executing the 2022 National Biodefense and American Pandemic Preparedness Plans, coordinating over $12 billion in annual investment across 16 federal agencies in biodefense, including in disease surveillance, diagnostics, therapeutics, vaccines and health systems. Panjabi helped oversee implementation of the President’s 2022 Bioeconomy Executive Order, directing federal agencies to drive research and development, streamline regulation, grow manufacturing, and expand markets for biotechnology products, including by leveraging artificial intelligence. Dr. Panjabi oversaw implementation of the 2022 U.S. Global Health Security Act, authorizing $5 billion and expanding health investments across 50 countries. He co-developed the President’s COVID-19 and health security initiatives with the G7, G20, and regional bodies, including efforts to organize Presidential Summits, launch the Pandemic Fund at the World Bank, negotiate the WHO Pandemic Accord and uphold the UN Biological Weapons Convention. Panjabi held top healthcare executive roles. Leading the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative, he helped launch the world’s first malaria vaccine, create a strategy to prevent 1 billion cases and manage a $800 million enterprise protecting 700 million people across 30 countries. For 14 years he was Co-Founder and CEO of Last Mile Health, a social enterprise leveraging digital technology to train thousands of healthcare providers serving millions of people.

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• Kola Masha

  Speaker

  Founder & Managing Director, Babban Gona Farm Services, Ltd., Babban Gona

  Kola is an award-winning social entrepreneur dedicated to solving Africa's leading social challenge, dramatic rise in insecurity. Kola brings significant leadership experience across four continents and multiple leading companies, including General Electric (GE), Abiomed and Notore. In addition, Kola brings extensive public sector experience as the former Senior Advisor to the Nigerian Minister of Agriculture. Kola is globally recognized as a thought leader in African Agribusiness. In recognition of his leadership in driving positive change on the African Continent, he has received several global awards including the prestigious Eisenhower Fellowship and Rainer Fellowship. Kola holds an MBA (Honors) from Harvard and a Masters in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT. Specialties: Impact Investing, Agricultural Development, Smallholder Farmer Development,

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• Elizabeth Hausler

  Speaker

  Founder & Former CEO, Build Change

  World-class social innovator. Safe housing advocate. Bricklayer. Dr. Elizabeth Hausler is the Founder and CEO of Build Change and a global expert on resilient housing, post-disaster reconstruction, and systems change. Elizabeth’s strategic direction and leadership have grown Build Change from a few employees in 2004 to a global team spread across five continents. She is the recipient of many honors, and in 2011, was named the US Social Entrepreneur of the Year by the Schwab Foundation. Together with Build Change, she was awarded the 2017 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. In 2018, she received the University of California, Berkeley’s Campanile Excellence in Achievement Award. Elizabeth is also an Ashoka Fellow, a Draper Richards Kaplan Fellow, and an Echoing Green Fellow. Dr. Hausler has headlined top conferences, lectured at eminent universities, and been featured in media outlets including The New York Times, BBC News, Forbes, Elle Magazine, ABC News, and Bloomberg Business.

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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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• 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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• Bradley Myles

  Speaker

  Former Chief Executive Officer, Polaris

  Bradley Myles is former CEO of Polaris, a global leader in the fight to eradicate human trafficking and to restore freedom to survivors. Since 2002, he has devoted himself to combating human trafficking and modern slavery on a local, national, and global scale. Mr. Myles' early efforts focused on directly serving survivors, researching local human trafficking markets, and helping to build Washington DC's first-ever Human Trafficking Task Force. Under Myles' leadership, Polaris has worked to strengthen the U.S. national movement against human trafficking through policy advocacy in all 50 states and through a wide range of training and capacity-building programs. He also helped launch Polaris's operation of the United States National Human Trafficking Hotline (1-888-373-7888), a 24/7 operation that has now identified and responded to more than 50,000 cases of human trafficking nationwide, received calls directly from over 10,000 survivors, and formulated a unique typology of the 25 major types of human trafficking that exist in the present-day United States. This hotline and data hub model is now regarded as one of the best-functioning anti- trafficking hotlines in the world and has become a focal point of Polaris' growing global programs. Mr. Myles is currently focusing his efforts on Polaris’s future strategy for the next decade, which includes working towards better anti-trafficking hotline coverage globally to build a stronger safety net for all 25 million victims of human trafficking worldwide, strengthening partnerships with the world's leading technology companies, and undertaking new data-driven intervention efforts targeted towards eliminating specific types of modern slavery in the U.S. and around the world. Mr. Myles holds degrees in Psychology and Political Science from Stanford University. He is the 2017 recipient of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship.

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