Russ Gaskin

Biography

Russ helps people who don’t know each other and often don’t even like each other, solve complex problems together.

He is the managing partner in CoCreative, whose Collaborative Innovation practice currently supports 21 multistakeholder networks working on a range of challenges like:

* Aligning bank lending with climate needs in Europe and North America
* Developing an international human rights measurement system
* Advancing climate-positive agriculture globally
* Advancing inclusive community wealth-building
* Shifting the upstream determinants of health
* Closing racial and economic gaps in education and workforce opportunity

CoCreative's quest is to continue to grow our impact five times faster than we grow our firm, so we freely share all of our tools, models, and methods; help start and grow other systems change consultancies; and work with partners like Ashoka and Illuminate to grow the field and practice of systems change. We also offer training on leading collaborative systems change, leveraging conflict to drive innovation in social systems, and facilitating complex multistakeholder collaborations.

Russ also builds the capacities of others to lead effective collaboration by speaking and teaching on changing complex systems, human-centered design, and leveraging conflict and diversity as sources of strategic innovation.

Prior to launching CoCreative, Russ served as the chief business officer of Green America, a global leader in developing economic strategies to advance social equity and environmental sustainability; served as managing director of US SIF, a pioneering membership organization for financial firms and institutional investors doing impact investing; and founded the Green Business Network, the first network of triple-bottom-line businesses in the U.S.