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Amber Nystrom, founding and executive director of the social entrepreneur incubator Social Fusion, introduces us to three misfits who are leading the charge of social innovation:
Hear these three social entrepreneurs discuss what is takes to unleash the power of business to make the world a better place.
This is part 1 of a two-part session on Capital Change. You can listen to part 2 here.
Paul Fletcher is responsible for Actis’s business activities worldwide and plays an active role in Actis’s investments. Prior to the creation of Actis in 2004, Paul was CEO of CDC Capital Partners, head of emerging markets strategic planning for Citibank in London, and general manager for Citibank in East Africa. Paul also spent eight years working as a corporate finance professional in New York, Tokyo, and London. He began his career trading commodities for Cargill in Minneapolis/London before joining the commodities division of Bankers Trust. Paul is a director of the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA).
Dan Whaley is the founder and CEO of Climos, a new San Francisco-based company that is will commercializing the use of large phytoplankton blooms in the ocean to reduce atmospheric CO2. In 1994, Dan built the online ordering system for Waiters On Wheels, which had the distinction of handling perhaps the first e-commerce transactions ever made. In the fall of that year he founded the Internet Travel Network (ITN), later renamed GetThere.com, and in June of 1995, a server running in his living room booked the first travel reservation ever made over the web. Dan led GetThere.com to an IPO in 1999 and to its eventual sale in 2000 to The Sabre Group for $770 million - the largest all-cash deal for an Internet company. In 1996, Dan was recognized by Business Travel News as one of the industry's top 25 most influential executives.
Nic Frances left a successful private sector career to found the Furniture Resource Center (FRC), a British public charity that grew into a leading profit-generating social enterprise. He then moved to Australia, where from 1999 to 2004 he headed the Brotherhood of St. Lawrence (BSL), one of Australia's leading welfare and social policy organizations. In 2004 Nic left BSL to launch Easy Being Green, which in 12 months saved its customers $30 million ($AUD) on their electricity bills. Nic holds an MBE from the British government, and is a frequent international speaker on the convergence of business, personal ethics, and social innovation. He currently lives in Melbourne, Australia, where he is raising his two children, Charlie and Holly, and spends many of his weekends building a second home in the Victorian Alps. He was ordained an Anglican priest in 1996.
Amber Nystrom (moderator) is the founding and executive director of Social Fusion, a leading incubator that supports positive businesses and in emerging markets. She is a recognized international expert in the field of social entrepreneurism and integrated or triple bottom line line investing. She frequently speaks at Yale, Stanford, Berkeley, and international venues; serves on the boards of the Tallberg Foundation and the Triple Bottom Line Investment Group; and consults to the World Bank, Ashoka, and Actis. She is a certified white water rafting guide, and has led mountaineering expeditions in Europe, the U.S. and Latin America. She lives in San Francisco.
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This program is from our Stanford Discussions series.
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