Dev Aujla is the Founder and Executive Director of
DreamNow, a charitable organization that produces ideas that do good for the world. DreamNow is best known for both launching
Continuum, a social enterprise that provides follow up for conferences and programs around the world and it’s research on how a new generation of twenty and thirty year olds can make money and change the world. The ideas which Dev has played a role in producing reach over fifty thousand people annually and have collectively raised over 1.5 million dollars.
Tonya Surman, recently named an Ashoka Fellow, is a co-founder and executive director of the Centre for Social Innovation, whose mission is to catalyze, inform and support social mission projects that use collaborative and entrepreneurial strategies to advance our social and environmental wellbeing. Tonya has been founding and managing social enterprises for over 10 years and has built her body of knowledge around multi-sectoral collaboration and entrepreneurship for social change. She is focused on building system innovations and transformations that address the root causes of our social and environmental challenges.
David Bornstein specializes in writing about social innovation. He is the author of “How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas” (Oxford University Press) which was described by The New York Times as “must reading” for “anyone who cares about building a more equitable and stable world” and a “bible” in its field. The book, which has been published (or is in the process of being published) in 20 languages, chronicles and analyzes the work of social innovators who are successfully addressing social problems at scale in several countries. He is currently at work on a book exploring the growth and implications of social entrepreneurship in the United States and Canada, and is developing a website that will serve as a tool for the discovery of solutions to major social problems.
Nathaniel Whittemore is the founder of Assetmap, a platform for sharing and leveraging the social capital that exists within every community. Assetmap has been used by the Skoll World Forum, MacArthur Foundation, and will be released to the public in mid-2010. In addition, he is the lead blogger for Change.org, an online media and action hub for social good. Before that, he spent three years building the Center for Global Engagement at Northwestern University, a global program design center for students passionate about leading lives of commitment. Nathaniel lives in San Francisco’s best neighborhood, the Mission District, with his girlfriend Emily and dog Isis, who you can find on Twitter @isisthedog.
Bill Bellows is an Associate Fellow and Site Lead for Enterprise Thinking within United Technologies’ Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) business unit in Canoga Park, California, where he is known for his efforts to provide insights to the advantages of thinking together, learning together, and working together; including: Taguchi Methods, variation management, resource management, problem solving and decision making, and Six Thinking Hats. Outside of PWR, Bill is a founding board member as well as president of the In2:InThinking Network, a group organized in 2001 to promote “better thinking about thinking”, or inthinking, for short.
Eli Malinsky has been working to spur collaboration and entrepreneurship within Toronto’s social mission sector over the past seven years. His interest in the sector began with a four-year stint at Imagine Canada, the country’s pre-imminent research institute on the nonprofit and voluntary sector. In 2005, Eli joined the Centre for Social Innovation to help fulfill the organization’s strategic and programming vision. The Centre for Social Innovation is a hub for Toronto’s social mission sector, providing shared space and shared services to over 180 organizations, as well as a variety of capacity-building programs and incubation services. Eli has a Master’s degree in Communication and Cultural Studies, and is passionate about creating and curating spaces for social innovation.
Tim Higgins: Employed 29 years in Canoga Park, California, with what is now Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, he retired and became part of the NASA Safety and Mission Assurance group. He worked in engineering, manufacturing operations, and quality. All was preceded by 8 years teaching high school English and mathematics. Unbeknownst to his management, he viewed each of his assignments as a chance to transform the prevailing style of management. He facilitates prevention and improvement activities in a partnering arrangement between NASA, and its contractor, Rocketdyne. He adores a Brazilian wife who saves him a fortune shopping, spends some time commiserating and playing soccer with his 20 year old son, and is an ASQ Certified Quality Engineer with a Masters in English and a rather large collection of Brazilian soccer jerseys.
