Bill Drayton

Biography

Bill Drayton, founder and CEO of Ashoka, pioneered the field of social entrepreneurship. Ashoka’s over 4,000 leading social entrepreneurs, “Ashoka Fellows,” operate in 100+ countries to create an “everyone a changemaker” world. Working in fields like health and human rights, three-quarters of these Fellows make national and/or international policy and system changes within a decade of election. Bill also taught in Harvard and Stanford, served as Assistant Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and in the White House, and led transformative projects at McKinsey & Company. He authored many key innovations, ranging from emissions trading to Get America Working! A graduate of Harvard College, Oxford’s Balliol College (M.A.), and Yale Law School (J.D.), Bill has received many awards including the MacArthur Fellowship, honorary degrees from Yale and others, and memberships including in the American Philosophical Society for his contributions to social change.