Beating the Odds: Lessons Learned from Social Innovators in Government
Speakers
-
Executive Chairman (Netketabi), Former Presidential Advisor, Education/Government
Senior lecturer at Birzeit University. Served as an advisor to the Palestinian President on Telecom, ITand Technical Education. Former minister of Telecom & IT. Led telecom market liberalization in Palestine in 2006 introducing the second mobile phone operator. Also led the introduction and ratification of the Palestine Telecom Regulatory Authority (PTRA) law. Introduced a series of initiatives inclusive of e-Gov, the National Academic Network, Falastinyia (enhancing women participation in ICT),the Palestine Education Initiative (PEI). Helped launch .PS, the Palestinian National Internet Naming Authority (PNINA). Founded the award winning Palestine Digital Library in 2004 and the Palestine e-Republic in 2007. Also co-founded the Internet Society- Palestine Chapter (ISOC-PS), PC & Net 4 All (for providing PCs and internet connectivity to deprived Palestinians. Holds a PhD from Imperial College and a certification in Human Development form Oxford University. Born 1971.
-
Commissioner, Independent Commission for Aid Impact
Diana is a Commissioner with the Independent Commission for Aid Impact
(ICAI). ICAI is the UK independent body which scrutinises UK government aid expenditure in order ascertain its impact and effectiveness. It reports direct to Parliament. In 4 years ICAI has published 40 reports. Diana has been the lead commissioner on reports including Private Sector Development,Empowerment and Accountability, Security and Justice, Learning, Conflict Prevention in Nepal, and is now working on a report on Impact.
Diana was previously as a senior partner of Linklaters LLP where for thirty years she was a litigator and regulatory investigations lawyer. For eleven years she held a part time judicial appointment hearing cases in the criminal courts. She also works in access to justice and access to education: she is the Chair of the Mary Ward Settlement which runs both a free legal advice centre and an adult education centre in London.
She has also worked with Camfed on governance matters co-authoring the report “Accounting to the Girl: Working Towards a Standard for Governance in the International Development Sector “ which was launched at the Skoll World Forum in April 2010.
-
Distinguished Teaching Fellow, University of California, Berkeley
Maura O’Neill through her work in the public, private and academic sectors have created entrepreneurial and public policy solutions for some of the toughest domestic and global problems. Maura has started four companies in the fields of electricity efficiency, customer info systems and billing, e-commerce and digital education. In 1989, she was named Seattle Business Person of the Year.
President Obama appointed her the first Chief Innovation Officer and Senior Counselor to the Administrator at USAID where she had responsibility for inspiring and leading breakthrough innovations in $22 billion of foreign assistance worldwide. Maura co-led USAID Forward, the Agency's major reform initiative as well as oversaw over 600 global public-private partnerships. Groundbreaking ones included mobile money; supply chain elimination of ingredients/packaging from virgin forests; water and health interventions; gender equity and entrepreneurship. Maura is most well known for adapting venture capital and drug discovery methods to development by co-creating the Development Innovation Venture Fund. She served on the White House Innovation Cohort assisting with innovation across the federal government.
Maura was Senior Advisor and Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary at U.S. Department of Agriculture, and served as Chief of Staff in the U.S. Senate (Cantwell D-WA) addressing the 2008 financial crisis, oil price explosion, renewal of clean energy tax credits and range of domestic and international issues.
Currently at the Business School at UC Berkeley Maura received 2016 Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching. She also has taught at Stanford and Columbia Universities and regularly advises early stage companies, global government institutions and foundations.
Maura is founding Vice Chair of the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women (public charter school). She has M.B.As from Columbia University and UC Berkeley; PhD from University of Washington.
-
Chair of The Elders, The Elders
Mary Robinson is Adjunct Professor for Climate Justice in Trinity College Dublin and Chair of The Elders. She served as President of Ireland from 1990-1997 and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997-2002. She is a member of the Club of Madrid and the recipient of numerous honours and awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom from the President of the United States Barack Obama. Between 2013 and 2016 Mary served as the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy in three roles; first for the Great Lakes region of Africa, then on Climate Change leading up to the Paris Agreement and in 2016 as his Special Envoy on El Niño and Climate. Her Foundation, the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, established in 2010, came to a planned end in April 2019.
A former President of the International Commission of Jurists and former chair of the Council of Women World Leaders she was President and founder of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative from 2002-2010 and served as Honorary President of Oxfam International from 2002-2012. She was Chancellor of the University of Dublin from 1998 to 2019.
Mary Robinson serves as Patron of the International Science Council and Patron of the Board of the Institute of Human Rights and Business, is an Ambassador for The B Team, in addition to being a board member of several organisations including the Mo Ibrahim Foundation and the Aurora Foundation. Recently she became joint Honorary President of the Africa Europe Foundation. Mary’s memoir, ‘Everybody Matters’ was published in September 2012 and her book, ‘Climate Justice - Hope, Resilience and the Fight for a Sustainable Future’ was published in September 2018. She is also co-host of a podcast on the climate crisis, called ‘Mothers of Invention’.
