Speakers

Louise Adongo

Louise Adongo is a bold and grounded leader with 10+ years experience in systems change, policy and evaluation. She brings care and intention to uncovering the roots of tangled problems, enabling shifts to greater resilience, sustainability and impact. She believes that co-creating more nimble, transparent and creative institutional spaces are vital to the reinvention that we have learned through our most recent pandemic that we all need.

Lawrence Afere

Hamed Ahmadi

Hamed Ahmadi (born in Afghanistan), founded Orient Experience and Africa Experience two restaurants based on the culinary travel experience of migrants from the Middle East and Africa, which also provide employment. After spending his childhood and adolescence in Iran, Hamed returned to Afghanistan where he developed a passion for cinema.. Many extremists in Afghanistan did not approve of the film, and he was forced to seek political asylum in Italy. Here he worked a variety of jobs until he became a Cultural and Linguistic Mediator, where he met a number of young refugees who, unlike him, had to go through a strenuous and dangerous journey to reach Italy. Their experience –  joined a common interest for food and cuisine –  let them create a journey menu, made up of their childhood meals, mixed with recipes of the countries they crossed during their migratory paths. Today, the enterprise is led by 11 partners of from different countries, cultures and languages; it has 16 employees and 7 interns.

Natasha Akib

Natasha Akib is a digital producer who believes in individuals and communities telling their own stories. She specialises in using the skills of film production, media and marketing for purpose-driven organisations. She is responsible for developing, producing and facilitating Stories for Impact – Digital Storytellers’ educational workshops, tools and resources. Stories for Impact has supported thousands of storytellers worldwide to find, make, edit and share their own video stories using smartphones and affordable technology for fundraising, advocacy, community engagement and more.

Nazia Ali

Nazia leads a growing network of social enterprise Hubs across the UK, Asia-Pacific, and Africa, working closely with each Hub team to understand local markets and contextualise Academy learning programmes to support social change-makers. Nazia has worked across Universities in the UK in the field of social entrepreneurship. She has supported early-stage social entrepreneurs and has developed programmes to support the scale and growth of social entrepreneurs in low-income regional areas in the UK. Before joining the Academy, Nazia spearheaded the development of the Social Impact Lab, a year-long programme for Oxford MBA’s focussed on practitioner-based learning in the curriculum and outside of it, at the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship. Nazia is a Global Shaper with the World Economic Forum and has spent some time improving access to education in refugee camps in Lebanon for Palestinian refugees.

Andrew Almack

Andrew Almack founded Plastics for Change in 2011 which has, over the course of 10 years, become the world’s largest and most trusted source of fair trade verified recycled plastic and was one of the first OBP certified companies in the world.

Andrew’s entire career has been focused on using plastics as an enabler of sustainable livelihoods for the urban poor. He has had the opportunity to share his expertise and knowledge in this sector in many international conferences including giving a keynote presentation on a circular economy strategy at the Textile Exchange conference in Washington and at the Business With Purpose conference in NYC. In July, he discussed these topics with the CEO of the World Fair Trade Organisation.

Marc Almon

A gifted leader, organiser and film producer, Marc co-founded and was chair of Screen Nova Scotia. In 2017, Marc founded Culture Link CIC with his partner Rob Power. One of the first Community Interest Companies in Canada, the firm raised $13 million to build Light House, a 100,000 sq ft creative hub in downtown Halifax that includes a television studio, performance hall, dance studio and office space for cultural organisations and start-ups.  Light House will open in Winter 2022.

Chourouk Amouri

Chourouk Amouri is currently the Content Manager at the Tunisian Center for Social Entrepreneurship. She has an academic background in business and anthropology. She was and continues to be involved in various initiatives, both nationally and internationally, in the fields of leadership, arts, community building and creative processes

Lama Amr

Crowdfunding, she has coached over 40 projects to raise $450K+. She is passionate about working with early-stage social impact projects in Palestine to help them grow their impact. She led the design of BuildPalestine’s Social Innovation Bootcamp and Impact Network. Lama is now leading BuildPalestine in a mission to connect 12 million Palestinians worldwide with social impact in Palestine.

Lama has also co-founded a Founder Institute chapter in Palestine, the world’s largest pre-seed accelerator. So far, three cohorts were conducted, and 18 tech startups have graduated from the program. Lama is passionate about enhancing the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Palestine and the region. Born and raised in Dura (outside of Hebron) and a graduate of Birzeit University, Lama is passionate about enhancing the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Palestine. Her interests include Nature Photography and Video Making.

Kwabena Assan Mends

Kwabena Assan Mends is an agriculturist, entrepreneur, industrialist and cocoa farmer. He is presently the Managing Director of Emfed Farms and Trading Company Limited. He has developed innovative means of farm management over the years, especially for cocoa farms, leading to a significant reduction in the overhead cost of cocoa farms and optimisation of yields in almost all the cocoa farms under the management of Emfed Farms. He also led a team of experts in the cocoa industry to develop an efficient production of compost.

Stephen Augustine

Stephen Augustine is a Hereditary Chief on the Mi’kmaq Grand Council and the Associate Vice-President of Indigenous Affairs and Unama’ki College at Cape Breton University. Previously he was the Curator of Ethnology for Eastern Maritimes at the Canadian Museum of Civilisation in Gatineau/Ottawa. He holds a Masters degree in Canadian Studies from Carleton University, focusing on traditional knowledge curriculum development in the education system and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Political Science from St. Thomas University.
Over the years, Mr Augustine has shared his expertise in research and traditional knowledge with many organisations, including government departments, the Assembly of First Nations, and various Indigenous communities across Canada. In his role as a Hereditary Chief on the Mi’kmaq Grand Council and by Elders’ training since an early age, Mr Augustine has a thorough command of traditional practices, his language, and his people’s history.

Vincent Bachelet

Lawyer in intellectual property and digital law, specialised in issues related to free licenses and the organisation of digital communities, Vincent joined CoopCycle in 2017. He first started by creating the Coopyleft licence under which CoopCycle’s software is shared and is now working on the legal structuration of the CoopCycle Federation and helping with legal issues. Vincent is currently a PhD student working on the valuation of digital communities through licensing before extending the issue to other legal tools. He also is a legal consultant specialised in open models at inno³

Kahlil Baker

Kahlil Baker is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Taking Root, a not-for-profit that restores forest ecosystems by improving farmer livelihoods. Taking Root does this by connecting brands wanting to meet their climate commitments to reforestation initiatives working with smallholder farmers. Over the past decade, Kahlil has built Taking Root into an internationally acclaimed organisation, with recognition from organisations like the UN, Rainforest Alliance, and Google. He has served as an advisor for leading forest carbon standards, including Plan Vivo and the Gold Standard and was a recipient of the Meritorious Service Cross by Canada’s Governor-General.

Paramita Banerjee

Paramita Banerjee is a black-coffee-drinking social activist forever pushing boundaries to enable the most marginalised children to write their own life scripts – in a gender-just world. She opted out of academics nearly three decades ago to pursue this dream. Paramita is the Founder and Chief Functionary of DIKSHA, which grew out of an experiment she had started with a MacArthur Fellowship for Leadership Development. She has been an Ashoka Fellow since 2016. Paramita is recognised as a gender-sexuality expert skilled in research, training and evaluation. She is a Catalyst 2030 member at both the global and national levels.

Seán Barnes

Seán Barnes is the Director of Social Procurement at the Ākina Foundation in Aotearoa-New Zealand. Sean is passionate about realising the potential of business and procurement to deliver positive social and environmental impact. His recent experience includes advisory roles that support businesses (corporate and SME), social enterprises, and government agencies in social procurement, strategy and sustainability. He is a massive SEWF fan, having attended the 2017, 2018 and 2020 (virtual) events and is looking forward to connecting globally in 2021.

Seán holds a PhD in Chemical and Process Engineering and is a Chartered Member of Engineering New Zealand.

Rowan Barnett

Rowan Barnett leads Google.org in Europe, Middle East and Africa. As a data-driven, human-focused philanthropy powered by Google, he oversees Google’s philanthropic funding, product donations and employee giving and volunteering in the region, supporting innovative nonprofits using technology to tackle complex global challenges and create more opportunity for everyone. In his previous roles at Google, he also led Google.org’s philanthropy across Asia Pacific, as well as Google for Startups efforts to enable access to the tech ecosystem for diverse and underrepresented entrepreneurs and social innovators.

Prior to Google he was a Senior Director at Twitter responsible for user growth across many European and Emerging Markets, spent 8 years in journalism and social innovation at Axel Springer, as well as failing to be a successful entrepreneur.

Rowan serves on a number of advisory boards, including the nonprofit startup leadership network H2.co and as a trustee of the Trialogue Educational Trust and Club of Three. He is also a Fellow of the Bertelsmann German Israeli Young Leaders initiative. He holds an MA in History from Oriel College, Oxford. With roots in eight countries, including dual English and German citizenship, he lives with his wife and three children in Berlin.

Ahmed Bastawy

Ahmed Bastawy is the Managing Founder of ICEALEX that shapes entrepreneurship and maker culture in Egypt; he also founded Alexandria’s 1st sector-specific incubators series. Bastawy has been an innovation consultant, facilitator and senior programmes architect in Africa, SEA & Europe, focusing on entrepreneurship, impact investment, and social innovation. In addition to mentoring and coaching different startups and impact ventures, Ahmed also consults international government organisations. He has contributed to the founding and being the International Business Development Manager at iceHubs Global CIC UK that focuses on transforming sustainability challenges into green businesses.

Jennifer Beason

Jennifer “Jen” Beason joined SAP in 2007. After a decade supporting SAP’s customers in North America, she transitioned to corporate affairs, focusing on SAP’s purpose to improve people’s lives and help the world run better. Jen now leads a global portfolio of programs and partnerships that support early-stage innovation and new ventures to accelerate and scale the impact of mature nonprofit organizations and social enterprises globally. She is always looking for new ways to bring innovation into SAP’s corporate social entrepreneurship portfolio, often working with young social entrepreneurs to make it happen. Jen enjoys music and exploring the great outdoors in Colorado (U.S.) alongside her husband and golden retriever in her free time.

Daan Bekker

As an organisational anthropologist, Daan Bekker envisions a future in which environmentally sustainable and inclusive communities are the global norm. To get there, our institutions need to adopt cultures that align with this vision. The best place to start is our education system. After successfully researching inclusive education systems, Daan Bekker is currently working with Founder Thiëmo, and the rest of the Fawaka team on their mission to integrate sustainable and social entrepreneurship into the Dutch schooling system. Through this, they envision raising an environmentally conscious generation.

Anouk Bertner

Anouk has worked in social enterprises, non-profits, and sustainability for the past 15 years. She loves to tackle complex problems with system thinking to tease out new win-win solutions. Anouk is currently the Executive Director of EcoEquitable, a female-centric organisation that works primarily with vulnerable and visible minority women. EcoEquitable is the recipient of the United Way’s 2018 Community Builder of Year Award in Poverty to Possibility and the 2019 Best Performance in Social Entrepreneurship by the Best of Ottawa Business Awards. Anouk is currently a member of the National Advisory Board for Common Approach to Impact Measurement. This national project seeks to create common indicators for charities and purpose-based organizations to use in their work. Anouk holds an MBA in Sustainable Business. Anouk is bilingual in French and English and identifies as she/her. Read her thoughts on the social enterprise on the Pro-Co Cooperative Blog.

Louise Bleach

Louise is the Impact Lead at Desolenator. She is responsible for driving the lifecycle of high impact projects, from securing financing to partnership building all the way to impact monitoring and measurement. Louise also leads Desolenator’s impact story and nurtures partnerships between corporates, multinational and development agencies.

Kara Bobroff

Kara Bobroff (Navajo/Lakota), Ed.S., is a lifelong educator, leader, and activist with more than 25 years of experience serving her community. As the Executive Director of One Generation, she supports local communities in transformative solution-building that reflects Indigenous values and builds on community assets. In this role, she brings resources, technical assistance, and high-impact practices rooted in equity to locally-led programs and initiatives in such sectors as education, land access, food sovereignty, language preservation and revitalization, and youth development. Kara’s work builds on her career in education, most recently as Deputy Secretary of Identity, Equity, and Transformation for the New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED). At NMPED, Kara led the state’s work in promoting student learning and growth aligned with the intent of the Hispanic Education Act, Indian Education Act, and Bilingual-Multicultural Education Act.

Lisa Boothby

Lisa joined Social Traders in 2011. She is responsible for the Market Development business unit. Through her time with Social Traders, Lisa has overseen social enterprise supplier services and before that led the social enterprise incubator program, The Crunch. Lisa has extensive experience in management consulting across commercial, community and social enterprise sectors, having worked in the Strategy Group at Accenture, as well as directly consulting to non-profit organisations and social enterprises. Lisa has held board positions with Good Company and Ormond College and is currently a Director of Veritas Health Innovation. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne and a Masters of Business Administration from the Melbourne Business School. She is also a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD).

Christopher Bradshaw

Christopher Bradshaw is a Black, justice-oriented social entrepreneur whose expertise uses social innovation through the food system to grow meaningful community economic development within marginalised communities. Chris and his organisation see the food system as a lens to examine and dismantle systems of oppression and lead towards Black liberation. Since its founding, Dreaming Out Loud, Inc. has impacted farmers, food-makers, and community members through cooperative social enterprise and advocacy. Under his leadership, Dreaming Out Loud has grown to include 17 full-time team members and four seasonal farm and food hub assistants. He is a frequent speaker on the intersections of racial justice, class, gender, and food sovereignty — appearances include the Atlantic Ideas Festival, Bloomberg American Health Summit, and regional and national gatherings for farmers and food activists. Christopher is also the recipient of Georgetown University’s John Thompson Legacy of a Dream Award for 2021 and Eating Well Magazine’s 2021.

Sarah Brown

Sarah Brown AM is the Chief Executive Officer of Purple House and has been helping the Indigenous Directors to run the organisation since its inception more than eighteen years ago. In 2017 she was Hesta’s Australia’s Nurse of the Year. In 2018 she made it to the BOSS magazine’s ‘True Leaders’ list. Sarah holds a Master of Nursing, a Graduate Diploma in Aboriginal Education and a Graduate Diploma in Health Service Management. Before joining Purple House, she was a remote area nurse and university lecturer. She paints, has exhibitions across Australia and overseas, has three kids and drives a 1959 Morris Minor around Alice Springs.

Alfred Burgesson

Alfred Burgesson (he/him) immigrated from Ghana to Canada with his family to pursue a better quality of life at an early age. Alfred is an active leader in the Halifax community and is passionate about entrepreneurship, youth engagement, and employment. Alfred has experience advising local community groups, non-profit organisations, and government/crown corporations and he’s been an advisor to many leaders in Canada, including the Prime Minister, Senators, and First Nation Chiefs. Recently, Alfred supported the African Canadian Senate Group and the office of Senator Colin Deacon as project lead; gathering data and insights on Black Entrepreneurship in Canada. He is also a co-chair of Canada’s first-ever State of the Youth Report.

Angela Busheska

Angela Busheska is a 20-year-old engineering and computer science student at Lafayette College. She is the Founder & President of EnRoute, a non-profit organisation assisting people in reducing their carbon footprint through everyday activities. For her work, Angela was named a Global Teen Leader and a Diana Award Recipient. She is an unshakable optimist who believes that the power of never giving up is the only thing that can bring miracles in life.

Frae Cairns

Frae is of Ngāti Kahu and Te Aupoūri descent. She is passionate about social equity and delivering impact through procurement activity to enable greater opportunities for Māori and Pasifika. Her previous experience in Auckland Council’s procurement team has helped her to begin to redefine the meaning of ‘value’ to procurers by demonstrating the socio-economic and environmental benefits that can be achieved. This led to her supporting Auckland Council to be the first organisation in New Zealand to set targets for spend with Māori, Pasifika & Social Enterprises. As Capability Manager for Amotai, her current role is to support buying organisations to develop their supplier diversity practice to create meaningful opportunities and genuine relationships with Māori and Pasifika businesses.

Anupra Chandran

Anupra leads an early-stage clean-tech project called Kaptis. Kaptis was started because it’s no longer enough to rely on just reducing emissions anymore. We’ll have to remove ten gigatonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere per year by 2050, using tech like direct air capture (DAC). This project proposes to convert captured carbon dioxide to materials like graphene, which can be sold for a profit, improving the affordability of DAC. In the past, Anupra has worked with companies like Apollo Neuroscience and did a student project with XPRIZE to enhance recruitment of their $100M carbon capture prize.

Lorraine Charles

Lorraine Charles is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Na’amal, which links forcibly displaced people with remote work opportunities. She also holds two roles at the University of Cambridge, first as a Research Associate for the Centre for Business Research and second as the Co-Lead of the Digital Skills and Digital Work project at the Centre for the Study of Global Human Movement. She has recently been appointed as a member of the MIT ReACT Advisory Committee and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) Technical Advisory Committee for the ReBuild, their East Africa livelihood programme.

Merlin Chatwin

Merlin Chatwin is the Executive Director at Open North and received his PhD from the University of Western Ontario in the Geography Department. His research area is urban policy and local governance, focusing on inclusive civic participation in distinct geographies. In 2018, Merlin was awarded the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship. He has over ten years of domestic and international experience focusing on civic engagement, policy development and local government reform. With an MA in Organisational Development and Leadership, he is interested in developing individuals to reach their full potential. He has significant experience in developing strategic alliances in governance, education and food security sectors. Merlin has expertise in project management and leading cross-sectoral groups through strategic planning and collaborative processes. Further, he has led multiple monitoring and evaluation projects across diverse sectors and geographic and cultural contexts.

Neelam Chhiber

Neelam Chhiber is the Co-founder of Industree. For the past three decades, she has been working on regenerative economies with parts of India’s 200 million-strong artisanal workforce by providing design, technical, marketing and management solutions to bridge the urban-rural divide. By working on the socio-economic transformation of women from the most vulnerable communities, Industree’s work redefines Indian and global artisanal manufacturing systems as pivotal to the Next Regenerative Economy. Focusing on social equity and climate action, Neelam is building a holistic ecosystem that enables agency for rural women to navigate rapidly changing national and global supply chains.

Shomy Hasan Chowdhury

Shomy Hasan Chowdhury is a multi-award-winning Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) activist from Bangladesh. Shomy is the Co-Founder of global youth-led org Awareness 360 and also a Global Changemakers Fellow. She has addressed keynotes and inspired millions across 5 continents, also receiving many recognitions for her social work of over a decade, notably the President’s Volunteer Service Award (Gold) from President Barack Obama, the Putra Icon Award, and the Princess Diana Legacy Award.

Most recently, she has been named a Forbes 30 Under 30 and highlighted as the Featured Honoree for Social Impact. She is also the first Bangladeshi citizen to sit on the 2021 Diana Legacy Award Judging Panel alongside Princess Diana’s brother Lord Spencer, and many esteemed figures.

Minhaj Chowdhury

Minhaj Chowdhury is the CEO and Co-Founder of Drinkwell. From helping the world’s largest utility in Dhaka ensure clean water to low-income communities via Water ATMs, to being the technology provider for the world’s largest piped arsenic and iron removal system in West Bengal, Minhaj is building South Asia’s largest technology-driven, end-to-end water services platform. His work has been acclaimed by the World Bank, UNICEF, BBC, and The Economist. He holds a BA in Public Health from Johns Hopkins and is a Fulbright, Echoing Green and Ashoka Fellow and a Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneur.

Goto M Cooper

Goto M Cooper is an international motivational speaker, educator, and social entrepreneur. He is the Founder/Executive Director of Educate Future Liberia, a social venture that seeks to reimagine quality education, gender equality, and youth empowerment in Liberia. He is a YALI Alumnus, Young Political Leadership School Fellow, and Obama African Leader; UNLEASH Innovation Global Talent, Global Citizenship Education Alumnus, and Mandela Washington Fellow. He currently serves as the Representative for the National Education NGO Forum of Liberia at the Education Sector Development Committee level. On top of that, he is a recipient of many local and international awards for his servant leadership. Goto is a global citizen.

Karla Córdoba Brenes

Passionate about sustainability, innovation, new types of money, exponential tech and organisations, but mostly, a believer in our capacity to transform the world into a better place. Karla is cofounder of Cambiatus an open-source platform to empower the creation of complementary currencies and collaborative businesses, creating tools for governance, decision making and innovative economic incentives using blockchain technology. Karla is from Costa Rica, holds a master’s degree in Community Development, is a Singularity University and Shuttleworth Foundation Alumni.

Liz Cross

A social entrepreneur, leader and coach with over 30 years in consulting roles, and Executive and Non-executive positions.
In 2006, Liz founded The Connectives, a values-based social enterprise consultancy practice that works with all sectors nationally and internationally and with all kinds of organisations and businesses, from start-ups to mature multi-million-pound businesses.
Liz advocates and seeks to model the power of positive disruption in the belief that nothing changes if we are too comfortable with the status quo.

Maeve Curtin

Maeve has been working with SEWF since June 2019 managing a number of projects related to research, policy development and youth engagement. Currently her work centres around policy consultation and specifically the expansion of social procurement policies and networks globally. She is leading the development of SEWF’s Social Procurement Community of Practice. In addition to her work with SEWF, she is pursuing a PhD in social policy studying policy co-production and co-creation by examining the collaborative development of social enterprise strategies globally.

Rana Dajani

Rana Dajani Ph.D. molecular cell biology from U of Iowa, currently Cmalakova Fellow at the Jepson school of Leadership at the University of Richmond, Harvard Radcliff fellow, a Fulbrighter, Fulbright Foreign Student Program, Jordan to the United States, 2000; Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program, Jordan to the United States, 2012. Eisenhower fellow, Professor, former center of studies director, Hashemite University, Jordan, Yale and Cambridge visiting professor. World expert on genetics of Circassian and Chechan populations in Jordan. Established stem cell research ethics law in Jordan. Advocate for biological evolution and Islam, speaker at McGill University and MIT. Jordan team leader in studying refugee youth with Yale University and the epigenetics of trauma across generations. Higher education reform expert, member UN women Jordan advisory council. Writer in Science and Nature, Established a women mentor network, received Partnerships for enhanced engagement in research (PEER) award 2014. Organized the first gender summit for the Arab world 2017. Most influential women scientists in Islamic World, 12 among100 most influential Arab women 2015, women in science hall of fame 2015, King Hussein Cancer Institute for cancer and biotechnology award 2009 and 2016 Global Changemaker Award for celebrating 70 years of the Fulbright Programm. President of the Society for the Advancement of Science, Technology and Innovation in the Arab World. women of influence in the Arab World 2021 Arabian Business magazine’s list.

Awarded the Jordan star of science by His Majesty King Abdullah II, University of Iowa, College of medicine, distinguished alumni Award 2018, Higher Education Reform Expert EU-TEMPUS, Jordan, founder service learning center, Hashemite University, speaker at TEDxDeadsea and TEDxPSUT, World Islamic Economic Forum 2012 and World Science Forum 2015 and 2017.

Developed a community-based model “We love reading” Changing mindsets through reading to create changemakers, received Synergos Arab world social innovators 2009, Clinton Global Initiative 2010, Library of Congress best practices 2013, World Innovation Summit in Education Award 2014, King Hussein Medal of Honor 2014, Star Award 2015, IDEO.org best refugee education program 2015, UNESCO International Literacy Prize 2017, World Literacy Council Award 2018 and the Jacobs social entrepreneurship award 2018, Science, Technology and Innovation Award UN 2019, Ashoka Fellow 2019, UNHCR Nansen Refugee awardee 2020, Schwab Social entrepreneur 2021.

Author of the book: Five scarves, Doing the impossible: If we can reverse cell fate why cant we redefine success, Nova Publisher 2018. Reviewed by Nature

Andy Daly

Andy Daly leads on corporate partnerships at Social Enterprise UK (SEUK). He has a particular interest in how procurement can deliver a more strategic corporate responsibility by driving growth and impact at business-to-business (B2B) social enterprises.

His role at SEUK includes developing and delivering the Buy Social Corporate Challenge – the world’s most significant commitment to social procurement – supporting a growing group of high-profile businesses to bring social enterprises into their supply chains.

Andy has previously worked at several leading UK social enterprises and intermediaries, such as HCT Group, UnLtd and School for Social Entrepreneurs. Andy is also a fluent Spanish speaker, having worked for some years in Spain.

Carolien de Bruin

Carolien runs Strategic Initiatives at the World Economic’s Schwab Foundation and is the founder of C-Change, an Amsterdam based facilitator of large-scale partnerships in sustainability. In recognition of the immediate need for support among social entrepreneurs due to COVID-19, she has co-initiated the launch of a Response Alliance for Social Entrepreneurs at the Forum. Prior to C-Change, Carolien led Monitor Deloitte’s global impact investing activities, working with clients such as B Lab, Calvert Foundation, the GIIN, and the World Economic Forum. Before becoming a social entrepreneur, Carolien held an interim role as COO at the Bertha Centre in Cape Town, Africa’s leading hub for social innovation and entrepreneurship. She is part of the Supervisory Board of asset manager Arvella, the OECDs Impact Measurement Expert Group and is co-founder of WomenLed 2030 – an early stage network for leading women in development.

Osvaldo De Falco

Thirty-four years old having an economic and financial background. We run a farm in the south of Italy with my family, and we grow organic citrus, olives, and avocados. I am a founder of Biorfarm, an innovative Agrifood startup with a high social and environmental impact, awarded by Google and chosen by many corporates to generate impact thanks to our local organic farmer’s network. I am a member of the board of Confagricoltura Giovani, a young farmer association in Italy. I’m a member of the CDG Organic Farming that assist the European Commission and help to hold a regular dialogue on all matters relating to the standard agricultural policy (CAP).

Joost de Kluijver

Joost started Closing the Loop (CTL), a social enterprise that offers a green proposition that is commercially attractive and relevant for us all. CTL makes mobile electronics symbols of personal and organisational values by making the devices waste-neutral. Joost has a background in the tech industry and the NGO community and is involved in research (circularity, waste reduction and informal community empowerment), but most of all works on delivering customer value through positive impact.

Randhula de Silva

Randhula de Silva is the Founder and CEO of GoodLife X Asia, creating a new wave of entrepreneurs and innovators in the traditional sectors to transition into a regenerative economy. As the former CEO of Hatch works, Sri Lanka’s largest space for startup innovation and acceleration, she held a unique dual position as the Chief Disruptor of GIZ. During this time, she founded two sector-specific accelerator programmes and three incubation programmes for the first time in Sri Lanka. Director of the Sri Lankan chapter of the Global Entrepreneurship Network and works with multiple international and private sector organisations in designing programs to create positive disruptions. Being a strong advocator of homegrown artists and creatives, she co-founded an alternate film screening platform and was the Executive Producer of the Sri Lankan Feature film Avilenasului. Recently she was awarded Chevening Research, Science and Innovation Leadership Fellow from the University of Oxford.

Chloe Donatelli

Chloe has worked in community development for over the last decade. This work has allowed her to connect with communities on Canada’s west coast, northern regions, and Maritimes. For the previous five years, she has worked for Common Good Solutions as a consultant, supporting government and community-serving organisations as they build more just, sustainable, and vibrant communities. On Nova Scotia’s Atlantic coast, she has set down roots in a small Acadian community called West Chezzetcook.

Claude Dorion

Economist Claude Dorion manages MCE Conseils, a management consultancy specialised in collective enterprises. He helped create more than 50 workers cooperatives in Canada ( 4 000 members) and has been involved in hundreds of SSEE launch and development assignments. He has been active in structural and strategic studies on the subject and worked in some 25 countries. He contributed to some significant studies and development guides published. Author and consultant, he is a member of national and international networks of SSEE in Canada and Europe.

Rebecca Dray

Originally from the UK, Rebecca has been developing social enterprise businesses for more than 14 years. In 2020, she co-founded Buy Social USA, the social procurement intermediary organisation for the United States, supporting businesses, government and other institutional buyers to purchase their everyday goods and services from verified social enterprise sellers.

Wieteke Dupain

Wieteke Dupain is the CEO of Euclid Network (EN) – the European Social Enterprise Network. She joined EN in 2019, after 20+ years of leadership in respective organisations and initiatives in the international and government sectors (including the United Nations and the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs), education and academia globally, the private sector (Thomson Reuters and Microsoft) and as an entrepreneur. She has two MSc in Strategic and International Management from ESADE, RSM Erasmus University and CEMS The Global Alliance in Management Education and an executive education from Oxford on Impact Measurement and Management.

Lucie Durand

Lucie Durand is Senior Research Analyst at Yunus Social Business. She’s leading qualitative research on how social businesses can be integrated into corporate supply chains and what companies need to be ready for social entrepreneurs. Before joining YSB, Lucie worked with danone.communities, the social investment fund of Danone, and launched the social business 2.5NVG from Essilor in West Africa to create better access to eyeglasses. Lucie holds a Master in Management degree from HEC Paris, with a certificate in Inclusive & Social Business.

Eller Everett

Eller is an impact researcher and sustainable development advisor. She has worked on social and environmental projects worldwide for over 8 years and has “lived” permaculture for 28 years. She has a postgraduate certificate in innovation, enterprise and circular economy and is soon to undertake a PhD in integrating social value into the circular economy. Eller uniquely combines the concepts of; circular economy, biomimicry, permaculture and the doughnut economy to support businesses in driving impact, innovation and sustainability. She co-founded a social impact company and is co-creating an impact community and runs workshops and talks on sustainable development and innovation.

Katie Forsyth

Katie co-founded Friendly Composting in March 2020 with the onset of the Covid-19 Pandemic. Friendly Composting makes a living sustainably simple through proper food waste management solutions and education, shortening the food supply chain and stimulating the local economy. We offer a weekly collection of food waste organics and deliver sustainably and locally sourced food.

Cecilia Foxworthy

Cecilia has spent over a decade leading and supporting impact organisations for strategic growth and innovation across the globe, with a targeted focus on the Americas. Her experience spans strategic design, programme creation, business development, and organisational change for entrepreneurship, youth development, and women’s economic empowerment initiatives. Previously, she held roles directing or managing operations and marketing for Global Citizen and Global Goods Partners. Additionally, Cecilia has founded and built two organisations, Torus Teens and Small Fry, to address education and economic opportunity gaps in disadvantaged communities in the US. Cecilia holds an MBA from Baruch College, an MS in Global Education from Drexel, and a BS in Apparel Design from Virginia Tech.

Marcel Fukayama

Marcel Fukayama is an Impact Entrepreneur, Cancer Survivor and Cathedral Builder. Co-Founder of Sistema B Brasil and Din4mo; Executive Director of Sistema B International. He is committed to using business as a force for good and addresses the climate crises and inequality. He has a Masters in Public Administration at LSE.

Emily Gannam

Emily is a member of Acumen’s Strategic Partnerships team. In this role, she supports cultivating partnerships with corporations to advance Acumen’s mission and shift “business as usual” corporate practices. Before Acumen, Emily worked as an organisational management consultant for USAID with Social Impact, a fund coordinator in UN Women’s West and Central Africa Regional Office, and an English teacher at a boarding school in central China. Emily holds a Master’s Degree in Business for Social Impact and Organisational Management from the Fletcher School at Tufts and a Bachelor’s Degree in Gender Studies and International Studies from Boston College. She grew up in Truckee, California.

Alexa Gantous

Alexa Gantous is the founder of trashtalk*studio, a creative eco lab and podcast, and a co-founder of LitterRally, a mobile trash pickup dance party that connects people to environmental action through fun.
She is a creative strategist and writer focused on amplifying ecological empathy. She creates experiences, builds communities, and designs strategies for humans and companies ready to participate in a more inspiring story of themselves and the world.
She is also a contributor for mindbodygreen, where she publishes thought leadership pieces on the intersection between mindfulness and nature.

Christine Gent

Christine Gent is Global Community Director of Fashion Revolution CIC. Trained as a designer, now skilled across supply chain management, specialising in integrating vulnerable producers into global supply chains. Her experience includes working with commercial companies, Social Enterprises, and UN bodies, previously director for the World Fair Trade Organisation Asia and Ethical Trade Development Manager at The Body Shop. As part of the MADE51 team, Christine is also currently working with UNHCR and refugee artisans.

Matthew Goldsworthy

Matthew Goldsworthy is a 24-year-old social impact leader from Aotearoa New Zealand, now based in London. He is the Founder of Youth Arts New Zealand (YANZ), a nonprofit social enterprise with a vision for every young person across Aotearoa to know the worth of their creative identity. Programmes range from creative sector internships and paid gig work opportunities to creative writing workshops in corrections facilities and community spaces. Matthew has also recently co-founded Goodness Digital, a tech-driven social enterprise empowering purpose-driven organisations to share their stories with the world. He is passionate about community-led development, the creative arts and youth leadership.

Ghassan Halawa

I am an entrepreneur and a MENA ecosystem builder, holding a passion for people. As an active member of the creative entrepreneurship ecosystem, I enjoy building capacity, connecting, inspiring, and empowering entrepreneurs, individuals, communities, and ecosystems locally, regionally, and globally. We are an Impact Design House specialised in entrepreneurship and innovation, and that is where you can find me, have us build something together, and generate real impact. Finding eight startups and landing on the 7th, PARACHUTE16, I not only enjoy my work as an entrepreneur. But I am always fascinated to be a part of others’ life stories and experiences. Today, and after 14 years of experience in the social entrepreneurship field, we have worked with 60+ success partners, 70+ consultants, 75+ expert mentors, and 55+ projects, and 30,000 youth in 14 Arab countries by having people management and knowledge management become a core part of our daily work. Today, I am delighted to build upon such experiences by learning more about the power of public narrative through storytelling, leadership, and action

Harish Hande

Harish Hande (Founder and CEO, SELCO Foundation) is recognized as a pioneer of rural energy services across the globe. He is the co-founder of SELCO Solar Light Pvt Ltd and is presently the CEO of SELCO Foundation. Harish has received many national and international awards, including the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship (2018) and the Asia’s prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award (2011) for “his pragmatic efforts to put solar power technology in the hands of the poor, through his social enterprise SELCO India”.

Carolann Harding

Carolann Harding, ICD.D, as the Executive Director of SmartICE, is leading a diverse coast to coast to coast award-winning team (President’s Award for Public Engagement Partnerships 2020, Governor General Innovation Award 2019, United Nations Momentum for Change 2017, Arctic Inspiration Prize 2016), focusing on meeting SmartICE’s social enterprise mandate, strategic directions, and social impacts. Carolann is currently the Chair of FoodFirst NL, a director on the Women in Resource Development Corporation Board, and a member of the ICD NL Chapter Executive. In 1990, Carolann was named the Youth Entrepreneur of the Year for NL, in 2002 she won a Public Service Award of Excellence, and in 2014 she received a World of Difference 100 Award presented by The International Alliance of Women (TIAW). Carolann is a graduate of both Memorial and Dalhousie universities. In March 2021, Atlantic Business Magazine, named Carolann as one of Atlantic Canada’s 25 Most Powerful Women in Business.

Jirra Lulla Harvey

Jirra Lulla Harvey is a Koorie businesswoman and adventurer, working with 100+ Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander founders across Australia. She started Kalinya Communications in 2012, specialising in communications strategy, brand development and event design. Jirra has travelled to 20+ countries learning from Indigenous people and communities. She recently launched the Kalinya Retreats, a place for Aboriginal entrepreneurs and friends to talk business under the stars. Jirra is passionate about First Nations leadership in purpose-driven business, ethical manufacturing and ways of working that build community and relationships with the land.

Lisa Hawkes

Lisa works for Unilever on TRANSFORM, an initiative to support social entrepreneurs set up by Unilever, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and EY. TRANSFORM provides business mentorship and grant funding to entrepreneurs in South Asia and Africa. Lisa has worked with social entrepreneurs for the last eight years, specialising in enterprises that provide sanitation to low-income people. She is highly motivated by helping social entrepreneurs solve critical problems to help their businesses grow, which often includes developing their value proposition and marketing materials. Lisa has worked for Unilever for a decade. She originally joined through the Future Leaders management trainee programme and has worked in various sustainability roles across research and development, supply chain and within the Global Sustainability Team.

Sally Heard

Working with the School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) since 2002, Sally has played a vital role in setting up SSE in Cornwall (UK). Driven by supporting people to grow, she has secured significant investment and led a successful team that continues to deliver a broad range of social entrepreneurship programmes from pre-start to leadership, building confidence, capacity and creating impact across communities. Most recently, she has taken up the position of Director of Development and External Affairs at SSE, working with external stakeholders across the UK and beyond, building relationships and securing investment for this important and impactful work.

Jermaine Henry

I believe ordinary people can make extraordinary changes.
Leaders aren’t always activists, CEO’s, celebrities or politicians; leaders have the vision, take action and play their part in the community. My role is as a co-star with lead actors pursuing change. I help create a braver culture and facilitate deeper connections for shared work across the globe.

Mariana Heredia

Degree in International Relations from the Universidad Iberoamericana Puebla, Master in Human Rights, Peace and Sustainable Development from the University of Valencia. With experience in the public and social sector, working in civil society organisations for four years and three years in the public sector as head of Strategic Projects and International Affairs at the National Institute of Social Economy (INAES).

Celia Hodson

Celia is a multi award-winning entrepreneur and named Social Entrepreneur of the Year by Entrepreneurial Scotland in 2018. National winner of the Great British Entrepreneur 2019 and Saltair Inspirational Women 2019 to name a few.

Having been a business executive with extensive experience of leading social change in the UK, Australia, India, and Brazil, Celia retired early only to set up Buy One Give One Period Products Social Enterprise – Hey Girls in 2018. 3 years on and her trailblazing organisation’s products are stocked in Asda, Waitrose, the Coop and ScotMid supermarkets nationwide and delivered via public sector, schools, colleges and university contracts in Scotland, England and Wales. Trading activity has enabled Hey Girls to donate over 18 million period products to UK girls and women via a network of 200 donation partners.

Sean Hogan

Sean Hogan is the Executive Director of BUILD, a trades-based Social Enterprise. BUILD trains and employs individuals with multiple employment barriers, preparing them for long-term, meaningful careers in the trades. Having cut his teeth in both rapid business growth environments and high-volume management positions, Sean took BUILD from a small three crew construction endeavour to a sustainable, ever-growing Social Enterprise that runs as many as sixteen crews, consistently putting more than a million dollars of payroll into the pockets of those who need it most. Sean is a father, a husband, dog owner, lives adjacent to a cat, and an award-winning musician and songwriter with the Kindie Rock band Seamster and the Monsters.

Elena Höge

Elena is the founder of Yaldi Games, a startup game studio with the mission to create meaningful entertainment that can go beyond digital and have a real-life impact. She is passionate about games for good, foraging, cooking and crafting – all of which are activities that her game “Wholesome” will teach their players.

Mark Horoszowski

Mark Horoszowski is the CEO and Co-Founder of MovingWorlds, a global platform connecting and developing professionals, corporations, impact investors, and social enterprises as they work together to build a more sustainable and equitable planet.

Andy Horsnell

Andy has worked for over three decades to help community-based enterprises and local economies be more resilient, self-reliant, and sustainable. He has worked with 100s of community organisations — large and small, rural and urban ‒ throughout North America and abroad. In 2020, he co-founded Flourish Community Development Co-operative, which brings together eight firms to undertake large-scale community economic development projects. As a volunteer, he currently serves as the vice-chair of the Social Enterprise Council of Canada, is a founding director of the Social Enterprise Network of Nova Scotia, and served as chair of the Centre for Local Prosperity.

Alice Yijou Hung

Young Female Entrepreneur For the Ocean Tech. I am Alice, the founder of MicroPC. I am focusing on Microplastics and Ocean Education. I set up a social enterprise when I was 22 years old. My company did a lot of ocean cleanup and ocean education. We have our invented machine to help the environment. I am also the Youth Advisory Committee in Taiwan and assist the government with youth affairs, especially Female startups and Social enterprises.

Joseph Huyer

Joseph is currently a documentary film producer for Common Good Solutions. Prior to this position, he spent over two years working in community business development at CGS. He is keen to explore all things fun and exciting, as well as ideas that push the boundaries of today’s status quo. Joseph is the president of a para-hockey team in Halifax and is an advocate for an active lifestyle for all. His other passions include social equality as well as climate action. He believes with strong communities and solid teamwork we can achieve anything.

Jessica Ianniciello

Jessica is the current Managing Director of PhysioQ. This non-profit organisation creates affordable and easy-to-learn research tools for anyone to conduct health research and further their passion for health science. As a former educator, Jessica is passionate about STEM learning and engagement with youth and advocates for the Women and Girls in STEM movement. Most recently, she led the expansion of PhysioQ’s health research platform, providing high school students with the ability to participate in health research and data science using wearable technology. She is also a member of the Youth Advisory Group for the Social Enterprise World Forum.

Arhum Ishtiaq

Arhum is a student researcher, consultant, and social entrepreneur. He is a Digital Media Consultant for American Councils and the co-founder/CTO of Pakistan’s most considerable deaf accessibility and sign language literacy service provider, ConnectHear. Through ConnectHear, Arhum has impacted and improved accessibility for tens of thousands of lives across the nation by using his expertise in both technology and digital media. Beyond that, Arhum’s primary interest lies in extending the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning for social development. His current area of research is enabling advanced computer vision capabilities on limited compute. In his free time, Arhum documents his quirky A.I. misadventures on “A.I. does A.I.” (https://www.youtube.com/c/AIdoesAI) and all his serious research work on Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=2HckzzMAAAAJ). He is also one of Pakistan’s first-ever Diana Award recipients and was recently recognized as the Global Champion by the World Summit Awards in their Young Innovators category.

Huda Jaffer

Huda is a product/service/systems designer with a keen interest in user centric design specifically for sustainability and developmental issues. She has an undergraduate degree in design from Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore and a Masters of Science in Engineering and Business (Integrated Design and Management) from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.

Huda has been critical in building the necessary processes of SELCO Foundation, which has led to it being known as a pioneer in the field of building the ecosystem for sustainable energy access for the poor.

Anne Jamieson

Anne Jamieson oversees United Way Greater Toronto’s investments in Inclusive Employment programs, including employment social enterprises; Anne has long been committed to building a robust, vibrant and sustainable social enterprise sector in Canada. She launched the Canadian Conference on Social Enterprise series in 2004, is a founding member of the Social Enterprise Council of Canada, and is the former chair of the Ontario Social Economy Roundtable. Anne’s background is in small business development and, in contrast, international commercial finance. Anne holds an MBA from Ivey and an Honours BA from U of T; she is bilingual in English and French.

Dr. Alisha Jean-Denis

Alisha (she/her) is a Black mother, published scholar, educator and international activist. She is dedicated to driving the conversation on race, gender and geography within historically White, private secondary schools across the United States. Named one of Connecticut’s 40 Women to Watch for the next 40 Years, Alisha has held positions in educational institutions and nonprofit organiSations, focusing on urban education and policy reform.
With a PhD in Social Justice Education, Alisha has contributed substantial research on anti-Blackness, particularly in education systems. Her doctoral research examines Black girlhood studies, Black geographies and elite schools and explores the act of a witness in response to anti-Blackness, and the role of a witness in paving a path forward for humanity. She poses the question, “What are we called to when we witness?”.

Youngjae Jo

He is a former Republic of Korea Marine Corp Intelligence and Liaison Officer. After completing his military service, he joined a renewable energy company as an overseas project development manager and successfully developed the first private 12MW biomass power plant in South Pacific. He is specialized in EPC coordination for the biomass power plant, project financing(energy and infra sector), procurement managing for main equipment(boiler/turbine), and tech sales and marketing. He is one of the co-founders of Envelops Co.Ltd, which is doing renewable energy project development in the 3rd world.

Garth Johnson

Garth Johnson co-founded Meticulon in 2013, Canada’s first enterprise to deploy the unique abilities of people with autism as IT consultants. Garth’s entrepreneurial career in IT included roles as VP of Business and Community Development for iStockphoto and President of Fotolia North America, now Adobe Stock photo. Garth brings his personal life with a person with autism in his family together with his professional passion for building sustainable, disruptive businesses to auticon Canada’s mission to grow across the country and expand our services into new sectors. He also serves on the board of the Canadian Association for Supported Employment in support of its mission to create sustainable, equitable employment for all Canadians with diverse abilities.

Dr. Sara Saeed Khurram

Dr Sara Saeed Khurram has over seven years of experience in Digital health care as the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Sehat Kahani. Sehat Kahani is an all-female doctor provider network that provides quality, affordable and accessible health care using a chat, audio video-enabled telemedicine platform used in low-income communities in clinics and through a mobile application for the masses. Sehat Kahani has 35 clinics across Pakistan, has connected more than half a million patients with doctors globally, and has impacted 7.2 million lives overall. Sehat Kahani focuses on SDG 3,5 and 10, focusing on good health and well-being, gender equality, and reduced inequalities in everyone’s access to education, career, and health.

She is an IWLS Fellow by National Defence University(Pakistan), Rainer Arnhold Fellow by Mulago Foundation, A Cartier Fellow 2018, an Acumen fellow 2016, a TEDx speaker and a Cherie Blair Foundation alumnus. Frontier Innovator from Pakistan in 2017.

Amanda Kiessel

Amanda Kiessel is the co-founder of Good Market, a curated community of social enterprises, cooperatives, responsible businesses, voluntary organisations and changemakers working to create a 21st century economy that’s “good for people and good for the planet.” The online platform includes more than 3,000 enterprises from 98 countries. Amanda is originally from the United States but spent the last 20 years in Asia before returning again to the US to continue her global systems change work. Before Good Market, she spent nearly 15 years working with local organisations on agroecology and sustainable food systems, organisational change, and social enterprise development. Amanda is an Ashoka Fellow.

Jae-gu Kim

Professor of Business Administration at Myongji University
Board of Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF)
Board of Work Together Foundation
Chairman for the social economy committee of Korean Presidential Committee
Former President of the Korea Social Enterprise Promotion Agency

Rachel Kim

Rachel first joined Jeju Olle Foundation managing Jeju Olle Trail in 2014. With the experience of hiking on Jeju Olle Trail, she joined the organisation with communications, marketing, and public relations background. She has worked on various educational programmes targeting youth and children in the neighbouring villages around the trail. Currently, she is working as a manager in the global sector in Jeju Olle Foundation’s trail division, managing relationships with overseas trails.

Young-sik KIM

Young-Sik (Young) is the executive director of the Association of Korean Local Governments for Social Economy and Solidarity (abbreviated as SSEGOV), a network organisation of local governments in South Korea. As an experienced researcher, he has helped several social economy initiatives of both local governments and the national government in Korea. Young has advised and closely worked with policymakers and legislators, leading several important taskforces for social innovation and social economy legislation. He currently serves as a member of the advisory committee of the Presidential Commission on Policy Planning of Korea.

Erdmuthe Klaer

Erdmuthe Klaer-Morselli is Deputy Secretary-General of the European Network of Cities and Regions for the Social Economy (REVES aisbl). She is responsible for coordinating exchanges between municipalities and regions on a range of topics linked to a partnership with the social economy, local development and transnational cooperation. In her private life, she has been and still is involved in several social&solidarity economy initiatives in Belgium and Germany.

Romy Kochan

The Gingras Global team supports the development of strong social enterprise and impact investing reporting and standards. They have successfully designed, launched, and now administer several impacts investing funds; help affects investing transactions. In addition to funds, the Gingras team, under Romy’s leadership, have supported more than 100 transactions to local social enterprises and gained notoriety for their templated impact reporting and forecasting. Romy is a published author on impact investing for social enterprise and a frequent guest speaker. Romy is also the host of the popular podcast show Bonfires of Social Enterprise, followed in more than 100 countries.

Sarah Leeson-Klym

Sarah Leeson-Klym is Regional Networks Director for the Canadian CED Network. In that role, she works with network leaders across Canada to create opportunities for learning, dialogue, and alignment across various cross-cutting issues like social and community finance, social enterprise development, the role of government in the social economy, and building community-led solid development practice. She is also a board member of the Social Enterprise Council of Canada. Previously, she worked in Manitoba developing local social enterprise development programmes, advocating local government to support the sector, and hosting learning events to build strength and knowledge.

David LePage

David offers years of experience in social enterprise across many roles, in rural and urban settings, across cultures, and internationally. Currently, through Accelerating Social Impact CCC, he provides blended value business consulting and training, promotes a supportive public policy environment and advises social impact investors.

David is a founder and current chair of the Social Enterprise Council of Canada, a partner in Buy Social Canada, and on the boards of Vancouver’s Farmers Markets, Ethelo Decisions and Ethelo Democracy.

He is the lead Facilitator for the Groundswell Social Venture Program, a founding partner and content provider for the Social Enterprise Institute, and a program adjunct and instructor for the Sandermoen School of Business MBA in Social Enterprise Leadership.

Jonas Lessa

Jonas Lessa is an environmentalist by education and environmental manager by graduation at Universidade de São Paulo (2016). Combining concern about unsustainable practices with a passion for social causes, he participated in 2014 in the conception and foundation of Retalhar, a certified B Corp that enables responsible, innovative and inclusive management for textile waste management.

Mikey Leung

Mikey gets more done in 5 years than other people do in 10 lifetimes. He attributes that to being born in the year of the Horse in the Chinese zodiac, but his team at Digital Storytellers think he owes it to coffee. With over 15 years of study in the practice of digital wizardry, Mikey has worked as a web designer, radio journalist and travel writer before finally finding his spiritual home in the moving image. When he’s not behind the camera, he’s out advocating for impact storytelling and helping clients achieve their storytelling goals. He also does a killer rendition of ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’ on guitar and vocals.

David Lim

David Lim is the Manager of the Social Innovation Team at Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC), a leading government agency that is nurturing the growth of social enterprises as well as overseeing the development of the social innovation ecosystem in Malaysia. MaGIC has been actively supporting the seeding and scaling of social enterprises via capacity building, access to market, funding and skills as well as policy consultation for the government. Prior to MaGIC, as an accounting and finance-trained graduate, David worked and volunteered for more than a decade, in several social enterprises and green technology companies across Malaysia.

Arthur Lima

Dentist, Founder and CEO of AfroSaúde, Healthtech that creates health technologies for the Afro-Brazilian population. Recognised by Forbes Magazine as “Forbes Under 30”. Recognised by MIPAD 100 as One of the Most Influential People of African Descent Under 40.

Lisa Lowthers

Lisa Lowthers is a recent “empty nester” who has invested the last 30 years in business and community development in Nova Scotia and Canada. At Common Good Solutions and the Social Enterprise Institute, using her facilitation, training, counselling and coaching (yes, there is a difference) skills, she helps organisations build business models that “shift to the middle” by diversifying revenue streams and creating defined social impact at the same time. She is an internationally certified small business counsellor, a certified adult and competency-based educator, and recently designed and launched a national certification for community-based business developers. She also owns a small business delivering training focused on understanding personality@work!

Johanna Mair

Johanna Mair is Professor of Organization, Strategy and Leadership at the Hertie School. Her research focuses on how novel organisational and institutional arrangements generate economic and social development. Mair is also the Distinguished Fellow at the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, Academic Editor of the Stanford Social Innovation Review and Co-Director of the Global Innovation for Impact Lab. She has served as the academic director of the Social Innovation + Change Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School and held visiting positions at Harvard Business School and INSEAD. Her research is published in leading scholarly journals. She serves on the board of foundations and organisations and advises companies, governments, and social impact investors on social innovation. Before earning her PhD in management from INSEAD, she was involved in executive decision-making in international banking. From 2001 to 2011, she was a member of the Strategic Management faculty at IESE Business School in Barcelona. In 2008, the Aspen Institute recognised her as a “Faculty Pioneer” in Social Entrepreneurship Education.

Gen Maitland Hudson

Gen is Deputy CEO of Social Investment Business, where she leads the organisation’s work on impact measurement, research, policy, data and communications. She set up the Social Economy Data Lab and its social investment data standard and has developed SIB’s open-source impact approach. Gen has spent the last fifteen years working with social programmes committed to the informed use of information and data to improve their work. She began her career in academia with a doctorate in politics and philosophy. She has lectured at Oxford University, Roehampton University, the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, Birkbeck College London and Cambridge University.

Hélène Malandain

Hélène currently serves as the Chair of SEWF. She is part of Pocketknife, a collective of impact-driven professionals who bring their passion for systemic change to initiatives that build bridges to better futures for the communities of Aotearoa NZ.

Hélène is a strategist, a coach, and a weaver and works with entrepreneurs, community groups, local anchor organisations, charities, corporates and government bodies. Her facilitation process and methodology incorporate strategic thinking, coaching, co-design and action planning. She is committed to supporting communities, places and organisations to thrive – meaning that prosperity and wellbeing are intertwined and nourishing each other.

Shortly after moving to New Zealand, Hélène left her corporate job to join the Ākina Foundation and begin a journey growing social enterprise. She led the team that hosted the Social Enterprise World Forum in Christchurch in 2017 – a 1600-person event that catalysed the social enterprise movement at a very auspicious time.

Juan Manuel Martínez Louvier

Juan Manuel Martínez Louvier is currently the Director General for the Instituto Nacional de la Economía Social (INAES). Before holding the position at INAES, he served as Director of the Economic and Social Innovation Laboratory at the Ibero-American University Puebla, in Puebla Mexico. Additionally, he coordinated the joint Master in Social Economy Business Management between Ibero-American University Puebla and the the University of Mondragón. While at the Ibero-American University Puebla he also directed and managed admissions for programmes related to social policy including those around adult literacy, human rights, the environment, HIV-AIDS and the social economy.

Jordan Masys

Jordan is Co-founder & COO of Kiipo, a global health-technology company aimed at leveraging tech innovations—AI, Machine Learning, IOT—to tackle the world’s healthcare disparity. He is also Co-founder of nonprofit organization PhysioQ aimed at democratizing access to health research by creating affordable research tools. It is well known for its research platform LabFront, and was recognized as one of the world’s top COVID-19 innovations by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

In 2021, he was recognized by the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business as one of the Top 50 Canadian Leaders creating change. Jordan is widely recognized as a Technology Leader for Good and prior to founding Kiipo, Jordan was one of the founding team members of Nordic Medical Centre, located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. During this time, he also led the successful creation and launch of Ethiopia’s first full-circle Emergency Medical Services (EMS) system.

Màiri McAllan

Màiri McAllan is a former lawyer and Special Adviser to the First Minister in Environment, Biodiversity and Land Reform and was elected to the Scottish Parliament in 2021 to represent the constituency of Clydesdale.
Ms McAllan grew up and was educated in the town of Biggar in South Lanarkshire, before studying Scots Law at the University of Glasgow and European law at the University of Ghent, Belgium.
Ms McAllan attended Glasgow University to gain her Diploma in Professional Legal Practice. After qualifying as a Scots lawyer, she specialised in energy and natural resources in a Glasgow commercial firm.
Ms McAllan also co-founded the human rights organisation ‘Reblaw Scotland’.

Joan McGinn

Joan has been chief executive of Orchardville for 3 ½ years and has spent all her career in the community and voluntary sector in Northern Ireland. During her time as CEO, she has grown the organisation, both geographically and in terms of the services offered to participants. Joan is passionate about promoting people with learning disabilities or autism and sees employment as a critical element of Orchardville’s work, ensuring that people with learning disabilities or autism and fully included in society. In her downtime, Joan enjoys walking and a cheeky glass of sauvignon blanc!

Nick McGirl

Has co-founded and led a number of global organisations, partnerships and communities at the intersection of social innovation and youth. Co-founder of ChangemakerXchange, one of the world’s top communities of young social entrepreneurs; https://changemakerxchange.org. Co-initiated ‘The Possibilists’, a deep study of 1,000 young changemakers and a coalition of 15 youth social innovation organisations. https://thepossibilists.org. Supported re-launch of Ashoka in Turkey and initiated an alliance of organisations aiming to transform education in the country and an online platform hosting shareable best practices in education which cultivate 21st-century skills. https://farkyaratansiniflar.org. Worked on one of the world’s first social impact bonds with young offenders in London for Catch22. https://www.catch-22.org.uk Worked on the first pilot of the International Citizen Service, a flagship program of DFID in the UK, engaging youth from disadvantaged backgrounds in international development. https://www.volunteerics.org

Niall McGrath

Niall is the Founder and Director of Robocean, the Edinburgh-based student start-up revolutionising seagrass restoration. Robocean is developing subsea robotics capable of entire engineering ecosystems at the touch of a button, removing barriers to marine environmental restoration to combat biodiversity collapse. Niall is a passionate innovator with a drive to develop green-tech for a sustainable future. As a final year MEng Mechanical Engineering with Renewable Energy student at The University of Edinburgh, Niall aims to use his technical and entrepreneurial skills to rewild our oceans and turn the tide on climate change.

Elena Mertel

Elena has an academic background in International Relations and has worked with social innovators from around the globe in International Development. At Euclid Network, she is the Project Officer for MedUP!. Within the project’s scope, Elena works in close collaboration with local partners in the MENA region to promote an enabling environment for the development of the regional social entrepreneurship sector. Besides that, Elena has a keen interest in Ethiopia, where she voluntarily supports the NGO PROJECT-E in its mission to empower young Ethiopian women through education.

Jace Meyer

Jace Meyer is an Métis educator, public speaker, and entrepreneurship coach with a STEM and E-Commerce education background spanning the non-profit, public, and private sectors. Jace has a unique perspective on how all businesses and service organisations can create social impact through partnership, co-creation, and inclusive product design. Jace specialises in working with Indigenous, Women, and Youth entrepreneurs and developing accelerator programs. Currently, Jace serves as the Executive Director of the emerging Indigenous Innovation Institute, a community space for self-determination birthed by the First Nations Technology Council. In 2019, Jace was recognised as a BMW World Responsible Leader for her commitment to co-creating the conditions for Indigenous entrepreneurs to thrive.

Carly Mohamed

Carly is a proud Gooreng Gooreng woman who grew up in Yorta Yorta Country in Victoria, Australia. On the Board of First Australians Capital, Carly is a not-for-profit organisation helping Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander entrepreneurs start and grow businesses with finance, wrap-around services, and support. Carly is also a Senior Associate with PwC’s Indigenous Consulting and has contributed to a wide range of projects, including Indigenous tourism, cultural governance and review and evaluation. Carly’s academic background is in law and public policy, having completed a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) and Bachelor of Arts (Political Science) at Monash University.

Ronald Mugaiga

Ronald is a CEO & Founder of Ecomak Recyclers, Savvy Fellow, Mentor for Startups without Borders and The Tony Elumelu Foundation, Tutor at STEM-E YCDP, National Ambassador, Uganda for Global Environmental and Climate Conservation Initiative and a Finalist for the Social Shifters Global Innovation Challenge. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biosystems Engineering from Gulu University, a Diploma in Environmental Management, a Certificate in Fundamentals of Project Management, and various certificates in Entrepreneurship.

Didas Mzirai

Didas Mzirai is an Award-Winning Social Entrepreneur and Former National Youth Leader in Kenya. He is a Mandela Washington Fellow in The US State Department’s Young African Leaders Initiative, a brainchild of former President Barrack Obama to empower a new crop of Young African Leaders as they transform their Societies and Nations.
Mzirai is a rapidly rising Young Global Leader who is highly passionate about Youth and Women Empowerment and whose work in Empowering Rural smallholder farmers in Kenya has already gained him international acclaim. His Social Enterprise, Mucho Mangoes Ltd, has won several awards, including The SME of the Year Award 2019 in Kenya.
He is a USIP Generation Change Fellow and a former UNLEASH + Facilitator. UNLEASH is the Global Innovation Lab for the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Nancy Neamtan

For over three decades, Nancy Neamtan has been on the front lines in the emergence of community economic development, social finance, and Quebec’s social economy movement. From 1996 to 2015, she was CEO of the Chantier de l’économie sociale, which connects networks of non-profit and cooperative enterprises, local development organisations, social movements, and First Nation’s. As CEO of the Chantier from 1996 to 2015, Ms. Neamtan contributed to creating social finance tools, university-community research alliances, international networks and a knowledge transfer centre in social innovation. She has negotiated innovative public policy with municipal, provincial and federal governments.
Ms. Neamtan is a member of the Order of Canada, an officer of l’Ordre du Québec and has received honorary doctorates from Concordia University and the Université de Québec dans Outaouais.

Gabrielle Neamtan-Lapalme

Gabrielle Neamtan-Lapalme has worked in the field of community and social housing for over 10 years. She is currently Assistant Executive Director for SHAPEM (Society for community housing in east Montreal). SHAPEM, a non-profit organisation created in 1988, is currently managing 1750 housing units of community housing for a wide variety of populations.
She is responsible for the development of new community housing projects. She is actively involved in neighbourhood development processes in partnership with other community organisations and different levels of government. She is also involved in SHAPEM’s finances and on-going building management.
Ms Lapalme received a master’s degree in Urban studies in 2011 and a diploma in management in 2017.

K’odi Nelson

Hereditary chief, adventure guide, and language and culture teacher K’odi Nelson is the visionary and founder of Nawalakw. Hailing from Alert Bay, British Columbia, K’odi is an internationally renowned cultural steward of the Kwakwaka’wakw. A sought-after dancer and song-keeper who has mastered all the great dances of the Kwakwaka’wakw, he is also an accomplished artist. He designs traditional regalia for Potlatches and commissions. Before founding Nawalakw, K’odi was the lead guide for Sea Wolf Adventures, an indigenous-owned adventure tour operator and was also the Kwakwakwa’wakw cultural leader and language teacher at the Gwa’sala Nakwaxda’xw school. “The first Nations people have endured successive waves of traumatic disruption that have threatened our very existence. My hope and dream are that Nawalakw will serve as a catalyst for social change and become the first place on earth where the Kwak’wala language is again spoken immersively.”

Daniel Nowack

Daniel Nowack is Managing Director at Yunus Social Business (YSB), a philanthropic venture fund for social businesses in LATAM, Africa and India, co-founded by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus. Daniel works with corporate partners to inspire purpose-driven innovation and transformation of value chains through social business initiatives. With partners such as Vodafone, IKEA or Merck, Daniel and his team develop impact programmes and ventures to support the corporate journey towards tangible and authentic purpose transformation. Daniel connects the dots between science fiction and social fiction through various roles in startups and the impact ecosystem. He is a former CFO to multiple startups, a Senior Partner at the innovation agency Lumen Partners, PMO Lead for the World Economic Forum’s COVID Alliance for Social Entrepreneurs, mentor for Google Launchpad and Founders Institute as well as a lecturer for Lean Startup at TU Munich, University RheinMain and Fresenius University of Applied Sciences.

Ellen Oetelmans

Ellen Oetelmans is the Program Manager of Amsterdam Impact, a City of Amsterdam initiative to strengthen the impact entrepreneurship ecosystem, create systemic change locally and on an (inter)national level, and thus accelerate the transition to an impact economy. Ellen regularly speaks about ecosystem building and an impact economy at global events such as SEWF and the Global Social Economy Forum. Before co-creating and launching Amsterdam Impact in 2015 with a wide range of ecosystem actors, she was a senior strategic advisor for the City of Amsterdam and a policy advisor for the Dutch House of Representatives. Ellen holds a Master’s in Political Science from the University of Amsterdam.

Shrashtant Patara

Shrashtant Patara has been with the Development Alternatives Group since 1988, providing strategic direction, substantive expertise and management capability to teams in Habitat, Renewable Energy, Water, Waste Management and Micro-enterprise Development. Patara’s work focuses on co-creating multi-stakeholder ecosystems that promote green and inclusive entrepreneurship through social innovation. He is currently pursuing an M.Phil in Inclusive Innovation at the University of Cape Town and is a Fellow of The Rockefeller Foundation’s Global Program on Social Innovation. Patara has spearheaded the incubation of several social businesses within the Development Alternatives Group, including the Indian Micro Enterprises Development Foundation.

Alexandra van der Ploeg

Alexandra van der Ploeg is Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at SAP globally. Alexandra is responsible for setting the strategic direction of CSR focused on bringing to life SAP’s higher purpose through strategic partnerships and programmes that deliver sustainable social impact and long-term business value. In this function, she also oversees corporate giving, volunteerism and the development of multi-stakeholder partnerships. Alexandra started with SAP Switzerland in charge of management development and held various managerial positions in Human Resources. Moving into the CSR organisation in 2010, Alexandra developed and managed various global CSR programmes. Alexandra is also Co-Chair of the Corporate Leadership Council of the Global Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship. She holds an MBA from Henley Business School in Great Britain.

Jo Pritchard

Jo has spent her career working in health as a nurse, senior manager and leader. She led the establishment of the first employee-owned social enterprise to come out of the NHS and was CEO for eleven years. During this time, she was instrumental in the development of Government policy to support public sector mutuals. Jo has been awarded an MBE (2011), honoured with the Employee Ownership Association’s Philip Baxendale Fellowship award, made an Honorary Fellow of Social Enterprise UK and awarded an OBE in 2021 for services to social enterprise. Her current roles include Executive Board Director at SEUK, Trustee of Ownership at Work and Visiting Professor at the University of Surrey.

Stephanie Pronk

Stephanie is a passionate advocate for doing business better in a way that values people and the planet over profit.
She started her career at the Hub Halifax, where she learned that building strong local networks is the key to successfully starting and growing any project. At the same time, she joined the Halifax Music Co-op, a social enterprise working to make music accessible. She played the flute in their orchestral and jazz arrangements and Chaired their Board of Directors for three years, raising money and starting an instrument library along the way.
Her first start-up was an online vintage clothing shop called Wear & When. Since then, she has worked for social enterprises in the UK (Community Enterprise in Scotland) and Canada (Common Good Solutions), and started and grew the Social Enterprise Institute (SEI).

Andreas Robinson

Andreas Robinson is the CEO of Infinitus Academy and Limitless Media. Andreas is a strategic thinker and disruptor committed to systems change as an Indigenous African Nova Scotian and a social entrepreneur.
Andreas was selected as a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholar. In 2019, Andreas was presented with the Black Business Initiative Entrepreneur of the Year Award. In 2018, Andreas was selected as the Delmore Buddy Daye Learning Institute’s Ancestral Roots Business Entrepreneur of the Year.
Andreas has directly impacted and engaged 5000+ people, ranging in age from 6 – 75+, through programming, events and workshops – in community, government, municipalities, non-profit and industry – with an emphasis on building shared language, community engagement, advocacy, policy and change management. Some of his leadership areas are Anti -Racism, Digital, Financial and Cultural Literacy, Entrepreneurship, Personal and Professional Branding and Development. His mission is to empower youth, individuals and communities to Embrace their Limitless Potential.

Sebastian Rocca

Sebastian is a social entrepreneur, social innovator and LGBTQI activist. He is the founder of Micro Rainbow and the Micro Rainbow International Foundation. These organisations promote equality of LGBTQI people through housing, employment and small businesses in the UK and internationally. Sebastian’s passion is to apply innovative models for social change that are sustainable, scalable and replicable. He is a pioneer in the use of social investment in the LGBTQI human rights sector. In the UK, Sebastian created the first national housing scheme for homeless LGBTQI asylum seekers and refugees. In Cambodia, he designed and implemented the first micro-finance programme to benefit LGBTQI people in poverty. In Brazil, he created the first small business incubator for LGBTQI people in poverty. These award-winning schemes have successfully attracted social investment.

Erinch Sahan

Erinch is the business and enterprise lead at the Doughnut Economics Action Lab. Recently, he was World Fair Trade Organization’s CEO and previously spent seven years at Oxfam leading campaign initiatives and founded Oxfam’s Future of Business Initiative. Erinch has also worked at Procter & Gamble as a market strategy manager, established a furniture business and worked for Australia’s aid programme. Erinch sits on the SEWF Board and is a tutor at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. He holds degrees in finance and law, and an honorary doctorate from Oxford Brookes University.

Christine Saulnier

Christine Saulnier is the Director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Nova Scotia. She has a doctorate in Political Science from York University. She leads the living wage calculations for communities in Atlantic Canada and has served as co-author of the annual child and family poverty report cards for Nova Scotia. She has written extensively on other public policy issues, including child care and government budgets. Previously, she served as Senior Researcher and Research Manager at the Atlantic Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health.

Katharina Scharpe

Katharina Scharpe studied economics and business administration. She finished her studies in 2018. With a background in market research, she worked at the Social Entrepreneurship Network Germany (SEND) in 2019. At SEND, she is working on the German Social Entrepreneurship Monitor.

Teresa Scorza

Teresa Scorza is the founder of ZeroPerCento, a social enterprise based in Milan that empowers young people with intellectual disabilities, teaching them how to run local organic shops. The project aims to give young people with disabilities the possibility of getting involved in a job and starting a career. Teresa has been working on social projects for the last ten years, beginning in Africa and then in Italy as coordinator of projects with impact.

Selma Seddik

Selma is a social entrepreneur with a mission to stimulate the transition to a circular economy. She is one of the founders and owners of Instock. Instock is a social enterprise focussing on reducing food waste and creating awareness. Around 1/3rd of all food is wasted worldwide. At Instock, the surplus is turned into delicious meals or products. Seven years ago, what began as a pop-up restaurant became multiple restaurants, catering services, two cooking books, and various circular products such as beer and granola. Instock is currently expanding the wholesale platform for rescued products called ‘InstockMarket.nl’. Selma studied Political Science at the University College Utrecht, and International Management at King’s College London started her career at food retailer Ahold. She lives in Amsterdam with her husband and daughter.

Manu Sekar

Manu believes that tech can help to break barriers and wants to share his success with others, which led him to start a neurodiverse social enterprise called HashHackCode, which focuses on creating an alternative inclusive tech ecosystem that recognises and builds the potential of individuals with autism, ADHD, dyslexia and Down syndrome and guides them to have meaningful careers.

Nick Sens

Nick has worked for over five years in several positions on the collaboration between sustainable companies and governments. For the past two years, Nick has worked in Social Enterprise NL’s Policy and Research team. The organisation and execution of the yearly research into the developments of the Dutch social enterprise sector, the Social Enterprise Monitor, is one of his primary objectives.

Riana Shah

Riana Shah recently graduated from MIT and Harvard as a concurrent business and public administration student. She is the founder of EthixAI, an initiative that alleviates algorithmic bias to undo systemic racism in tech. She has a background in entrepreneurship, venture capital and innovation strategy. Riana’s work has been featured in the Huffington Post, Women of Influence, and Google’s Generation In Project. She has also spoken at the United Nations, the US State Department, and the International Forum on Child Welfare. Riana hosts Venture Vignettes, a podcast that features trailblazers in entrepreneurship and investment. You can read more about her work on rianabshah.com.

Amneh Shaikh-Farooqui

Amneh is the CEO of Polly and Other Stories, a social enterprise that connects disenfranchised artisans in Pakistan to global markets through modernised design and digital commerce. Amneh’s work leverages cultural crafts and making to lift people out of poverty. She has worked in the not-for-profit sector for 16 years in women’s rights, gender mainstreaming, economic development and environmental initiatives. Amneh thrives on ideas to transform development industry practices to support local economies and empower individuals and small enterprises. She is a founding curatorial member of the Women of World festivals in Pakistan.

Rashvin Pal Singh

Rashvin is Group CEO at Biji-biji Initiative, which is one of Malaysia’s pioneering and award-winning social enterprises that champions sustainability through their circular economy and impact accelerator programmes. Their latest venture Mereka builds professionals for the creative economy through their digital academy, ASEAN creative hubs network and flagship centre in Publika, Kuala Lumpur. Rashvin plays a regular role in global programmes and speaking engagements, he has been an active contributor to the ASEAN Policy Dialogue, Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF) and was selected as an Obama Leader in the Asia Pacific inaugural cohort.

Lindell Smith

Lindell Smith is a lifelong resident of the North End Halifax, and a proud father of a beautiful daughter. Co-founder of Center Line Studio, a non-profit recording studio for youth who want to express themselves through art and music. In 2016, Lindell was elected as City Councillor for District 8 Halifax Peninsula North. Lindell serves on various committees and boards including The Council on African Canadian Education (CACE), which is a provincial advisory council that provides advice and guidance to the Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development on educational programs, services and funding for African Nova Scotian learners. He also sits on the Board of Police Commissioners for the Halifax Regional Municipality and became chair January 2021.

Faumuina Felolini Maria Tafuna’i

Faumuina Felolini Maria Tafuna’i is the creator of a Wayfinding thinking system based on her experience of voyaging with Polynesian navigators. The system was developed under voyaging expert Hoturoa Barclay-Kerr. A daughter of Samoa, Faumuina founded Flying Geese Pro to deliver wayfinding projects. Her strategy has been used by the NZ Government, international aid programmes, social enterprises, businesses and schools. It has been adapted for strategic planning, business incubation, Treaty of Waitangi partnership training and suicide prevention programmes in NZ schools. Faumuina is an Edmund Hillary Fellow, and the author of My Grandfather is a Canoe poetry anthology.

Jess Teutonico

As Executive Director of We Are Family Foundation (WAFF), co-founded by legendary music producer and multi-Grammy winner Nile Rodgers, Jess Teutonico helps lead one of the world’s most influential global networks of youth – social entrepreneurs and creatives from 100+ countries who are working across cultures and borders to solve some of the world’s biggest issues today. Through cutting-edge programs including Three Dot Dash, Youth To The Front, Youth To The Table and TEDxTeen, as well as global campaigns and a highly sought-after mentoring program, WAFF has helped create and nurture one of the most hopeful narratives in our world today: youth.

Marta Vânia Uetela

Marta Vânia Uetela is an industrial designer and entrepreneur who is passionate about nature and alternative production systems. She loves to solve problems using local alternatives and technology and profoundly believes in gen z to innovate and be more conscious about nature.

Kanika Verma

Kanika Verma leads the Sustainable Enterprise Domain of the Development Alternatives Group. She provides strategic guidance, substantive expertise and management support to teams engaged in delivery models for basic needs products, provision of support services to micro and small enterprise and initiatives to strengthen aggregation driven value chains. A significant segment of her work is on enhancing livelihood security for women in underserved areas of India. She is, currently, pursuing an M.Phil. with a specialisation in inclusive innovation at University of Cape Town and part of the leadership team incubating social enterprises like Indian Micro Enterprises Development Foundation, delivering enterprise support services at scale.

Christian Vietz

Social innovation, designing and implementing for change – Creating adapted solutions that effectively address the challenges people and the planet face has been at the core of Christian’s work. Over the last 10 years, he researched innovation in crisis settings amongst refugees in Jordan for his MBA, co-founded a social enterprise in London to function as an internationalization hub for social enterprises from the MENA region before coming to Euclid Network (EN). As Head of Social Innovation at EN, he leads various projects (European Social Innovation Competition, MedUP!, EYE, ESESII). He promotes social innovation across Europe as a tool to craft effective solutions.

Annie Warburton

Annie Warburton is CEO of Cockpit, a UK top 100 social enterprise and the country’s leading studios for contemporary craft.  She is a respected international presenter and author on craft, art and design. Annie joined Cockpit after five years as Creative Director at the Crafts Council where she led exhibitions, research, education, and innovation programmes. She is a champion at the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, an Associate of Newnham College, Cambridge, and a visiting lecturer at the Royal College of Art. She recently chaired the UK Government’s expert panel developing the new T-Level qualification in craft and design.

Savera Weerasinghe

Savera is the founder and CEO of Ananta Sustainables, a sustainable packaging provider in Sri Lanka, involved in community projects around plastic waste and consumption in Sri Lanka. She is the co-founder of Waste Action LK (WALK), a coalition for sustainable waste management. Savera was chosen as Asia21 Young Global Leaders Class of 2019 and Cosmopolitan Sri Lanka’s 35 Under 35 women in Sri Lanka. Savera has run workshops both locally and internationally on plastic consumption, sustainable waste management and innovation. Savera is currently pursuing a masters in Public Administration at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy as a recipient of the Young Leader’s Accelerated Scholarship.

Hina West

With a 16 year career spanning the private, public and NGO sector across multiple countries, an experienced senior sustainability leader currently leading WWF’s new global initiative; Nature Pays, creating market access opportunities for enterprises within WWF’s conservation programming globally and beyond.

Charlie Wigglesworth

Charlie is responsible for all aspects of SEUK’s operations and business activities. This includes diversifying SEUK’s revenue streams, leading on membership, advisory work and corporate relationships as well as SEUK’s research and strategic objectives. He has worked with major multinational companies on delivering their social enterprise and sustainability strategies with a particular emphasis on supply chains. He was responsible for creating the Buy Social Corporate Challenge, the largest B2B commitment to spend with social enterprises globally with 23 partners and £65 million already committed. Charlie’s work on social value in the public sector has included co-authoring Communities Count (the largest research into social value implementation to date); advising HS2 Ltd and Parliamentary Procurement and Commercial Service around their social value policies; and delivering training to a wide range of public bodies. Prior to SEUK, Charlie worked in the private sector with clients across the public, private and third sectors, delivering training and consultancy on public policy issues. He has extensive experience of business development and account management, developing bespoke packages for a wide variety of clients from large multinationals to small charities.

Tori Williamson

With a passion for understanding the systems around us and working collaboratively on community-centred solutions, Tori believes in people and the power of shifting perspectives and objectives to create monumental change. As Director of Education and Communications at Buy Social Canada, she spearheads engagement and works across the social procurement ecosystem. She sits on the Stronger Together Solidarity Working Group to help bring inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility to the social innovation sector. Currently, she is the Project Manager for Wood Buffalo Social Procurement Implementation, the Peterborough Social Procurement Project, the lead for Buy Social Canada’s Social Procurement Supplier Readiness (SUPER) training program and now Education and Training Coordinator for the British Columbia Social Procurement Initiative.

Suzanne Wisse-Huiskes

Suzanne Wisse-Huiskes is the CEO of Euclid Network (EN), the European social enterprise network. The network brings together their expertise, good practices and lessons learned from over 21 countries in Europe and neighbouring states. Together, they contribute towards shaping a new type of economy that puts sustainable development for both people and the environment at its core. Suzanne brings 15 years of experience in the field of social impact. Before EN, she founded Matchbox Consultancy to advise organisations on social impact. Prior, Suzanne served as executive management on two crowdfunding fintech companies. She occupied numerous seats on the Board of Directors (e.g. European Crowdfunding Network), European Commission’s Expert Groups and other Committees.

Paula Woodman

Paula leads the British Council’s Global Social Enterprise programme, which promotes the development of social enterprise and investment to help address entrenched social and environmental problems, build trust between the UK and other countries, and support more sustainable, inclusive and prosperous societies. Introduced in over 20 countries and delivered with the support of local and international partners, the programme works to improve the ecosystem that social enterprises face in their country. This includes business development and finance, general awareness, as well as understanding from the government. Paula has over 20 years of experience in enabling a more impactful business environment, including creating an evidence base, mainstreaming the agenda within education, and innovating in the area of ethical consumer labels. She has been awarded as a WISE100, recognising her achievements as a leader in the social enterprise movement. Paula is a visiting fellow at the University of London and sits on the steering group for ‘The Future of the Corporation’ challenge from the British Academy. Previously she co-founded a UK-wide social enterprise, as well as having led as a Director at a social enterprise infrastructure organisation.

Rahama Wright

After serving in the Peace Corps, Rahama Wright launched Shea Yeleen, a DC-based social impact beauty brand that creates pure plant-based shea butter body care products that create living-wage jobs for women in Ghana. Rahama is redefining beauty, proving that nourishing our skin with the purest, most lush plant-based ingredients does not preclude us from empowering our sisters across the globe. Through her brand, she is reimagining the way we do business to build a more equitable future for all. Products can be found at Macy’s, MGM Resorts, and select Whole Foods.

Michael Wunsch

Michael has worked with Social Entrepreneurship for over 15 years – first, as a founder, later as founder’s coach for Social Entrepreneurs. He was manager of the Social Impact Lab Frankfurt and co-founder of the Social Entrepreneurship Network Germany. Michaels passion lies within building pragmatic ecosystems that solve societies most relevant challenges. He loves chocolate.

Darah Zahran

Darah has developed her experience in a range of senior strategic and policy roles across the voluntary, public and private sectors. As the Social Economic Manager for Scottish Enterprise, she leads the Inclusive Models Team – a specialist team responsible for developing, sustaining, and promoting inclusive business models. She is SE’s strategy and policy lead for social enterprises, currently managing a European Partnership Programme to increase competitiveness for Scottish social enterprises at home and abroad. Darah operates Scottish Enterprise’s cooperative development service, which supports companies and community groups to adopt employee ownership or cooperative business models. Scottish Enterprise is Scotland’s national development economic agency and a non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government.