Paul Gerard Hawken is an American environmentalist, entrepreneur, author, economist, and activist.
Social entrepreneurship is an approach by individuals, groups, start-up companies or entrepreneurs, in which they develop, fund and implement solutions to social, cultural, or environmental issues. This concept may be applied to a wide range of organizations, which vary in size, aims, and beliefs. For-profit entrepreneurs typically measure performance using business metrics like profit, revenues and increases in stock prices. Social entrepreneurs, however, are either non-profits, or they blend for-profit goals with generating a positive "return to society". Therefore, they use different metrics. Social entrepreneurship typically attempts to further broad social, cultural and environmental goals often associated with the voluntary sector in areas such as poverty alleviation, health care and community development.
L. Hunter Lovins is an American environmentalist, author, sustainable development proponent, co-founder of Rocky Mountain Institute, and president of the nonprofit organization Natural Capitalism Solutions.
Social business was defined by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus and is described in his books.
Solitaire Townsend is a female entrepreneur, sustainability expert, TED speaker and author. She co-founded the change agency Futerra in 2001, now one of the leading sustainability agencies in the world, working with the world’s most influential organisations to activate social justice and environmental restoration.
Santiago Bilinkis is an Argentine entrepreneur, technologist, and author. He studied at the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires and continued his studies at the Universidad de San Andrés, where he graduated as an economist with a gold medal. He is a member of the Mensa organization and one of TEDxRiodelaPlata's organizers.
David Cohen is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Pinpoint Technologies, iContact.com, and Earfeeder. He is also an angel investor with a portfolio of more than 100 companies. Cohen is best known as the co-founder of Techstars, a mentorship-based startup accelerator.
Brad Feld is an American entrepreneur, author, blogger, and venture capitalist at Foundry Group in Boulder, Colorado, a firm he started with partners Seth Levine, Ryan McIntyre, and Jason Mendelson.
Srijan Pal Singh is an Indian author, public speaker and social entrepreneur. He was born in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
Thomas H. Stoner Jr. is lead director and a co-founder, along with Nobel laureate David Schimel of the Jet Propulsion Lab (NASA) and other leading climate experts, of Entelligent, a global provider of Smart Climate indexes, predictive equity portfolio analytics and advanced data on climate risk and climate transition. He served as CEO of Entelligent from 2017 to October 2023. Prior to Entelligent, Stoner founded Project Butterfly, a research organization that advocates primarily for the global capital markets as a solution to climate change. The research produced by Project Butterfly led to the creation of Entelligent and ultimately yielded two climate risk patents issued by the USPTO. Stoner is also the author of the 2013 book, "Small Change, Big Gains: Reflections of an Energy Entrepreneur," which includes research about transforming the global energy supply to be more reliant on sustainable fuel sources by the end of the century. Stoner has been a promoter of sustainable development for over 30 years, having built, financed and owned and operated renewable energy projects throughout the Americas. He has led three companies in the clean technology space, including one of the original cleantech venture funds backed by international development banks, including the Multilateral Investment Fund, a division of the Inter-American Development Bank.
Goodwall is an app that aims to provide young people with opportunities to develop their skills and access educational and work-related opportunities. The platform is designed primarily for the Gen Z demographic and allows members to create a digital profile to showcase their skills and achievements using photos and videos. Users are encouraged to engage in skills-based challenges and online programs focusing on transferable skills such as problem-solving, creativity, and communication. The Goodwall app is available on both iOS and Android.
Ed Gillespie is a British environmental entrepreneur, speaker, futurist, and author. His focus is on sustainability and innovation.
Africapitalism is the economic philosophy that the African private sector has the power to transform the continent through long-term investments, creating both economic prosperity and social wealth. A think tank tasked with studying the philosophy, the Africapitalism Institute, was formally launched during the 2014 World Economic Forum on Africa in Abuja, Nigeria in May of that year.
Vinay Nair is a serial entrepreneur and academic. He is involved as an advisor or board member in several companies in financial services, across investment management, venture capital and fintech. He is the founder and chairman of TIFIN, an AI platform to create and manage a portfolio of fintech brands and companies in areas of wealth management and asset management, as well as founder and chairman of 55ip, a fintech firm with offices in Boston and Mumbai, India that was acquired by J.P.Morgan.
Michael Jacobs is an English economist. He is a professorial research fellow at the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Sheffield. He was previously a special adviser to former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Co-Editor of The Political Quarterly, in charge of the full-time staff of five at the Fabian Society, director of the Commission on Economic Justice at the Institute for Public Policy Research and a visiting professor in the Department of Political Science and School of Public Policy, University College London.
Jason Fernandes is Web3 entrepreneur, Investor, and technology columnist hailing from Goa. Fernandes is the co-founder of AdLunam Inc.a Web3 investment platform. As a teenager, Fernandes founded the internet portal ZeoCities.com, the non-profit LDKids.org and wrote for CHIP Magazine. Later, while studying at the University of Texas, Austin, Fernandes co-invented the Internet-based DVR, InstantTV, and was part of the founding team at PerceptiveI. Fernandes was a monthly technology columnist for GlobeAsia Magazine, Indonesia for 5 years producing over 60 columns over this period. Fernandes is often quoted in Web3 publications and has spoken at TEDx events.
Frank Mruk is an architect, author, artist and strategist. His research explores the nature of strategy in the creative pursuit of competitive advantage and innovation. He served as the executive director of the New York Center for Strategic Innovation and the Boston Center for Smart Building Technology.
Jane Burston is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of the Clean Air Fund, a philanthropic foundation tackling global air pollution that was launched at the UN Secretary General's Climate Summit in New York with $50m from 6 core funders. Previously, Jane was the Head of Energy and the Environment at the National Physical Laboratory.
Kevin Iyk Ibeh is a British-Nigerian academic, author and speaker. He is the Pro Vice-Chancellor (International) at Birkbeck, University of London, and a Commissioner of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission. He is most known for his work on firm internationalization and developing economies, as well as his work on how non-dominant firms, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurial firms, capitalize on growth opportunities internationally. Among his authored works are publications in academic journals, including Journal of World Business, Journal of Business Ethics, British Journal of Management, Journal of Business Research, International Business Review, and European Journal of Marketing as well as books such as Contemporary Challenges to International Business and Growth Frontiers in International Business.
Christian Busch is a management scientist, author and public speaker recognized for his work on serendipity, innovation, and purpose-driven leadership. He is a business professor at the University of Southern California (USC) Marshall School of Business and an affiliate researcher at the London School of Economics.
