Class: 2014
Vivianne Naigeborin
Vivianne Naigeborin is a pioneer in social impact investing in Brazil and serves as Strategic Advisor for Potencia Ventures. Potencia is an international organization that invests in emerging global markets to support an enabling environment for businesses contributing to poverty reduction. Potencia was the first investor and principal strategic partner for a half-dozen key initiatives for businesses with social impact in Brazil, including Vox Capital, the first Brazilian impact investing venture capital firm, and Artemisia, a pioneer organization in the dissemination, promotion. and acceleration of impactful businesses in Brazil. Prior to Potencia, Vivianne worked as a strategic consultant for companies, funds, individuals and citizen sector organizations in the field of…
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Paula Moreno
Paula Moreno is Founder and President of Manos Visibles (Visible Hands), a Colombian NGO that implements development strategies to strengthen urban youth organizations and communities of women, with an emphasis on high-risk ethnic communities. Since 2010, Visible Hands has reached more than 500 community leaders and organizations that influence more than 25,000 Colombians. Paula is the former Minister of Culture of Colombia, the youngest woman and first Afro descendant to be appointed as a cabinet minister in the country's history. For her service to the Government of Colombia and the nation as Minister of Culture, Paula was awarded the Order of Saint Charles in 2010 by President Uribe, and in…
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Biola Alabi
Biola Alabi is an African media expert with over 25 years of local and global media experience. She is currently CEO at Biola Alabi Media Consulting, a content creation based in Lagos, Nigeria working across the world in broadcast, telecommunications, and digital industries. Biola was listed as one of the 20 Youngest Power Women in Africa by Forbes in 2013. She previously worked with leading brands DSTV, Africa's biggest pay-tv operator, Sesame Street, Bigwords.com, and Daewoo Motors. She oversaw the launch of AfricaMagic Hausa and Yoruba in 2010 and AfricaMagic Swahili in 2011: channels that have made considerable contributions to the promotion of indigenous languages and cultures in Africa. She…
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Ahmad "Rafay" Alam
Ahmad “Rafay” Alam is a Pakistani environmental lawyer and activist. In 2013, after over a decade of practicing corporate and constitutional law, Rafay co-founded Saleem, Alam & Co., a firm that specializes in the energy, water, natural resources, and urban infrastructure sectors. As one of Pakistan's leading environment lawyers, Rafay regularly advises the federal and provincial governments, the World Bank, ADB, IFC and a number of INGOs on issues of policy and strategy in these sectors, and he provides corporate clients strategic sustainability insights. Familiar with how government functions in Pakistan, Rafay has served as Chairman of the Board of two public sector utilities: the Lahore Electric Supply Company…
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Amira Yahyaoui
Amira Yahyaoui is a Tunisian human rights advocate and founder of the award-winning Al Bawsala, a public policy and accountability NGO. Al Baswala monitors the work of the Tunisian Parliament, the Constitutional Assembly, and Tunisian city halls, using technology to make information accessible to citizens. When she was a teenager, Amira was banned from her homeland for her human rights activism and fled to Paris as a refugee. After the Arab Spring, Amira returned to Tunisia for the political transition and writing of the new Tunisian constitution. She won a Vital Voices Global Trailblazer award in 2012 for women transforming the Middle East and was named top 100 most powerful…
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Alexander Verbeek
Alexander Verbeek is a Dutch environmentalist, public speaker, diplomat, and former strategic policy advisor at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Over the past 30 years, he has worked on international security, humanitarian and geopolitical risk issues, and the linkage to the earth's accelerating environmental crisis, currently serving Policy Director at the Environment & Development Resource Centre. Alexander also works internationally as an expert speaker and advisor on planetary change to academia, global NGO's, private firms, and international organizations. He is an associate or fellow at a number of international think tanks, a Visiting Fellow in the Peace and Conflict Department of Uppsala University in Sweden, and is on the…
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Parmesh Shahani
Parmesh Shahani is Vice President at Godrej Industries Ltd. and the founder of the award-winning Godrej India Culture Lab in Mumbai, which sparks conversations and collaborations about the changing face of contemporary India. Parmesh is a passionate advocate for LGBTQ inclusion in corporate India and has guided many of the country’s leading companies on their inclusion journeys. Parmesh's first book, Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (Be)Longing in Contemporary India (Sage), was originally released in 2008 and re-released in 2020. His second book Queeristan: LGBTQ Inclusion at the Indian Workplace (Westland Books) was also released in 2020. He is a member of the FICCI taskforce on diversity and inclusion and a…
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Thora Arnorsdottir
Thora Arnorsdottir is Managing Editor at Iceland's Kveikur, RUV TV, a television program focused on investigative journalism. In addition to being a renowned media personality and documentary filmmaker, she was also a 2012 candidate for the Presidency of Iceland. Although she lost the election by a narrow margin, Thora sparked international debate on gender roles and equality: she was 8 months pregnant with her third child when she announced her candidacy. Thora has worked at Icelandic National Broadcasting Service as a news editor and journalist, and she is Founder and Owner of Hugveitan, a documentary production company that has created films including Outlaws: The Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Society…
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