2019 Skoll World Forum Opening Plenary
Tuesday, April 9, 2019
Session Description
We often find ourselves impatient with the pace of social change. As our community convenes, we’ll explore how global leaders, thinkers, and doers Accelerate Possibility. We’ll consider the growing sense of urgency that demands we accelerate ideas into action, to architect a fair, inclusive, and sustainable future. Global phenomenon Desi Hoppers, the hip-hop dance crew from Mumbai, will join us for an unforgettable performance of their joyful choreography.
Doors open at 3:30pm and seating is general admission. Stewards will direct you to New Theatre, a 10-minute walk from Said Business School.
Plenaries are free for Skoll World Forum delegates, and no additional ticket is necessary. Members of the general public can purchase tickets in advance here.
Time & Location
Time:
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM, Tuesday, April 9, 2019
BST
Location:
New Theatre
Speakers
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Speaker
Co-founder and Director, Superflux
Anab Jain is a filmmaker, designer and futurist. She creates worlds, stories and tools that provoke and inspire us to engage with the precarity of our rapidly changing world. Following an extensive career in the design and foresight industry, working for some of the world’s biggest organisations such as Microsoft and Nokia, she co-founded Superflux, an experimental design, foresight and technology studio in London, UK. Alongside her practice, Anab is Professor and Programme Leader for Design Investigations at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.
Over the last 15 years, Anab has gained international recognition for her work and commentary on design, innovation, emerging technologies and complex futures. She is the recipient of the Award of Excellence ICSID, UNESCO Digital Arts Award, and Grand Prix Geneva Human Rights Festival, as well as awards from Apple and the UK Government’s Innovation Department. Her work has been exhibited at MoMA New York, V&A Museum, Science Gallery Dublin, National Museum of China, Vitra Design Museum, and Tate Modern.
Anab has delivered talks and keynotes at several conferences including TED, MIT Media Lab and MOMA’s first design summit ‘Knotty Objects’, PICNIC, NEXT, WCIT2010, LIFT, SIGGRAPH, Global Design Forum, EPIC, Design Engaged and FuturEverything.
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Speaker
Director, The National Domestic Workers Alliance
Ai-jen Poo is the Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and the Co-Director of Caring Across Generations. She is an award-winning organizer, thought leader, and social innovator, and a leading voice in future of work and family care solutions.
As co-founder of the Domestic Workers United (DWU), a city-wide, multiracial organization of domestic workers, she led the way to the passage of the nation’s first Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in 2010, historic legislation that extends basic labor protections to over 200,000 domestic workers in New York state. In 2011, Ai-jen co-created the national Caring Across Generations campaign to ensure access to affordable care for the nation’s aging population and access to quality jobs for the caregiving workforce.
Ai-jen is a 2014 MacArthur “genius” Fellow, TIME 100 alumna and has been featured at United State of Women Summit, Aspen Ideas Festival, Obama Foundation Summit and the Women’s Convention. She has been an influential voice in the #MeToo movement and participated in the Times Up action at the 2018 Golden Globes. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Washington Post, TIME and CNN.com. She is author of The Age of Dignity: Preparing for the Elder Boom in a Changing America. Follow her at @aijenpoo.
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Moderator
Editor in Chief, BRIGHT Magazine
Sarika Bansal is the founder and editor-in-chief of BRIGHT Magazine, which tells fresh, solutions-oriented stories about social change. She has been a journalist and editor for eight years, largely focused on global health, poverty, and social enterprise. Her byline has appeared in the New York Times, Al Jazeera America, Guardian, VICE, Forbes, FastCompany, and other publications. Prior to founding BRIGHT Magazine, she incubated two social impact publications at Medium, developed curriculum and tools for journalists at the Solutions Journalism Network, and served as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company. She holds an undergraduate degree from Harvard College and a Masters in Public Administration from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). She lives in a cottage in a forest in Nairobi, Kenya with her husband and elderly German shepherd.
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Speaker
A medic, public health specialist and social entrepreneur, Dr Peter Drobac is the Executive Director of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford Said Business School. For nearly two decades, the Skoll Centre has equipped entrepreneurial leaders for impact within and beyond business.
Having worked for many years with Partners In Health to transform health systems in some the world's poorest communities, Peter was co-founder and first Executive Director of the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) in Rwanda. Ever the builder, Peter arrived in an 800 year-old university only to join Oxford's first 21st century college, Reuben College.
In addition to teaching systems leadership and social innovation, Peter is currently focused on initiatives to build better systems in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. He frequently comments on global health issues for CNN, BBC and other outlets, in addition to hosting the Reimagine podcast.
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Speaker
Visual Artist & Co-founder, Boxed Kids
Prince Gyasi is a Ghanaian international visual artist. He is the co-founder of Boxedkids, a non-profit organization helping kids from the slums of Accra get an education.
After finishing his secondary education at Accra Academy Senior high school in Accra, Prince started taking pictures in 2011. He bought his first iPhone in 2014 which became the primary tool he uses in creating his art pieces. He began with snapshots of friends, family, and models from his hometown of Ghana and then realized he could seriously use his phone as an instrument of creation and as a means of expression.
Using an iPhone to shoot is a way to distinguish his art from other visual artists and photographers and in doing so he breaks the codes of this singular and elitist art. His work is about conveying feelings through colors and giving the floor to marginalized people that are often left aside in society.
Prince considers his use of vibrant colors as a therapy to his audience and aims at leaving a “strong, positive imprint on the people’s heart and soul.” Some of his most poignant themes include motherhood, fatherhood, and childhood. Prince Gyasi was signed to Nil Gallery Paris in 2018 and had a solo show at the gallery in November 2018. His works have also been exhibited at the Seattle Art Fair 2018, the Pulse Miami Beach Contemporary art fair, and the Investec Cape Town art fair.
Recently, he was mentioned by Vanity Fair (magazine) as one of the top 9 visual artists to follow in 2018.
In December 2018, he worked with Apple Inc. on a project in Ghana entitled “A Great Day In Accra.” The documentary highlighted the HipLife music scene in Ghana. In this project, he shot Ghanaian HipLife musicians like Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, Reggie Rockstone, Okyeame Kwame, among others.
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Moderator
Jess is a founder of Doc Society, which has funded and championed the work of independent documentary filmmakers around the world since 2005. Writing with Fire, I Am Softie, The Edge of Democracy, CITIZENFOUR, The Territory, The Square, Virunga etc Currently obsessed with Climate and Democracy narratives and protecting the space for independent storytelling.
Jess is also a trustee of MSI Reproductive Choices, the world's most effective family planning and abortion provider in 37 countries. Jess is also chair of UK think tank IPPR and a board member of crowdfunding innovator Kickstarter.
Jess is a big fan of the Skoll World Forum.
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Speaker
Senior Vice President of Programs and Advocacy, Schott Foundation for Public Education
Edgar Villanueva is a globally-recognized expert on social justice philanthropy. He currently serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of Native Americans in Philanthropy and is a Board Member of the Andrus Family Fund, NDN Collective, and Mother Jones.
In 2018, Edgar released his first book, Decolonizing Wealth, which offers hopeful and compelling alternatives to the dynamics of colonization in the philanthropic and social finance sectors. Due to the success of Decolonizing Wealth and the request for programs and education about decolonization, Edgar launched the Decolonizing Wealth Project (DWP) in late 2018.
In 2019, he founded Liberated Capital, a participatory grant-making fund directed by DWP that invites individuals and organizations to give through a reparations model that trusts and supports the leadership of those most impacted by historical and systemic racism. The fund welcomes support from all who are committed to collectively healing the wounds of colonialism and white supremacy by using money as medicine to shape an equitable future.
Edgar also consults with national and global philanthropies and nonprofits on advancing racial equity inside of their institutions and through their investment strategies.
He holds two degrees from the Gillings Global School of Public Health at The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Edgar is an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina and resides in Brooklyn, NY.
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Speaker
Co-founder & Chair, IMAGINE
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Speaker
President, Samueli Family Philanthropies and COO, H&S Ventures, Samueli Foundation
Lindsey Spindle serves as President of the Samueli Family Philanthropies and Chief Operating Officer of H&S Ventures which oversees all the Samueli Family’s for-profit and not-for-profit activities. The philanthropic entities operating under the oversight of H&S Ventures include the Samueli Foundation, the Anaheim Ducks Foundation, the San Diego Gulls Foundation, the Irvine Ice Foundation, and The Rinks Foundation.
Spindle was President of The Jeff Skoll Group, where she connected and advised Mr. Skoll’s entrepreneurial portfolio of philanthropic and commercial organizations that include the impact entertainment company Participant, Capricorn Investment Group, and the Skoll Foundation. The Skoll Foundation’s mission is centered on social entrepreneurship and innovation, with a focus on five main, interrelated areas: climate change, inclusive economies, protection of democracy, pandemics prevention and health systems strengthening, and racial justice. Participant has produced more than
