Lunchtime Delegate-Led Discussions

Speakers

• Zak Kaufman

  Discussion lead

  Co-Founder & CEO, Vera Solutions

  Zak Kaufman is Co-Founder and CEO of Vera Solutions, a social enterprise using cloud and mobile technology to help social impact organizations worldwide work more efficiently and deliver better results. Zak has worked for 10 years at the intersection of technology and the social sector, overseeing program evaluations in Southern Africa and Latin America and architecting data systems for dozens of leading global nonprofits. Since 2010, Vera has served more than 330 organizations in more than 60 countries and has grown to a team of 80 staff on five continents. Notable clients Zak has worked with include the Gavi Alliance, the Aga Khan Foundation, the Skoll Foundation, and the Elton John AIDS Foundation. Zak holds a PhD and MSc in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a BA from Dartmouth. He has been recognized as a Marshall Scholar, Truman Scholar, Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneur, Meaningful Business 100, Global Good Fund Fellow, Bluhm/Helfand Social Innovation Fellow, and winner of Dartmouth's 2018 Social Justice Award. Vera has additionally received recognition through the Echoing Green Fellowship, Real Leaders Top 100 Impact Companies, and B Lab's Best For the World lists.

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• Paul Macek

  Discussion lead

  Vice President, Programs, World Cocoa Foundation

  Paul Macek is the Vice President of Programs for the World Cocoa Foundation, where he manages WCF’s global portfolio of projects and programs. In this capacity, Paul leads WCF’s country engagement and the technical areas of agricultural productivity, social development, and the environment. He is particularly passionate about social impact investing and entrepreneurship on the African continent where he has lived and worked for over 20 years. Before joining WCF, Paul worked with prominent international relief and development non-profits. Paul was the Senior Director for food security and livelihoods with World Vision, where he led a team responsible for the acquisition and implementation of more than 30 programs and projects worldwide. The annual $85 million portfolio of projects comprised of a diverse range of technical areas that included food security, agriculture, humanitarian assistance, climate change and adaptation, and economic development. Prior to joining World Vision, Paul held several prominent positions with Catholic Relief Services throughout sub-Saharan Africa. These positions included Country Representative (Uganda and Zambia); Deputy Regional Director for Southern Africa; Regional Emergency Representative in Southern Africa; and Program Manager in Benin and South Sudan. Paul graduated from the University of Wisconsin (Madison, WI) with a BA in History and Political Science and holds an MA in International Affairs from American University (Washington, DC) with a focus on development studies and political economy. When he’s not working, Paul enjoys spending time with his family, sailing on the Chesapeake Bay and traveling.

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• Pascale de la Fregonniere

  Discussion lead

  Executive Director, Cartier Philanthropy

  Pascale joined Cartier in July 2013 to launch Cartier Philanthropy, a grant-making foundation committed to improving the lives of the most vulnerable. Under her leadership, the foundation has invested some CHF 100M to support impact-driven non-profit organisations operating in over 30 countries. Pascale’s two decades' work in humanitarian and development efforts proved an invaluable background for her work in philanthropy. She began her career as an intern at the UN in New York and soon found herself on the team of the UN Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs in Mogadishu, Somalia. She then joined UNICEF in Baghdad, Iraq, and later was back on the team to lead donor relations for the USD 100M Iraq country programme. She also took part in on-the-ground efforts in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. Between stints on the ground, much of her work focused on raising the funds to support UNICEF’s operations and and managing funding relations with field offices in Africa and South-East Asia.

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• Nick Grono

  Discussion lead

  CEO, Freedom Fund

  Nick was appointed the inaugural CEO of the Freedom Fund in January 2014. The Fund is an ambitious effort to mobilise the knowledge, capital and will needed to end modern slavery. Nick serves on the advisory councils of Global Witness and the McCain Institute. Previously, he was the inaugural CEO of the Walk Free Foundation and beforehand the Deputy President and Chief Operating Officer of the International Crisis Group. Nick is a lawyer by background and served as Chief of Staff and National Security Adviser to the Australian Attorney-General from 1999-2001. He has written a book on non-profit leadership due to be published in July 2024.

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• Denielle Sachs

  Discussion lead

  Senior Director, APCO Worldwide

  Denielle Sachs is the senior director and global head of APCO Impact, the social impact and sustainability group within APCO Worldwide that focuses on climate and sustainability, racial and gender justice, philanthropy, as well as helping companies embed purpose, CSR and ESG in their business strategies. Ms. Sachs joined APCO in 2020, when the firm she founded, The Tembo Group, was acquired and has since overseen the acquisition of LA-based firm, Global Philanthropy Group. Previously, she spent eight years as the director of social impact for McKinsey & Company. At McKinsey, she helped build the Social Sector Practice, as well as architected and led the firm’s first-ever global corporate citizenship strategy, including the creation of the Firm’s 501(c)(3), now McKinsey.org. She holds a Master of Arts in International Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies and a Bachelor of Arts from New York University.

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• Nick Moon

  Discussion lead

  Executive Chairman, Wanda Organic

  Nick lived in Kenya since 1982, working actively for economic equity and social justice in Africa. In 1991 he co-founded - and until June 2012 directed - the award-winning not-for-profit social enterprise KickStart International, (www.kickstart.org). KickStart designs and promotes productivity-enhancing technologies for smallholder farmers in Africa. In recognition of this work Nick was awarded the SASE in 2004. Since January 2012 Nick was the Executive Chairman of Wanda Agriculture, a growing for-profit social enterprise (founded by his daughter Marion Atieno Moon) that brings the latest bio-organic soil and plant health solutions to African farmers, essential for sustainable agriculture and for climate change adaptation and mitigation. www.wandaagriculture.org In July 2017 Nick took up a part-time position as Program Director for Orkidstudio LLC, a specialized ‘architectural design and build’ enterprise, that champions gender equality in the construction sector in Africa. www.orkidstudio.org Additionally Nick was actively involved with two other initiatives that promote social and economic development. • Peace building, enterprise development, and job creation for youth, with ONGOZA (formerly ‘Peace for Africa & Economic Development’), founded in 2008 by Eddy Gicheru Oketch in the wake of Kenya’s deeply troublesome period of violent civil unrest following hotly contested elections. Nick is currently chairman of the Board of this young and growing organization. www.ongozayouth.org. • The professionalization of the performing arts in Kenya - with the Theatre Company, founded by Keith Pearson and Mumbi Kaigwa (www.theatrecompany.net) The Skoll Foundation deeply mourns the loss of Nick Moon who passed away in 2018.

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• Avnish Gungadurdoss

  Discussion lead

  CEO, Instiglio

  Avnish is the Co-Founder of Instiglio, a non-profit focused on enhancing development effectiveness by integrating impact incentives and accountability into public finance practices. As of 2024, Instiglio has empowered 450 government leaders and influenced over $600 million in development spending across 25 entities. He leads the organization’s strategy, particularly in collaboration with Multilateral Development Banks and aid institutions. Prior to founding Instiglio in 2012, Avnish worked at MIT’s J-PAL and the World Bank. He holds a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard, a certificate in Performance Management from Harvard Business School, and a bachelor's in economics and mathematics from Dartmouth. Avnish received the Echoing Green Fellowship and was named one of Forbes' "30 Under 30" social entrepreneurs. He serves on various boards, is an instructor at Philanthropy U, and is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Global Development. He is of Mauritian origin and has work

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• Elizabeth Hausler

  Discussion lead

  Founder & 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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• Elissa Holmes

  Discussion lead

  Director, Private Sector Partnerships, Partners In Health

  Elissa builds strategic alliances for Partners In Health (PIH) with corporate, foundation, and implementation partners. Over the last decade she’s held a variety of roles at PIH, including leading the Policy & Partnerships team in Malawi where she developed multisectoral collaboration around noncommunicable disease, women’s health, and health sector planning. Previously, she worked in policy research, supply chain consulting, and workforce development. Elissa is a proud member of the Women’s Impact Alliance.

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• Aaron Huey

  Discussion lead

  Founder, Amplifier

  Aaron Huey is a National Geographic photographer and Explorer, a Stanford d.School Fellow, and Founder + Chief Creative of Amplifier.org. As a photographer Huey has created over 30 stories for the National Geographic magazines including several cover stories. His photo career started with a photo essay in teh Smithsonian about his solo walk across America in 2001 (3,349 mile in 154 days). As a Stanford Knight Fellow and then as one of the first d.School Media Experiments Fellows, Huey focused on using the human centered design process in both the analog and digital world to evolve his storytelling. That resulted in many projects beyond traditional photography, including the evolution of his art and advocacy non-profit Amplifier, where he created the global art phenomenon called "We The People" with a small team now based in South Seattle. Huey’s Bear Ears Virtual Museum VR experience, won the Webby for best VR Interactive Design in 2019 and parts of that project will become Pre-Colonial History and Cultural Heritage lessons in AR and VR for K-12 classrooms across the US in 2021. Huey is currently working on a set of new AR experiments at Amplifier. But, perhaps most importantly, Huey was named the 3rd coolest Dad in America by Fatherly.com after Lebron James and Kelly Slater.

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