AMBITION

Video Description

Ambition. It’s the reason we’re all here, at the 11th Annual Skoll World Forum, focused on the most ambitious endeavor imaginable: solving the world’s most pressing problems.

In this video we take a look at some of humanities most ambitious accomplishments to date and hear from voices of the Skoll World Forum community about what the future holds.

Speakers

  • Andrew Youn
    CEO, One Acre Fund
    Andrew Youn started One Acre Fund in 2006. One Acre Fund only serves smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa – and provides farm inputs, finance, and training that helps farmers to succeed. One Acre Fund has 8,000 staff who serve 1.2m families per year, plus 1.5 million more families via partnership. The organization will double in size in the next five years, and aims to be the most impactful distribution network for life-improving goods in rural Sub-Saharan Africa. 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Joe Madiath
    CEO & President, Gram Vikas USA
    Joe Madiath completed his studies in English literature from Madras University. As a student, he was elected as the President of Madras University Students’ Union and founded the Young Students’ Movement for Development (YSMD) to harness positively the student disenchantment prevailing during the period. In 1969, as a student, he journeyed across India, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka on a bicycle for a year. In 1971, Joe led 400 YSMD volunteers to manage a number of relief camps for refugees from Bangladesh. Later that year, 40 volunteers along with Joe, moved to Orissa, which had been ravaged by a cyclone and tidal waves. Joe and a few colleagues decided to stay on in the area after relief work to work as development activists. They moved to Ganjam District in southern Orissa in 1976 on invitation from Government, to initiate development activities among the indigenous communities. This resulted in the establishment of Gram Vikas in 1979. Since its inception, till the end of June 2014 Joe has been the Executive Director of Gram Vikas and now the Chairman of Gram Vikas. Gram Vikas, today, is one of the largest NGOs in Orissa, reaching out to over 100,000 indigenous and poor families living in 1200 rural habitations. Some of the pioneering efforts of Gram Vikas have been in biogas promotion, community forestry, rural habitat development and education. Gram Vikas’ current approach to convergent community action with water and sanitation as the entry point is evolving into a movement influencing local democratic self-governance and poor people’s control over development processes. Recipient of awards: Shawn Feinstein World Hunger Award; Global Development Network Award (1998); World Habitat Award (2002); Kyoto World Water Grand Prize (2006); Social Life Time Achievement Award by Godfrey Phillips Red and White Bravery Awards (2006); NGO of the Year (2006) by Resource Alliance; Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurs (2006) by Skoll Foundation, USA
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  • Lydia Wilbard
    National Director, Tanzania, 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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  • 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 as his organization has received the Kravis Prize for Leadership and the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award for developmental work.
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  • Mark Plotkin
    President, Amazon Conservation Team
    Dr. Mark J. Plotkin has led ACT and guided its vision since 1996, when he co-founded the organization with his fellow conservationist, Liliana Madrigal. He is a renowned ethnobotanist who has spent almost 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 has been published in multiple languages. Other works include the critically acclaimed children's book The Shaman's Apprentice - A Tale of the Amazon Rainforest, illustrated by Lynne Cherry, and Medicine Quest: In Search of Nature's Healing Secrets. His most recent book, The Killers Within: The Deadly Rise of Drug-Resistant Bacteria, coauthored with Michael Shnayerson, was selected as a Discover Magazine book of the year. Dr. Plotkin has received the San Diego Zoo Gold Medal for Conservation; the Roy Chapman Andrews Distinguished Explorer Award; an International Conservation Leadership award from the Jane Goodall Institute; and, with Liliana Madrigal, the Skoll Foundation’s Award for Social Entrepreneurship. In 2010, he received the honorary degree of "Doctor of Humane Letters" from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. Dr. Plotkin was educated at Harvard, Yale and Tufts University.
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  • 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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  • Mindy Lubber
    CEO / President, Ceres
    Mindy Lubber is the CEO and President of the sustainability nonprofit organization Ceres. She has been at the helm since 2003, and under her leadership, the organization and its powerful networks have grown significantly 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. She regularly speaks to high-level world and national political leaders on clean energy and water policies, and has helped to change the political conversation around tackling climate change to one focused on jobs and the economy. 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 Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group (MASSPIRG).
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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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  • Pat Mitchell
    Founder and President, Pat Mitchell Media
    Pat Mitchell is a lifelong advocate for women and girls. At every step of her career, Mitchell has broken new ground for women, leveraging the power of media as a journalist, an Emmy award-winning and Oscar-nominated producer to tell women’s stories and increase the representation of women onscreen and off. Transitioning to an executive role, she became the president of CNN Productions, and the first woman president and CEO of PBS and the Paley Center for Media. Today, her commitment to connect and strengthen a global community of women leaders continues as a conference curator, advisor and mentor. In partnership with TED, Mitchell launched TEDWomen in 2010 and is its editorial director, curator and host. She is also a speaker and curator for the annual Women Working for the World forum in Bogota, Colombia, the Her Village conference in Beijing, and co-chairs the US board of Women of the World (WOW). She partners with the Rockefeller Foundation to curate, convene and host Connected Women Leaders (CWL) forums, focused on collective problem solving among women leaders in government and civil society. In 2014, the Women’s Media Center honored Mitchell with its first-annual Lifetime Achievement Award, now named in her honor to commend other women whose media careers advance the representation of women. Recognized by Hollywood Reporter as one of the most powerful women in media, Fast Company’s “League of Extraordinary Women” and Huffington Post’s list of “Powerful Women Over 50,” Mitchell also received the Sandra Day O'Connor Award for Leadership. She was a contributor to Enlightened Power: How Women Are Transforming the Practice of Leadership, and wrote the introduction to the book and museum exhibition, 130 Women of Impact in 30 Countries. In 2016, she received a Congressional appointment to The American Museum of Women’s History Advisory Council, and in 2019 was named to the Gender Equality Top 100 list of women leaders by Apolitical. Mitchell is active with many nonprofit organizations, serving as the chair of the boards of the Sundance Institute and the Women’s Media Center. She is a founding member of the VDAY movement and on the boards of the Skoll Foundation and the Acumen Fund. She is also an advisor to Participant Media and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Mitchell is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Georgia and holds a master's degree in English literature and several honorary doctorate degrees. She is the author of Becoming a Dangerous Woman: Embracing Risk to Change the World. She and her husband, Scott Seydel, live in Atlanta and have six children and 13 grandchildren.
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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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  • Tim Hanstad
    CEO, Chandler Foundation
    Tim Hanstad leads the Chandler Foundation as its first CEO. The Chandler Foundation seeks a world of shared prosperity in which nations are well-governed, businesses help drive economic growth and societal well-being, and all individuals have the opportunity to flourish. Tim previously co-founded and was the longtime CEO of Landesa, the world's leading land rights organization. Tim led Landesa’s growth from a 2-person operation to the #1-ranked human rights NGO in the world. He is a Skoll Social Entrepreneur Awardee and a Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur Fellow. Tim has a particularly strong affinity for India where he lived for many years, but also has strong ties each of the more than 20 countries across Asia, Africa, and Latin America where he has worked. Tim has co-edited and co-written two books, and his work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Washington Post, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Chronicle of Philanthropy, Foreign Affairs, Huffington Post and beyond. Tim is the proud spouse of Chitra and a father to four adult children from whom he draws inspiration. He also draws strength and inspiration from working with others on racial justice issues in his Seattle community. He has two law degrees from the University of Washington and has completed certificate programs at Harvard Business School and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
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  • Vicky Colbert
    Founder and Director, Fundacion Escuela Nueva
    Vicky Colbert 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, the Kravis Prize, the Colombiano Ejemplar Prize (Colombia 2017) and Magisterio Prize (Spain 2017). She has also been recognized as Outstanding Social Entrepreneur by the Schwab Foundation, Ashoka and the World Technology Network.
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