Tech Partnerships : Essential Impact Accelerators
Speakers
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Events Coordinator, Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship
Always a poet and idealist, Rebecca returned to her love of writing - after years travelling and working in communication and event-based roles - to earn her Masters degree in English Literature at the University of Oxford. During this time, she acquired her own column in the Oxford Times and began writing features on environmental issues. It was also at this time she learnt about impact investing and effective altruism through an Oxford-based organisation called 80,000 Hours. She was soon directed to the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and found herself a home as their Events Coordinator, where she works hard to help the Centre's mission to demonstrate and accelerate the impact of entrepreneurial activity that aims to transform unjust or unsatisfactory systems and practices throughout the world.
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Executive Director, Autodesk Foundation, Autodesk Foundation
Joe Speicher is the Executive Director of the Autodesk Foundation – supporting the innovators and entrepreneurs tackling the world’s most pressing challenges through design and engineering. Prior to joining Autodesk, Speicher was on the founding team of Living Goods, where he spent six years leading operations for the global health organization. He began his career in the banking and finance sector, working with Deutsche Bank and Cambridge Associates. He then spent three years in the Peace Corps in the Philippines and has worked as a consultant for the Economist Intelligence Unit, the World Bank, and Google.org. He earned a master's degree from Columbia University and holds a bachelor's degree from Washington and Lee University.
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Carlos Souza Jr. holds a bachelor's degree in geology from Pará State Federal University, Brazil, an M.Sc. in soil science from Penn State University, US, and a Ph.D. in geography from the University of California Santa Barbara, US. He is currently an associate researcher at Imazon, where he focuses on remote sensing for mapping and monitoring forests, forest degradation, land use and land cover change, surface water monitoring, and spatial modeling. Dr. Souza Jr. has co-authored over 100 journal articles, conference papers, and book chapters. He is also the co-founder of Terras App, an IT company that provides solutions for sustainable landscapes, and the MapBiomas Institute, IAMap. Dr. Souza Jr. has been honored with the Skoll Award and is a Mulago Foundation Fellow.
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Philanthropy Engineering Lead, Palantir Technologies
Jason Payne leads the Philanthropy Engineering Program at Palantir Technologies and manages the implementation of Palantir's philanthropic endeavors. He has extensive experience with counter-terrorism and counterinsurgency missions, as well as rule of law and counter corruption efforts. Prior to Palantir, he was building financial software and designing cell phone chips. He holds a degree in Computer Science from Stanford University.
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Jim Taylor is the co-founder and chief executive of Proximity Designs – a social business that has created a platform for change across rural Myanmar. The big idea 20 years ago was to treat farmers as customers and design affordable technology and financing so they could escape poverty. After serving over 2 million farm families, and generating +$300 million in new income, the idea still has legs. Jim’s originally from Seattle but has spent the bulk of his career living and working in various parts of the US and in Southeast Asia. He has an MBA and studied economics at Harvard. He currently lives in Chicago.
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Partner, Working Capital Fund
As Partner in the Working Capital Fund, Dan engages and supports entrepreneurs in pursuit of innovative tools to scale improvements for marginalized workers in global supply chains. He is an award-winning social entrepreneur and leader in supply chain innovation, having led Verite for fifteen years. He began his career in China where he established two international NGOs. Dan is a graduate of Yale University, has an MA from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs and a certificate in Chinese from Nanjing Teacher’s University.
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President, Durable Good
Noah Manduke is the President of Durable Good, a management consultancy focused on helping nonprofit organizations leverage brand-building disciplines to accelerate impact. A seasoned strategic identity expert, Noah has for over 35 years helped organizations to define, dramatize, and deliver upon their unique significance with clarity, focus and results.
Durable Good clients have included the Skoll Foundation, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, King Philanthropies, Fossil Foundation, American Forest Foundation, Half the Sky Foundation, World Vision Canada, ALSAC/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Institute for the Future, Water for People, Social Progress Index, North American Association for Environmental Education, The Philanthropy Workshop, Nuclear Threat Initiative, Viewpoint School, and the corporate social responsibility divisions of Disney and Mattel.
Noah is the former Chief Strategy Officer of the Jeff Skoll Group, a portfolio of social impact organizations created by renowned philanthropist and social entrepreneur, Jeff Skoll, to pursue his vision of a more sustainable, peaceful and prosperous world. Noah worked closely with Skoll’s leadership to continually sharpen impact strategies and cultivate opportunities for collective impact.
Prior to serving the social sector, Noah spent over 20 years helping businesses such as Microsoft, Adobe, Lexus, Sony, Mattel, and Disney to optimize their branding, marketing, and communications practices. During that time, he spent 13 years at global advertising agency, Ogilvy & Mather, and 8 years at leading strategic branding firm, Siegel & Gale, where Noah was named President and Chief Operating Officer 18 months after the company’s sale to Omnicom (NYSE: OMNI).
