Ashoka Vision, Mission & ApproachASHOKA INNOVATORS FOR THE PUBLICAI4P_2318cc4a-e389-11e4-ae01-b9bdde3d8a72Ashoka Board of DirectorsBill DraytonFounder and CEO of Ashoka -- Bill Drayton pioneered the field of social entrepreneurship. While a student at Harvard College, Balliol College in Oxford University and Yale Law School, he launched a number of organizations, including Harvard’s Ashoka Table, an interdisciplinary weekly forum in the social sciences, and Yale Legislative Services. After graduating from Yale Law School in 1970, he began his career at McKinsey & Company in New York. From 1977 to 1981, Bill served as Assistant Administrator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where he launched various reforms, including emissions trading (the basis of the Kyoto Protocol). From 1981 to 1985, while working part-time at McKinsey, he founded both Ashoka and Save EPA, the predecessor to Environmental Safety. After receiving a MacArthur Fellowship in 1984, he was able to devote himself fully to Ashoka. In addition to his current role as Chairman and CEO of Ashoka, Bill is the chair of Youth Venture, Community Greens, and Get America Working! Bill’s numerous awards and honors throughout his career are a testament to his leadership skills and impact. The American Society of Public Administration and the National Academy of Public Administration jointly awarded him their National Public Service Award. In 2005, US News & World Report and Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership elected Bill Drayton as one of America’s Best Leaders, while in 2006, he was inducted to Harvard University’s 100 “Most Influential Alumni.” In 2007, Bill received the Duke University Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship’s (CASE) Leadership in Social Entrepreneurship Award, the University of Pennsylvania Law School’s Honorary Fellow Award, and the Goi Peace Foundation’s Peace Award. The next year, he was named a one of Utne Reader magazine’s “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing the World”. In 2009, Bill was named Honorary Fellow from Oxford’s Balliol College and was awarded an honorary degree, Doctorate of Humane Letters, from Yale University. Bill received an Honorary Doctorate from NYU and the Essl Social Prize, for his work building the field of social entrepreneurship in 2010. In 2011, Drayton won Spain's prestigious Prince of Asturias award for his work promoting entrepreneurs; he was described as a "driving force behind the figure of social entrepreneurs, men and women who undertake innovative initiatives for the common good." Most recently, Bill received the Harvard Kennedy School's prestigious Richard E. Neustadt 2012 Award for Public Policy.Diana WellsPresident of Ashoka -- Diana joined the organization after graduating from Brown University in 1988 with a degree in South Asian Studies. As an undergraduate, her year-long study abroad in Varanasi, India led her to see the need for local solutions to solve global problems. This insight inspired her to pursue an internship at Ashoka, where she created one of its core programs, Fellowship Support Services, (now Fellowship) which expanded the resources available to Ashoka’s social entrepreneurs to connect them to one another. When Diana took a leave to pursue a Ph.D. in anthropology from New York University (2000), she was named both a Fulbright and Woodrow Wilson scholar. Her ethnographic research on understanding how social change happens as a local articulation of a global social movement resulted in her dissertation: 'Between the Difference: The Emergence of a Cross Ethnic Women’s Movement in Trinidad and Tobago.' Ph.D. in hand, Diana returned to Ashoka as a leader in the worldwide process of selecting social entrepreneurs to be Ashoka fellows. Additionally, she was given responsibility for Ashoka’s geographic expansion and during her tenure, there was a significant increase of Fellow elections, allowing Ashoka to reach its current total of 3,000. She became the President of Ashoka in 2005. She has contributed significantly to the field of social entrepreneurship by implementing one of the first, and now widely respected, tools to measure the impact of social entrepreneurship. She is on the Advisory Board for the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business and on the Board of GuideStar International. She has taught at Georgetown University on Anthropology and Development and has authored and edited numerous journal and book publications, including two compilations on social movements in the United States. In 2007, Diana was celebrated as one of 10 winners of the first annual Women to Watch award, by Running Start. She also received the first Social Innovation Champion Award at George Mason University’s Accelerating Social Entrepreneurship (ASE) conference in 2011. Since then, in 2012, her alma mater, Brown University, honored her with its highest distinction for graduates, the Williams Rogers Award, in recognition of exemplifying Brown’s mission to prepare alumni for lives of "usefulness and reputation."Sushmita GhoshAshoka Leadership Team Emerita -- After more than two decades with Ashoka, Sushmita has moved on to an honorary role of Leadership Team Emerita. After graduating at the top of her class at the University of Delhi, Sushmita served as a Sub-Editor, Research Director and Executive Director of Maneka Gandhi’s national Indian news magazine Surya from 1979 to 1982. She went on to pursue a successful career in freelance journalism, working with every major mainstream publication in India, including The Times of India, The Hindustan Times, Business Standard, Sunday Magazine, and others. Following her career in journalism, Sushmita served as Ashoka’s country representative for India from 1989 – 1997. During that time, she helped Ashoka launch its new programs in Latin America and directed its European efforts. In 1992, Sushmita founded Changemakers, which she evolved from a magazine for social entrepreneurship to an online platform for open source problem solving. That service now offers instruction in changemaking for social change organizations and ordinary citizens, ultimately aspiring to form a self-energizing community of changemakers. Subsequently, she became Ashoka’s International Vice President and the Executive Director of Changemakers. She later served as President of Ashoka from 2000 to 2005. Sushmita is also a board member of several non-profit organizations around the world, and a council member at the American India Foundation. Her leadership has driven Ashoka’s growth and its support programs for the global citizen sector.Anamaria SchindlerCo-President Emeritus -- Anamaria first joined Ashoka in 1996 to launch a joint venture, “The Training Center for Social Entrepreneurs,” between Ashoka and McKinsey & Company to bridge the business and social sectors globally. After leaving Ashoka for a period in 2008 Anamaria returned in 2011 in her current capacity. Anamaria was born in Germany but grew up and currently lives in Brazil. She earned both a Masters (1988-1992) and a Doctorate (1993-1996) in Sociology from the University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil. From 1988 to 1995, Anamaria worked on human rights and violence issues in various public and private institutes throughout Brazil. During that period, she contributed to the launch of the Center for the Study of Violence as USP, Brazil, which focuses on developing public policy projects on human rights violations and democracy in Latin America. After completing her formal education, she started at Ashoka, eventually serving as Vice-President for Strategic Partnerships and as Ashoka’s Co-President between 2005 and 2007. She has been an important part of leading Ashoka’s shared vision process across the organization. While at Ashoka, she also wrote a monthly column at the Brazilian business newspaper Valor Econômico from 2000 to 2005. Anamaria then left Ashoka to launch the Instituto Arapyaú in Brazil in 2008 and led its implementation and strategy until 2011. The Institute is a social impact investment venture founded by Brazilian leading business entrepreneur Guilherme Leal of Natura Cosmetics with a focus in education in sustainability and sustainable development. During this period, Anamaria also launched a national movement “Movimento Brasil Sustentável,” with a group of 50 leading business and social entrepreneurs. Anamaria has participated actively in the Brazilian Presidential Campaign in 2010 as an advisor for Marina Silva and Guilherme Leal, candidates for President and Vice-President respectively. In 2011, she returned to Ashoka as a member of the Leadership Team, and contributed to shaping the “Everyone a Changemaker” vision and leading the efforts to build the South America Diamond and spread Everyone a Changemaker across South America. She is also a member of the boards of several citizen sector organizations in Brazil and Latin America, including the Avina Foundation, Conectas Human Rights and the Fundo Nacional de Direitos Humanos (National Fund for Human Rights).Ashoka Senior TeamRomanus BergRomanus serves as a member of Ashoka's Leadership Group in the role of CIO. He had previously served on Oceana's leadership team, which established and rapidly grew a small start-up into the largest international organization focused solely on ocean conservation. Romanus began his career developing the online communications practice that supported the successful $1.9B privatization of the U.S. Uranium Enrichment Corporation (USEC.) In addition to shifting the focus of uranium enrichment from military to civilian use in both the U.S. and Russia, it was the largest successful government initial public stock offering in U.S. history. Romanus currently serves on NetHope's board, which works to share social solutions across citizen, government and private sectors.Dr. Iman BibarsIman is the Regional Director for Ashoka Arab World (AAW) which she launched in 2003. Iman is a Leadership Group Member and Global Diaspora Leader in Ashoka. She is the co-founder and chair of ADEW, a CSO providing credit and legal aid for impoverished women. With more than 30 years of experience in strategic planning, policy formulation, community development and project design, Iman has dedicated her life to working with marginalized and voiceless groups -female heads of households in Egypt's poorest areas. Iman has also worked with UNICEF, Catholic Relief Services, CARE-Egypt, GTZ and KFW. Iman holds a PhD in Development Studies from Sussex University and a BA and MA in Political Science from American University in Cairo. She was a Peace Fellow at Georgetown University and a Parvin Fellow at Princeton University. Iman has been featured in several national and international press outlets and also authored the books Heroines and Victims: Women, Welfare, and the Egyptian State, Dreams of a Good Fellow, one of the first books written in Arabic on US President Barack Obama, and the Women of Tahrir.Valeria BudinichValeria Budinich is a social entrepreneur who has worked for 25 years in the creation and expansion of new businesses with social impact in 22 countries worldwide. At Ashoka, Valeria founded in 2003 the Full Economic Citizenship (FEC) Initiative, a global initiative enabling large commercial alliances between social entrepreneurs and private companies to deliver products and services to small producers and low-income families through the articulation of Hybrid Value Chains (HVC™). Ashoka's FEC work is focused on housing, healthcare, and agriculture. As the Chief Entrepreneur of the Ashoka Housing for All program, Valeria launched the initiative 3 years ago and has been responsible for expanding it to Brazil, Colombia, Egypt and India. Prior to Ashoka, Valeria was the Chief Operating Officer at Appropriate Technology International, a founding Vice-President for Latin America at Endeavor, and a VP for New Initiatives at BDA, a California-based consulting firm specializing in business process redesign and technology innovations for private sector clients worldwide. She was brought up in Chile and trained as an industrial engineer. (photo credit: Nana Watanabe)Bill CarterBill Carter is Director of Ashoka Africa. He served on Ashoka's International Board for twenty-nine years, focusing on strategy development, and is a founding member of the Board. In that capacity he interviewed many hundreds of candidates to become Ashoka Fellows. In 2009 Bill stepped down from the Board so he could serve as a member of the Ashoka staff. In his current role, Bill guide’s Ashoka’s overall strategy in Africa, oversees the selection of African Fellows, and helps develop and launch new initiatives including a groundbreaking initiative to identify, support, and connect Changemaker Schools across the continent. As a senior civil servant at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Bill led the Agency's effort to create the Federal Government's first approved Agency Performance Management and Incentive System under the Civil Service Reform Act. Prior to serving at EPA, Bill was a consultant at McKinsey & Company, where his assignments were in the fields of education, economic development, insurance and housing. Bill has a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.Henry De SioHenry De Sio is pioneering Ashoka's framework change efforts aimed at facilitating the global societal shift to Everyone A Changemaker™ – with a specific emphasis on preparing our youth to step confidently as innovators and leaders into today’s fast-changing world. Previously, De Sio served as deputy assistant to President Barack Obama and he was the 2008 Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Obama for America. Henry has spent more than a decade teaching, writing, and speaking on the leadership principles that drive individual and organizational achievement. He is the author of Campaign Inc.: How Leadership and Organization Propelled Barack Obama to the White House (University of Iowa Press).Anne EvansAnne Evans has extensive experience as a social entrepreneur, private sector management consultant, senior executive and nonprofit trustee. Formerly a partner with the MAC Group (now Gemini Consulting) she was also Executive Officer/Administrator of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. She has consulted to and served on the boards of a variety of nonprofit organizations, including as board chair for the Levine School of Music. In 2001, she entered the world of social entrepreneurs, co-founding the Nomadic Kenyan Children's Educational Fund (NKCEF) to support secondary-level education of nomadic children in Kenya. NKCEF merged in 2011 with the Kenya Education Fund and Anne continues on the board of the combined entity. A native of North Carolina, Anne received her undergraduate degree at Wellesley College, and Masters in Public and Private Management from Yale University's School of Organization and Management as part of its Charter Class.Konstanze FrischenKonstanze Frischen founded Ashoka Germany in 2003. She co-founded the Ashoka Globalizer, has been a director of Ashoka Europe since 2011and a global Leadership Group Member since 2008. She is a board member of GLS Bank and a member of the innovation board of UNHCR, the United Nation’s refugee agency. Konstanze studied politics and social anthropology in Heidelberg, at SOAS and the London School of Economics, and had spent formative years in Latin America. She worked for CNN International as a freelance writer and producer before becoming a staff writer and editor for Germany’s quality broadsheet FAZ. There, she was a member of the founding team that planned, designed and successfully launched the new FAZ Sunday newspaper. When researching Ashoka, she got hooked and felt strongly that the idea behind the organization should be brought to Western Europe, which she set off to do in 2003.David GreenDavid Green has worked with many organizations to make medical technology and health care services sustainable, affordable and accessible to all. David is a MacArthur Fellow, Ashoka Fellow and is recognized by Schwab Foundation as a leading social entrepreneur. David helped establish Aurolab (India), to produce affordable intraocular lenses (now has 8% of the global market share) and suture. He has helped develop high-volume, quality eye care programs that are affordable to the poor and self-sustaining from user fees, including Aravind Eye Hospital in India - which performs 300,000 surgeries per year - 70 percent of the care is provided free of charge or below - cost, yet the hospital is able to generate substantial surplus revenue. Within this paradigm of 'humanizing capitalism, he now works as an Ashoka VP (since 2004) to create social investing instruments to support sustainable social enterprises (in eye care and solar energy). He graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor in General Studies (1978) and a Masters degree in Public Health (1982). He is the recipient of the 2009 "Spirit of Helen Keller" award for humanitarian efforts in blindness prevention and is the recipient of the 2009 University of Michigan Humanitarian Service Award.Al HammondAl Hammond is Senior Entrepreneur with Ashoka's Full Economic Citizenship program, where he is leading an effort to transform rural healthcare. He is also: a serial social entrepreneur, with five prior start-ups to his credit, now working on a health care enterprise that will pilot in rural India; an author who has published extensively in the scientific, policy research, and business literature and written or edited more than 12 books or book-length reports, including, most recently, principal author of The Next 4 Billion: Market Size and Business Strategy for the Base of the Pyramid; a consultant who has worked with numerous corporations, foundations, government agencies (including the White House science office), and international organizations; a former journalist who went on to found and edit several national publications, win several national magazine awards, broadcast a nationally-syndicated daily radio program for 5 years, and oversee the launch of a prominent blog, www.nextbillion.net. Dr. Hammond holds degrees from Stanford University and Harvard University in engineering and applied mathematics.Felix OldenburgFelix Oldenburg serves as Europe Leader and Director Germany. An entrepreneur and expert at the interfaces of the social, business and political sectors, Felix has launched a number of national and international programs that accelerate the spread and impact of social innovations. Before joining Ashoka, Felix started an online business and worked for management consulting firm McKinsey&Company in London. As director at a political consultancy, he pioneered citizen consultations for governments and foundations, including the European Citizens' Consultations in 27 countries. He speaks and publishes on social entrepreneurship, citizen engagement, and corporate social responsibility. Felix studied Philosophy at the universities of Bonn, Tübingen and Oxford and acquired an Executive Master in Policy Management in Washington DC (Georgetown).Lucy PerkinsSince 1999, Lucy Perkins has been serving as a Leadership Group Member of Ashoka. Lucy has designed and led major organizational changes for Ashoka at both the regional and the global levels. Currently focusing on Ashoka’s approach to major partnerships, Lucy's past roles at Ashoka have included re-engineering global operations and Venture program to enable multi-program expansion around the world, guiding Ashoka’s expansion in Asia and across Europe, acting as CFO to bring the organization's financial management more in line with its 4-fold growth over the previous decade, and participating in the alignment of Ashoka's hiring with its Fellow selection process. Prior to joining Ashoka, Lucy spent seven years in international finance, first with the International Finance Corporation/World Bank and then with Emerging Markets Partnership, a US$4 billion global equity investment firm. Lucy has an undergraduate degree in International Relations from Stanford University (1986). She earned an MBA in Finance from Wharton in 1992.Paula RecartPaula Recart serves as North America Leader and Director of Ashoka in the US. She joined Ashoka in 2007 after 15 years in the media industry in Chile, where she was Editor-in-Chief of the magazine with the largest circulation in the country. During her 9 years of tenure, she led the magazine to one of the top positions in readership and sales, and she oversaw six additional new magazines. Prior to that, she was part of the founding team of a broadcasting project -- Rock&PopTV -- that is still considered one of the most creative endeavors in Chilean media. At Ashoka, Paula has been part of the Global Marketing team and now leads the US efforts since July 2010.Beverly SchwartzBeverly is the author of Rippling: How Social Entrepreneurs Spread Innovation Around the World, Published by Jossey Bass, Jan 2012. She joined Ashoka as Vice President of Global Marketing from Fleishman Hillard International Communications where she created and managed their social issues portfolio and directed the non-advertising portion of the "National Youth Anti-drug Media Campaign". A behavioral scientist and social marketing expert, Bev has many systems changing innovations to her credit. She helped write and pass the nation's first non-smoking in public places state law in Minnesota, helped design and manage the first national "America Responds to AIDS" campaign and authored the first Surgeon General's report on HIV/AIDS for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, developed the National Eye Care Project for indigent elderly at the American Academy of Ophthalmology and worked on gender and education reform issues while at the Academy for Educational Development.Vishnu SwaminathanVishnu joins Ashoka with more than 14 years of experience as Entrepreneur and innovator. He started two companies in Singapore in the areas of Financial transactions & Animation technology. After one of the companies was acquired he moved to India to head a leadership school based in Pune, where he led the school's social effort by creating a independent Centre for Social Development. He started his career as a 3D and Film Special effects artist, holds a couple of patents from his ventures and has worked on a wide range of technologies, projects, training and strategic business models.Ashoka PartnersAshoka has forged strategic partnerships with leading global companies, to provide management, communications, finance, and other expertise to the citizen sector. In turn, Ashoka and its vast network share knowledge and opportunities with business partners, expanding the horizons of these pioneering businesses and the people who work for them. Together, our strategic partners support Ashoka’s social entrepreneurs in tens of countries, delivering millions of dollars of consulting services each year. But the partnerships’ true value is in enabling the flow of talent and resources between business and citizen sectors, accelerating innovation so that both sectors can solve their most pressing problems. Ashoka's strategic partners include McKinsey & Company, Corporate Executive Board and Latham and Watkins... Ashoka is constantly building collaborative partnerships with leading global organizations to provide its partners an opportunity to engage with the citizen sector. Ashoka will work collaboratively with you to design these creative partnerships.McKinsey & CompanyAshoka and McKinsey & Company, the world’s leading management consulting firm, created the first Center for Social Entrepreneurship together in 1996, based in Brazil. The two organizations now share offices and expertise in several countries. McKinsey consultants provide pro bono management services to Ashoka Fellows, strengthening institutional capacity and training social entrepreneurs to write business plans, make effective presentations, and market their work. Ashoka in turn creates opportunities for transformative experiences and impact to McKinsey and its clients. This year, Ashoka and McKinsey launched an integrated Business Plan Competition in 7 Latin American countries, involving over 150 McKinsey consultants and drawing over 1600 applications from citizen organizations.CEBCEB is the leading member-based advisory company. By combining the best practices of thousands of member companies with our advanced research methodologies and human capital analytics, we equip senior leaders and their teams with insight and actionable solutions to transform operations. CEB offers comprehensive data analysis, research and advisory services that align to executive leadership roles and empower clients to focus efforts, move quickly, and address emerging and recurring business challenges with confidence. CEB has provided outstanding pro bono services to Ashoka and Ashoka programs and Ashoka Fellows, including lending leadership and insight to our global Measuring Effectiveness survey of Ashoka Fellows. Firm values drive growth at CEB. With a goal of an impactful global philanthropy program, CEB seeks to partner with organizations that demonstrate alignment with CEB’s four firm values: Member Impact, the Spirit of Generosity, Force of Ideas, and Stewardship of Exceptional Talent. These values align closely with what Ashoka values most in Fellows, staff and partners.Latham & Watkins LLPWith more than 2,100 attorneys in 26 offices around the world, Latham & Watkins LLP provides pro bono legal assistance to Ashoka and Ashoka Fellows globally in a wide spectrum of transactional, litigation, corporate and regulatory areas. By providing pro bono legal services to our organization and our social entrepreneurs, Latham & Watkins LLP takes an active role in our communities and makes public interest issues an integral part of their practice of law. The success of our more than 20-year partnership is grounded in each organization's devotion to the collaborative process, which reaches across continents and draws upon an abiding commitment to promote the culture of pro bono globally, working towards a world in which all individuals and communities may access legal recourse, civil rights and equal protection under the law.Scoop.itScoop.it is the leading content curation platform for marketing, demand generation and internal corporate knowledge sharing, serving non-profits, universities, and Fortune 1000 companies worldwide. Through a collaboration with Scoop.it, Ashoka is working to highlight its position as a thought leader in areas of social entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and education for social change. The Scoop.it platform allows Ashoka to lead global conversations on subjects such as how businesses, government and the social sector can work together to create social impact, and how to prepare our children to be leaders and changemakers in the 21st century.... an Everyone a Changemaker world, where anyone can apply the skills of changemaking to solve complex social problems._2318ceac-e389-11e4-ae01-b9bdde3d8a72To support social entrepreneurs who are leading and collaborating with changemakers, in a team of teams model that addresses the fluidity of a rapidly evolving society. _2318d1cc-e389-11e4-ae01-b9bdde3d8a72EmpathyAshoka believes that anyone can learn and apply the critical skills of empathy, team work, leadership and changemaking to be successful in the modern world.Team WorkLeadershipChangemakingSuccessSocial ChangeEnsure that the leading ideas for social change are fully developed and sustained_2318d33e-e389-11e4-ae01-b9bdde3d8a72To ensure that the leading ideas for social change are fully developed and sustained, we have designed an approach that offers critical interventions on three levels -- the individual, the group, and the sector.Social EntrepreneursSuppor Social Entrepreneurs_2318d474-e389-11e4-ae01-b9bdde3d8a721Social EntrepreneursSocial entrepreneurs are the engines of social change and role models for the citizen sector. Ashoka identifies and invests in leading social entrepreneurs and helps them achieve maximum social impact.Group EntrepreneurshipPromote Group Entrepreneurship_2318d5c8-e389-11e4-ae01-b9bdde3d8a722Entrepreneurial GroupsGroups and networks of social entrepreneurs working together accelerate and spread social impact. Ashoka engages communities of entrepreneurs and develops patterns of effective collaborations that change entire fields.Changemaking InfrastructureBuild Infrastructure for the Sector_2318d7b2-e389-11e4-ae01-b9bdde3d8a723A global network of changemakers requires tools and support systems to deliver sustainable social solutions. Ashoka creates needed infrastructure, such as access to social financing, bridges to business and academic sectors, and frameworks for partnerships that deliver social and financial value.2015-04-15https://www.ashoka.org/visionmissionOwenAmburOwen.Ambur@verizon.net