Skoll | AMBITION

Matt Flannery

Co-Founder, Kiva / Branch International Inc.

Matt began developing Kiva in late 2004 as a side-project while working as a computer programmer at TiVo, Inc. In December 2005 Matt left his job to devote himself to Kiva full-time. As CEO for 10 years, Matt led Kiva's growth from a pilot project to an established online service with partnerships in 80 countries and over 700 million dollars lent to low income entrepreneurs. More recently, Matt has dived back into the startup world by creating Branch International. Branch is a for profit, Android-based "branchless bank" for Africans just launched in 2015. In just six months, Branch has made tens of thousands of loans in Kenya. Matt is Skoll Awardee and Ashoka Fellow and was selected to FORTUNE magazine's "Top 40 under 40" list in 2009. In 2011, Matt was chosen for the The Economist "No Boundaries" Innovation Award. He graduated with a BS in Symbolic Systems and a Masters in Philosophy from Stanford University.

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Lydia Wilbard

Co-Director, CAMFED

Lydia Wilbard is Co-Director of Camfed Tanzania and Co-Founder of the Tanzania chapter of Cama, the pan-African network of educated young women supported by Camfed. Lydia has been central to Camfed Tanzania’s programme of support to 310,512 children and young women, and is a specialist in gender, education and health with a Masters in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University. A leader and role model, Lydia grew up in rural Tanzania and has personally overcome the barriers to women’s empowerment.

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Vicky Colbert

Founder and Director, Fundación Escuela Nueva

Laureate of the first edition of the Yidan Prize for Education Development (2017) and 2013 WISE Prize for Education Laureate, Vicky Colbert is founder and director of Fundación Escuela Nueva. Colbert is a Sociologist from Javeriana University in Colombia and pursued her graduate studies in Sociology of Education at Stanford University in the United States. In 2015, the American University of Nigeria distinguished her with an Honoris Causa Doctorate in Philosophy. She is co-author of the worldwide renowned Escuela Nueva model and was its first National Coordinator. Colbert has pioneered, expanded and sustained this educational innovation from many organizational spheres: as Viceminister of Education of Colombia, UNICEF´s Education Adviser for LAC and now from Fundación Escuela Nueva (FEN), an NGO she founded to ensure its quality, sustainability and innovation. She has been recognized with several awards and distinctions in the fields of leadership and social entrepreneurship, such as the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, the Clinton Global Citizenship Award and the Kravis Prize. She has also been recognized as Outstanding Social Entrepreneur by the Schwab Foundation, Ashoka and the World Technology Network.

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Mark Plotkin

President, Amazon Conservation Team

Dr. Mark J. Plotkin has led the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) since 1996, when he co-founded the organization with Liliana Madrigal. He is a renowned ethnobotanist who has spent three decades studying traditional plant use with traditional healers of tropical America.Among his many influential writings, Dr. Plotkin may be best known for his popular work Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice (1994), which has been printed continuously and in multiple languages. His most recent book, The Amazon – What Everyone Needs to Know, was published by Oxford University Press in 2020.Dr. Plotkin has received the San Diego Zoo Gold Medal for Conservation, the Roy Chapman Andrews Distinguished Explorer Award, and, with Liliana Madrigal, the Skoll Award. In 2010, he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Lewis and Clark College. Dr. Plotkin was educated at Harvard, Yale and Tufts University. His ongoing podcast Plants of the Gods is available on Apple Podcasts and other platforms.

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Gro Harlem Brundtland

Former Prime Minister of Norway and Deputy Chair, The Elders

Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway, served as Director General of the World Health Organization from July 1998-2003. From 2007-2009, she was the UN Secretary-General`s Special Envoy for Climate Change. Dr. Brundtland has served on the UN Secretary-General`s High Level Panel on Global Sustainability since its launch in August 2010. As Deputy Chair of The Elders, she contributes her wisdom, independent leadership and integrity to tackling the world’s toughest problems, with the aim of making the world a better place.

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Mindy Lubber

Chief Executive Officer and President, Ceres

Mindy Lubber is the CEO and President of the sustainability nonprofit organization Ceres. She has been at the helm since 2003. Under her leadership, the organization and its powerful networks have grown both in size and influence. As a well-known global thought leader, Mindy has inspired coalitions of institutional investors, corporate boards, C-suite executives and capital market leaders to factor sustainability risks and opportunities into decision-making. In 2020, Lubber received the 'Champions of the Earth' award - the highest environmental honor from the United Nations. That same year, she made Barron’s Magazine’s inaugural list of the 100 most influential women in U.S. finance and nominated again in 2021. Prior to Ceres, Mindy served as a Regional Administrator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under former President Bill Clinton. She also founded Green Century Capital Management and served as the director of the MASSPIRG

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Joe Madiath

CEO & President, Gram Vikas USA

Brief Profile of Dr. Joe Madiath Joe Madiath is the Founder and Chairman of Gram Vikas. Joe has spent over 45 years working in the field of development among the poorest communities in Orissa, India. Drawn to Odisha in 1971 to help communities that had been ravaged by a cyclone and tidal wave, Joe stayed on as an activist focused on sustainable development. Founded in 1979, Gram Vikas utilizes a holistic model of development, based on Joe’s conviction that every family in a village needs to have healthy living practices for an improved quality of life. Gram Vikas works in the areas of renewable energy, especially biogas and solar energy. Totally inclusive water and sanitation is the flagship programme of Gram Vikas. This model has transformed more than 1200 villages and has successfully proven that the rural poor can and will pay for better sanitation and water facilities. Name: Mr. Joe Madiath Designation: Founder-cum-Chairman Organisation: Gram Vikas Address details: Mo

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Annie Lennox

Founder, SING

Named as one of The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine, internationally acclaimed singer songwriter and human rights activist Annie Lennox rose to fame with Dave Stewart as Eurythmics in the early 1980’s with the classic album "Sweet Dreams are Made of This.” In the decade to follow, Eurythmics went on to achieve more than 20 international hits, selling more than 80 million albums. In 1992, Lennox released her debut album, “Diva"…selling over 6 million copies worldwide and establishing her career as a solo artist. Lennox has received numerous accolades, including 8 BRIT Awards (including Lifetime Achievement), 10 Grammy nominations and 4 Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe and an Academy Award. In 2003, Lennox performed at the inaugural concert for Nelson Mandela's HIV/AIDS Foundation, 46664. Her experience in South Africa inspired her to found the SING campaign, supporting women and children affected by HIV/AIDS. A goodwill ambassador for UNAIDS, Oxfam, Amnesty International and The British Red Cross, she is also Special Envoy for Scottish Parliament and the City of London. She received the Woman of Peace Award at the 2009 World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates and in 2011 was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in recognition of her humanitarian work. Last year, she was awarded a Fellowship at the 60th Ivor Novello Awards - the first woman to receive it - and earlier this year Elle magazine awarded her the "Outstanding Achievement Award" for activism and campaigning. The Royal Scottish Geographic Society awarded Annie the prestigious "Livingstone Medal” in March 2016.

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Tim Hanstad

CEO, Chandler Foundation

Tim Hanstad leads the Chandler Foundation as CEO. Tim co-founded Landesa, the world’s leading land rights organization and a Top-10 Global NGO with over 20 offices worldwide. Tim is a Skoll Social Entrepreneur Awardee and Schwab Foundation Outstanding Social Entrepreneur. He has authored numerous books and articles on economic and social development, with work appearing in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Financial Times, and Stanford Social Innovation Review. He holds two law degrees from University of Washington and a bachelor’s degree from Seattle Pacific University.

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Premal Shah

Co-Founder & President, Kiva

Premal helps lead Kiva.org —a crowdfunding website that connects people through lending to alleviate poverty. Since 2005, over $1B in philanthropic loans has been crowdfunded to millions of underserved entrepreneurs in 90 countries — with a 96% repayment rate. The site has been named as one of Oprah's Favorite Things and a Top 50 Website by TIME Magazine. Premal's inspiration came while volunteering in India while on leave from PayPal, where he had been an early employee. Premal began his career as a management consultant and graduated from Stanford University. He’s passionate about making it easier for anyone to discover their own power to make real impact. He serves on the Board of VolunteerMatch.org & Watsi.org — a crowdfunding for developing world health care site. For his work as a social entrepreneur, Premal was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and selected to FORTUNE magazine’s “Top 40 under 40″ list.

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Pat Mitchell

Founder and President, Pat Mitchell Media

Co-Founder of Connected Women Leaders Forums and Co-Founder, Host, and Curator for TEDWomen

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Muhammad Yunus

Founder, Grameen Bank

Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus is the father of microcredit and social business, Founder of Grameen Bank and of more than 50 other companies. Fortune Magazine named him 'one of 12 greatest entrepreneurs of our time'. Professor Yunus received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the Grameen Bank Project and is one of seven people to have received the Nobel Peace Prize, the US Presidential Medal of Freedom and the US Congressional Gold Medal. He received his BA and PhD in Economics and is the recipient of more than 50 honorary degrees.

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Madhav Chavan

Co-Founder, Pratham

Madhav Chavan moved from the field of Chemistry to the field of literacy a few years after his return to India having acquired a Ph. D. in the United States and some post-doctoral experience there. He worked in the field of adult literacy from 1989 to 1994 inspired by the National Literacy Mission launched by late Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India. In 1994, Unicef in Mumbai put him in charge of creating a ‘societal mission’ to universalize primary education in the city of Mumbai. As a result he co-founded Pratham that started in 1994-95 as a Mumbai based organization and has now grown to be one of India’s largest NGOs working across the country with millions of children every year with a focus on basic learning outcomes including reading and math. Its flagship programs, Read India and the Annual Status of Education Report have earned the organization a reputation as a pedagogy and advocacy innovator that has influenced policy and practice at the national and international level. He stepped down as CEO of Pratham Education Foundation but continues to be on its Board and actively leading the new experimentation in use of technology for education. Madhav has been personally recognized for his work with the WISE Prize and The Skoll Award for social entrepreneurship among other honors. His organization, Pratham, has received the Kravis Prize for Leadership, the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award for developmental work and the LUI Che Woo Prize for positive energy.

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Andrew Youn

CEO, One Acre Fund

Andrew Youn co-founded One Acre Fund in 2006. Most of the world’s poor are farmers, and One Acre Fund helps make them more productive. One Acre Fund provides finance, farm input delivery, and training to smallholder farmers in East Africa. One Acre Fund has 9,000 full-time staff who serve 1,600,000+ families per year, plus 2,000,000+ more families through partnerships across 9 African countries. Andrew graduated from Yale, is a former management consultant at Oliver Wyman, and received his MBA from Kellogg School of Management.

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AMBITION

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