Lunchtime Delegate-Led Discussions

Speakers

• Sasha Fisher

  Discussion lead

  Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Spark MicroGrants

  Sasha Fisher is the Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Spark Microgrants. Her experiences in South Sudan, South Africa, India, and Uganda led to her passion for community-first development and, in July 2010, she moved to East Africa to develop the Spark Microgrants system of change. Sasha is an inaugural Obama Fellow and Draper Richards Kaplan Fellow. She was featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneurship list and was honored with the Muhammad Ali Award for Respect. She holds a BA from the University of Vermont in Studio Art and a self-designed major of Human Security, a paradigm for development that recognizes the rising legitimacy of non-state actors in securing basic human needs.

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• Rachel White

  Discussion lead

  President, Guardian.org Foundation

  Rachel White is president of theguardian.org and executive vice president, philanthropic and strategic partnerships at Guardian News and Media. Working across global editorial teams she develops, funds, and executes editorial project that drive measurable impact. Prior to joining the Guardian, she served as executive vice president and interim president of the Washington D.C.-based, journalism-centered think tank New America Foundation. Working across media, policy, government, the private sector, and philanthropy, she led the organization in advancing new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States, and launched New America NYC and New America Live. From 1995 to 2005, Rachel worked for the World Wildlife Fund where she launched programs in San Francisco, New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago and Houston, and served as lead on the Living Planet Campaign.

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• Kartik Shanker

  Discussion lead

  Director, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and The Environment

  Kartik Shanker the Director of the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Bangalore. He is an ecologist with interests in inter-disciplinary research as well as conservation action and outreach. He is on deputation from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore where he has worked on various aspects of the distribution and diversity of flora and fauna in terrestrial and marine ecosystems, with applications for conservation decision making. He is also a founder trustee of Dakshin Foundation, an NGO which works largely on coastal and marine conservation and livelihoods. Shanker has worked on the biology and conservation of sea turtles for the last 25 years, and has ongoing projects on olive ridley turtles in Orissa, and leatherback turtles in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. He has been involved in initiating national and regional networks for the conservation of sea turtles and their habitats. He has started newsletters and websites and conducted international symposiums on sea turtles. He has also served as President of the International Sea Turtle Society and is Regional Vice-Chair of the IUCN/SSC Marine Turtle Specialist Group. He served as the editor of Conservation and Society for 10 years, is the founding editor of the magazine, Current Conservation. He is the author of the book ‘From Soup to Superstar’, a historical account of sea turtle conservation in India. He is the author of several children’s books, including Lori’s Magical Mystery, Turtle Story and The Adventures of Philautus Frog.

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• Jaison Morgan

  Discussion lead

  CEO, Common Pool

  Jaison Morgan is the CEO of Common Pool (www.commonpool.org), an agency that funds social enterprises through an open, transparent, and fair process of granting awards, prizes, fellowships, and other forms of incentive-based programs. In 2017, Common Pool was responsible for facilitating over $200 million in total resources to registrants around the world. Jaison Morgan has been recognized by the BBC as "the world's expert" in designing prizes to drive innovative breakthroughs. He helped establish a lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2007 to study how targeted rewards can be used to induce new approaches to engineering challenges. He has served as an Advisor to the Office of the First Minister of Scotland, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the government of the United Arab Emirates, and many multi-national interests to counsel their use of challenge competitions for solving large-scale public problems. Jaison completed graduate studies at the University of Chicago and is a frequent lecturer on the subject of incentive engineering (https://youtu.be/NyOaoIcCeMY).

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• Cathy Clark

  Discussion lead

  Faculty Director, CASE at Duke, Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship

  Cathy Clark is Faculty Director at the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and Founding Director of the CASE i3 Initiative on Impact Investing. Cathy is globally recognized as a collaborative visionary and pioneering influencer in the fields of social entrepreneurship and impact investing. She has been named a B the Change Champion, Social Innovation Thought Leader of the Year in 2020 by the World Economic Forum, and one of the 2021 Agents of Impact by Impact Alpha. She has written hundreds of blogs, case studies and papers, co-authored a book called The Impact Investor, and has created two online courses reaching over 50,000 global learners. Previously, Cathy was an investor at Flatiron Partners, a philanthropist at the Markle Foundation, and policy convener at the Aspen Institute. She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School, and a BA from the University of Virginia.

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• Ella Gudwin

  Discussion lead

  Chief Executive Officer, VisionSpring

  Ella Gudwin is the CEO of VisionSpring, a social entrepreneur and strategist with more than 20 years of experience in global health and international development. Before coming to VisionSpring, she served as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Program Development at AmeriCares. She completed her Master's in Emerging Market Economics and Southeast Asia studies from SAIS, Johns Hopkins University. She regularly speaks about hybrid business models which blend earned revenue with philanthropy; growing a purpose-driven business that serves low-income customers; and measuring social impact.

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• Sujatha Sebastian

  Discussion lead

  Co-Founder, Conveners.org

  Sujatha thrives helping changemakers and communities find ways to collaborate and solve large-scale social problems. She believes that convening is a powerful tool for transformation. An experienced facilitator, she uses creative design frameworks to help leaders and organizations embrace learning, growth, and exploration. Her approach enables groups to cultivate trust, spur innovation, and identify solutions. Sujatha brings 17 years of experience to her work as a social impact consultant, capacity builder, and strategist. She is founder the Conveners Group and co-founder of Conveners.org. Through her work, she has advised leading social sector organizations working in health equity, ethical apparel, financial empowerment, education, cyber security, and more. Her clients include the Aspen Institute, Hewlett Foundation, Mastercard Foundation, Skoll Foundation, and many others. Sujatha grew up in a multicultural household, the daughter of an immigrant entrepreneur and a midwife. She brings a diverse background in community economic development, international relations, and education to her work. She received a BA in Peace and Conflict Studies from Bryn Mawr College and MA in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.

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• Henry McLoughlin

  Discussion lead

  Director of Strategy, Capricorn Investment Group

  Henry is director of advocacy at Capricorn Investment Group, a firm that invests in iconic technology companies including Tesla, SpaceX, Planet, QuantumScape Joby Aviation and Saildrone. Capricorn was born from the desire to demonstrate the huge investment potential that resides in breakthrough commercial solutions to the world’s most pressing problems, and as such is one of the original impact investors. At Capricorn, Henry helps catalyze capital towards the solutions to the climate change crisis. Prior to Capricorn, Henry was a strategy consultant with the Boston Consulting Group in Paris, Casablanca and Dubai and with Oliver Wyman in New York. His last year as a consultant was spent with the World Economic Forum where he was in charge of the infrastructure finance initiative, a project aimed at rapidly scaling up essential infrastructure, including renewable energy, in emerging countries. Henry is a former captain in the French Marine Infantry, serving within NATO forces in Afghanistan in 2007. He is a graduate of Ecole Normale Superieure (rue d’Ulm), of Ecole Superieur de Commerce de Paris and of the Saint-Cyr Special Military School (ROTC).

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• Louis Boorstin

  Discussion lead

  Managing Director, Osprey Foundation

  Louis is Managing Director of the Osprey Foundation, where he leads programs on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and sustainable energy/cleaner cooking. In addition to managing a portfolio of grants and impact investments, Louis works to advance these sectors through systems change, innovative finance, and new service delivery models. From 2005-2013, Louis founded and led the WASH program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, building a portfolio of more than US$ 300 million. Prior to that, he worked for 15 years at the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group, where he led the environmental finance team from 1997 to 2004 and helped to pioneer the impact investing field. Louis currently sits on the boards of IRC WASH and the RICE Institute, and he advises several other social ventures and non-profits. He holds a BA in economics from Yale University and an MBA and MA (Development Economics) from Stanford University.

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• Avary Kent

  Discussion lead

  Co-Founder Conveners.org, Conveners-Org

  Bringing new companies from idea to reality is Avary Kent's passion. She blends scientific analysis with business acumen and operational expertise to help bring new companies and products to market. She excels in companies that are focused on creating new holistic systems to manage growth and scale to create high impact products and services. She is the Co-Founder of Conveners.org and through that role applied her expertise in facilitation, experience design, capacity building trainings, neuroscience, behavioral psychology, and human centered design to support organizations to increase the effectiveness of convening as a tool for change. For the last three years she has worked extensively with Kaiser Permanente and developed new programs and projects including www.resiliencecompass.org.

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• Adrian Sell

  Discussion lead

  CEO, BasicNeeds

  Adrian Sell is Chief Executive Officer of BasicNeeds UK. He has successfully steered BasicNeeds into a merger with CBM UK and recently secured over a million dollars in funding from an online games company. He has over twenty-five years experience in the charity, social enterprise, government and private sectors. His experience covers mental health, international work as well as considerable experience of scaling complex social interventions. He holds a Masters in Consulting and Leading in Organizations from the Tavistock and Portman Clinic. Previously he was Executive Director at OXPIP: Oxford Parent Infant Project a pioneering organization working to ensure a loving and secure start to life. With backing from Impetus-Private Equity Foundation and others he successfully doubled the turnover of the organization. His other roles have included Director of Services for an older people’s charity, Operations Manager for a social enterprise, working on organizational change in a county council as well as front line roles in a hospital, a care home and an insurance company. He is married with two children and enjoys cycling, running, walking, reading and spending time with friends and family.

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• Kevin Starr

  Discussion lead

  CEO, Mulago Foundation

  Kevin Starr leads the Mulago Foundation. Mulago finds, funds, advises, and promotes organizations with scalable solutions to poverty. Mulago’s two fellows programs teach early-stage social entrepreneurs how to 1) design for maximum impact and 2) build strategies for maximum scale. Most fellows become part of the Mulago solutions portfolio, which provides unrestricted funding as long as there is impressive progress toward impact at scale. Kevin started out in medicine and practiced until founding Mulago. He and his team now work with 50 portfolio organizations, many of which have become leaders in the social sector, along with 40 fellows leading organizations in Africa, South Asia, and South America.

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