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.
Corporate Knights is a media and research company based in Toronto, Canada, focused on advancing a sustainable economy. The company publishes a magazine, Corporate Knights, and produces global rankings, research reports, and financial product ratings based on corporate and environmental sustainability performance, including the "Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World" and the "Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada".
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.
James C. Collins is an American researcher, author, speaker and consultant focused on the subject of business management and company sustainability and growth.
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.
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk, and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones.
Santiago Bilinkis is an entrepreneur and technologist. As a businessperson, he was co-founder and CEO of Officenet, the largest office supplies dealer in Argentina and Brazil, acquired by Staples Inc. in 2004. A case called "Officenet: how to make entrepreneurship work in Argentina" was written by Harvard Business School and taught at over 25 universities. He also co-founded several other companies, including Wanako Games, Restorando, and Trocafone. He is very active in the non-profit sector as well, having served as a board member to NGOs such as Endeavor, CIPPEC and Chequeado. The Konex Foundation awarded him a Konex Award mention as one of the top five business innovators of the last 10 years in 2018. The City of Buenos Aires awarded him as a “Notable Citizen in Science and Technology”.
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.
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.
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 an Indian blockchain entrepreneur and technology columnist hailing from Goa. 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. After moving to Goa in 2012, Fernandes began working as a monthly technology columnist for GlobeAsia Magazine, Indonesia. He has also founded the IoT company SmartKlock Inc and two Blockchain companies, FUNL Corp, and Malta-based AET Ventures (AEToken), of which he is presently the COO. Fernandes has advised state governments and political parties on IT and education policies. He also writes for various technology media 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.
Lisa Dyson is an American scientist, physicist, and entrepreneur. She is the founder and CEO of Kiverdi, a biotechnology company that uses carbon transformation technologies to develop sustainable products for commercial applications, including agriculture, plastics, and biodegradable materials. She is also the founder and CEO of Air Protein, a spin-off company from Kiverdi, which seeks to produce sustainable meat alternatives from elements found in air.
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.
