EMERGE 2009 Speakers
EMERGE 2009 hosted high-impact social innovators from across the globe. From leaders of social enterprises, to intrapreneurs affecting change from within, from the non-profit to commercial to public sectors, EMERGE gathered a wide-range of speakers exhibiting the variety of ways of using business for good.
We are currently in the process of inviting speakers to the second annual EMERGE conference. Check back soon for updates!
2009 speakers included:
We are currently in the process of inviting speakers to the second annual EMERGE conference. Check back soon for updates!
2009 speakers included:
Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa
Founder and CEO Teshkeel (THE "99"), Kuwait
A PhD in clinical psychology Dr. Al-Mutawa is the creator of THE 99, the first group of superheroes born of an Islamic archetype. Aimed at promoting diversity and multiculturalism, THE 99 has been licensed into various languages and formats including a theme park and an animated series. He has been presented with awards from the UN and the World Economic Forum.
Caroline Casey
Founding CEO, Kanchi, Ireland
Caroline Casey is the founding CEO of Kanchi and the O2 Ability Awards and is also an international speaker and adventurer. A social entrepreneur, Caroline sits on the board for several government, business and not-for-profit organisations. A former management consultant with Accenture, Caroline is visually impaired to the degree that she is registered as legally blind.
Rodrigo Baggio
Founder and Executive Director, CDI, Brazil
Rodrigo Baggio (fellow of Ashoka, Avina, Schwab and the Skoll foundation), founded CDI to transform lives and low-income communities using technology, citizen advocacy and entrepreneurship. CDI’s first school opened in 1995, and since then, it has grown to become a network of 933 schools and 1,723 cyber cafés in 12 countries.
Laila Iskandar Kamel
Chairperson, CID Consulting, Egypt
Dr. Kamel is an Education and Development Specialist, who offers a compelling combination of in-depth knowledge and international exposure as a result of providing consultancy services for UNESCO, USAID, UNDP. Committed to an integrated, grass roots approach to development; she has helped CID clients in devising highly successful programs which address a range of community concerns.
Bright Simons
Founder, mPedigree, Ghana
Bright is the Coordinator of the mPedigree Network, an mHealth initiative aimed at ending the counterfeit medicines crisis that kills thousands daily in Africa, India and elsewhere. As a Social Innovator he has been recognized with membership in the World Economic Forum's Technology Pioneer Community and Global Agenda Councils. Bright, a TED and Ashoka Fellow, is a member of the Evian Group, and is consulted by the world’s leading media organizations such as the BBC, the Economist, Financial Times, and the Asian Times, on issues related to development and innovation. Bright is proud to have been elected a Tech Award Laureate in 2009 by the Tech Museum.
Pamela Hartigan
Director, Skoll Centre, UK
Dr Hartigan is a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, holds a Masters degree in International Economics, a Masters in Education and a PhD in Cognitive Psychology. Her latest book, co-authored with John Elkington, is The Power of Unreasonable People: How Entrepreneurs Create Markets that Change the World. Dr Hartigan has held varied leadership positions in multilateral health organizations, academic institutions and entrepreneurial ventures.
Nader Al Khatib
Director, EcoPeace, Palestine
Nader is the Palestinian General Director of the Water and Environmental Development Organization (WEDO). Since 2001 he is the Palestinian Director of EcoPeace/Friends of the Earth Middle East. He was a senior water resource engineer with the United Nations Development Program on the ultimate creation of the Palestinian Water Authority. He holds a PhD in Environmental Management of Trasnsboundary Rivers Basins, an M.Sc. degree in Environmental Management for Developing Countries from the Loughborough University of Technology in the U.K and a BSc in Engineering Geology from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara
Cliff Prior
Chief Executive, UnLtd, UK
UnLtd’s mission is to reach out and unleash the energies of social entrepreneurs. In its first 7 years, UnLtd has supported 16,000 people, creating the world’s largest group of social entrepreneurs. UnLtd is behind UnLtdWorld.com, UnLtd Advantage, the SHINE UnConference and the groundbreaking Young UnLtd for young social entrepreneurs. Over the years Cliff has set up organisations such as Strutton Housing for people living with HIV and National Voices. He is a member of the Cabinet Office Third Sector Advisory Body.
Lotfi El- Ghandouri
Founder, Creative Society, Spain and Canada
Lotfi established Creative Society Group, a consultancy aimed at impelling organizations with soul operating in Canada and Spain. His interest in sustainable development drove him to become the co-founder of the first social innovation center in Spain: Hub Madrid, which is part of a network present in more than ten cities around the world.He is the author of the books “El Despido Interior, del happy hour al happy life” (2007) and “Te atreves?” (2009)."
Matt Knopp
Director and Head of Consultancy, Eastside, UK
Eastside is a social enterprise consultancy with a mission to create social impact using enterprise and innovation and since 2005 have worked with over 200 third sector organisations. They run Spark, a national £2.5million social investment programme aimed at combating homelessness and have recently set up The National Third Sector Consortium (3SC) to help the sector bid for large programmes. They were immediately successful winning a £20million contract aimed getting long term unemployed back into work.
Anita Seidler
President, Creative Impact, Spain
Anita's passion for consulting on change management on a personal and organizational level resulted in the co-founding of Creative Impact. Her joint interests in sustainable development and supporting young entrepreneurs made her an essential part of the founding team of The Hub Madrid, a center for social innovation promoting the creation of social enterprises in Spain. In her work Anita collaborates with distinctive learning and change networks like Society for Organization Learning, Art of Hosting, and Team Academy.
Dhruv Lakra
Founder and CEO Mirakle Couriers, India
Dhruv began his career in investment banking with Merrill Lynch Mumbai. He left Merrill Lynch to work for Dasra, a non-profit that seeks to transform the non-profit sector through management skills. His work at Dasra involved various activities for non-profits and social enterprises. Dhruv holds a Bachelor in Commerce degree from HR College of Commerce and Economics, Mumbai. Dhruv's keen interest in developing business models that can give both financial and social results led him to pursuing an MBA from the Said Business School. Dhruv was Said Business School's Skoll Scholar for 2007-08. He also has been nominated as a 2009 Echoing Green Fellow.
Henry Gonzalez
Vice President, Morgan Stanley, USA
Henry's is a Vice President with Morgan Stanley focusing on Emerging Markets and Social Finance. Prior, he was a founding member of the Bank’s Microfinance Institutions Group, and worked for the Latin American Private Wealth Management division. He has held positions at the Global Exchange for Social Investment, United Nations Development Program, the World Bank and the Government of Costa Rica. He is a 04/05 SBS MBA graduate and Skoll Scholar.
Charmian Love
Chief Operating Officer, Volans, UK
Charmian’s previous experience is in both private and non-profit sectors including The Boston Consulting Group, working with clients in the financial services and social impact practice areas. Charmian was also involved with the inaugural Canadian Social Entrepreneurship Summit, coordinating the selection process for the Schwab Foundation’s Canadian ‘Social Entrepreneur of the Year’ award. At Volans Charmian’s focus is supporting social entrepreneurs and helping them scale their models.
Ben Metz
Social Entrepreneur, UK
Ben is a social entrepreneur with 18 years experience in community and environmental regeneration and running not-for-profit enterprises in the UK. He has founded grassroots campaigning and housing organisations, social enterprises, social enterprise support organisations and has served as a director or advisor to not-for-profit organisations. He has been involved in raising circa £100million of grant funds from central government, the lottery, foundations and the private sector. Visit his blog www.benmetz.org
Tim Kruger
Founder, Cquestrate, UK
Cquestrate is developing an open-source solution to climate change, which involves adding alkalinity to seawater. This enhances the capacity of the oceans to act as a carbon sink and at the same time counteracts ocean acidification. If done on a large enough scale it could reduce the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere back to pre-industrial levels.
Nick Temple
Director of Policy and Communciations, School for Social Entrepreneurs, UK
Nick is Director of Policy and Communications at the School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) in the UK. SSE develops and supports social entrepreneurs via its unique action learning programmes, which combine personal and project development for sustainable positive social impact. Nick’s areas of responsibility at SSE include evaluation, research, new technology, media, policy + lobbying, communications, and international replication.
Faisal Butt
Associate Director, Hamilton Bradshaw, UK
Faisal, at age 24, founded Tribal Monsoon, a fledgling start-up that rapidly grew from a simple website to an award-winning social venture grossing $.5 million in revenues. Faisal went on to found a Pakistan chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs to promote entrepreneurship through mentoring, networking, and education. Faisal now applies his business acumen and operational expertise at Mayfair based private equity firm, Hamilton Bradshaw and works closely with Dragons' Den entrepreneur James Caan to manage the company's growth.
Rodney Schwartz
CEO, ClearlySo, UK
Rodney’s background is equity research, investment banking and venture capital. He is CEO of ClearlySo (www.clearlyso.com) the world’s first marketplace for social business & enterprise, commerce and investment. Rodney also founded Catalyst in 1997, a venture capital & advisory firm (www.catfund.com) and currently lectures at SBS-Oxford and is on the Board of AXA Investment Managers, the Ethical Property Company and The Green Thing (Chairman). He is former Chairman of Justgiving and Shelter and maintains the widely-read Social Business Blog.
Albert Riera
Director of Communications, La Fageda, Spain
In addition to his role at La Fageda, Albert is also Director of Communications at Clade, a group of 11 cooperatives located in Catalonia. He used to work at IESE Business School, Winterthur Insurance and BASF Española. He studied law at the University of Paris V and is alumnus of the Max Planck Institute (Munich).
Geoff Lye
Chairman, SustainAbility, UK
Geoff is Chairman of SustainAbility – a hybrid think tank and consultancy which is committed to driving shifts in corporate accountability in relation to environmental and social challenges. His latest research explores how Corporate Economic Responsibility is set to force whole sectors of industry to adopt new business models which develop and deliver active responses to the major challenges of the 21st century – from Climate Change to the UN’s Millennium Development Goals.
Anna Blackman
Skoll Scholar 2008/9, Co-Founder PhotoVoice
In 1999 Anna Blackman co-founded PhotoVoice, a UK non-profit organisation specialising in the training of marginalised groups around the world in photographic and communication skills. Anna has co-led the charity over the last nine years. Her organisation won Best New UK Charity in 2004 and has run over 25 projects, directly training over 1,500 beneficiaries and reaching thousands more. Anna was a Skoll Skollar in 2009/1010, where she completed an MBA to explore different organisational models geared towards social change.