Author, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
Heather designs and promotes solutions to inequality in America. Her new book, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together is now available from One World, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Her 2020 TED talk, “Racism Has a Cost for Everyone” reached 1 million views in just two months online. In the coming year, she will launch an original podcast on how to create cross-racial solidarity in challenging times. Heather has testified in Congress, drafted legislation, and developed strategies for organizations and campaigns that won changes to improve the lives of millions. For nearly two decades, she helped build the non-partisan "think and do" tank Demos, serving four years as president. Through her regular media appearances, she elevates the concerns of working families on programs including NBC’s “Meet the Press”. She is the chair of the board of Color of Change, the country’s largest online racial justice organization, and volunteers for numerous other boards in the fields of philanthropy and social justice. Heather graduated from Yale University and the University of California Berkeley School of Law, and has honorary degrees from Muhlenberg College and Niagara University.
Raised in eastern Turkey, Hamdi Ulukaya founded Chobani in 2005 with the mission of making better food more accessible and providing good food for all, while also improving local communities. Selling the first cup of yogurt in 2007, Chobani became the No. 1-selling Greek Yogurt brand in the U.S. less than five years later. A devoted philanthropist, Ulukaya signed the Giving Pledge and founded the Tent Partnership for Refugees in 2016 to help end the global refugee crisis. Ulukaya serves on the boards of La Colombe Torrefaction LLC, Pathfinder Village, and the Tent Partnership for Refugees.
Esther Benjamin is CEO and Executive Director of World Education Services (WES), a non-profit social enterprise dedicated to helping international students, immigrants, and refugees achieve their educational and career goals in the U.S. and Canada.
Flavia is a Policy and Advocacy Manager at the European Youth Forum, where she leads the youth rights portfolio and manages a team of Policy Officers working on employment, the future of work, and social rights. Flavia holds a master's degree in International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law from the University of Essex, and has extensive experience in policy and advocacy in the areas of inclusion and human rights. Before joining the European Youth Forum in 2017, she worked for several civil society organisations in Italy, the UK and Belgium, advocating for children and youth rights at EU and international level.
Cheffe d'entreprise pendant 5 ans, j'étais, en parallèle de mon activité professionnelle, bénévole au sein des Petits Frères des Pauvres. J'aidais des personnes âgées en grande précarité à remettre en place leurs droits sociaux et à retourner vers un logement stable. A la suite de la clôture de mon entreprise, j'ai voulu me lancer dans un projet contribuant au bien commun et ayant du sens. Les Petits Frères des Pauvres m'ont alors confié le pilotage du nouveau dispositif Paris en Compagnie, porté par eux, par Lulu dans ma rue et par Autonomie Paris Saint-Jacques.
Doug Lansky is a Stockholm-based tourism consultant and keynote speaker who spent 20 years as a travel journalist, editor and author contributing to such publications as The Guardian, Lonely Planet and Skift.
Doug has given acclaimed lectures at nearly 100 universities, given two TEDx Talks, presented at National Geographic Headquarters, for the United Nations World’s Tourism Organization, at Google Travel, Booking.com, Amadeus, ITB Berlin and for over 100 destinations around the world, from Singapore to South Dakota, Finland to Florida, introducing audiences to new insights and smart tourism concepts.
D. Lansky's LinkedIn profile.
In 2017, after more than 20 years in the private equity business, Eric Philippon decided to devote 50% of his earnings to combat climate change. He created the FAMAE Foundation with his family, and every year they organise the FAMAE Challenge, one of the world largest competitions of innovations for the environment.
Eric Philippon is also a partner at Famae Impact, which aims through its investments to support companies whose objective is to reduce carbon intensity of economic activity and preserve biodiversity for a sustainable ecological transition.
Charles Kenny is a writer-researcher at the Center for Global Development and has worked on policy reforms in global health as well as UN peacekeeping and combating international financial corruption. Previously, he spent fifteen years as an economist at the World Bank, travelling the planet from Baghdad and Kabul to Brasilia and Beijing. He is the author of The Plague Cycle: The Unending War Between Humanity and Infectious Disease, Getting Better: Why Global Development Is Succeeding and How We Can Improve the World Even More, and The Upside of Down: Why the Rise of the Rest Is Great for the West. He earned a history degree at Cambridge and has graduate degrees from Johns Hopkins, the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, and Cambridge.
SVP, Strategic Initiatives, Policy and Public Affairs, Toronto Region Board of Trade
Dame Ellen MacArthur made yachting history in 2005, when she became the fastest solo sailor to circumnavigate the globe. She remains the UK’s most successful offshore racer ever, having won the Ostar, the Route du Rhum, and finished second in the Vendée Globe. She received the French Legion of Honour from President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008, three years after having been knighted by HM Queen Elizabeth II.
Having become acutely aware of the finite nature of the resources on which our linear economy relies, she retired from professional sailing to launch the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in 2010. The Foundation works to accelerate the transition to a circular economy, and has helped establish the subject on the agenda of decision-makers around the world. Since the publication of its first economic report in 2012, the Foundation has launched global initiatives on plastics, fashion, and food, developed innovation networks with educators, businesses, and governments, and released more than 20 reports and books. Dame Ellen is a World Economic Forum Global Agenda Trustee for Environment and Natural Resource Security and Board Member of its Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy, and she sat on the European Commission’s Resource Efficiency Platform between 2012 and 2014.
Member, African Union's African Vaccine Delivery Alliance; Global Advisory Board Member for WomenLift Health; Chief Strategist, CONVINCE Africa
Dr. Ayoade Olatunbosun-Alakija is a member of the Africa Union's African Vaccine Delivery Alliance, a Global Advisory Board Member for WomenLift Health and Chief Strategist for CONVINCE Africa. She is the former Chief Humanitarian Coordinator (CHC) at the helm of the Nigerian Emergency Coordination Centre, she was a high-level interlocutor between state and non-state actors at governmental and intergovernmental levels. Previously, she served with the United Nations. She has also advised on achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the post 2015 development agenda in the areas of health, education and life-skills in Africa (Rwanda, Kenya and Malawi to name but a few), the Caribbean and the Pacific where her input was integral to MDG achievement in certain quarters. A graduate of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (University of London) with a Master of Science Degree in International Development and Public Health, Dr. Alakija is also a published researcher. She has collaborated as lead researcher with the World Health Organisation in the design, coordination and implementation of national health and behavioural surveys across nations.
Multicultural professional with several years of experience in the design, implementation, and management of international initiatives aimed to empower diverse groups worldwide. He is an expert at creating strategic partnerships and securing collaborations efforts across sectors. As Director of NGLCC Global Division, Erasmo works with LGBT chambers of commerce worldwide to share best practices, lessons learned, and create engagement opportunities with stakeholders from the international corporate and public sector, and multilateral organizations to advance supplier diversity initiatives, create awareness for diversity and inclusion (D&I) matters, and support the growth of LGBTI-owned small and medium enterprises (SME’s).
Erasmo has also conducted qualitative research work at the Brookings Institution, one of the world's leading Think Tanks, where his portfolio focused on analyzing illegal economic activities, sociopolitical challenges, energy, and security matters throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East, East Africa, and South East Asia.
Erasmo holds a Master of Science in Business and Financial Economics from the University of Greenwich in London where he resided for a few years. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He is originally from Lima, Peru and is fluent in English and Spanish.
Didier Bergeret is Director, Sustainability, at The Consumer Goods Forum and covers three Coalitions of Action: Forest Positive, Human Rights – Working to End Forced Labour, and the Sustainable Supply Chain Initiative (SSCI). The main focus of his work is to develop collaborative and practical solutions for the industry to advance responsible businesses and value chains. He supports the implementation of these CGF’s Coalitions launched by the CEOs of the Board of the Consumer Goods Forum and ensures effective linkages between essential sustainability areas. Didier engages stakeholders, institutions and governments with the industry to coordinate efforts on such issues and to drive positive change for companies’ own operations and supply chains.
With professional experience in both private and public organisations, Didier’s expertise lies in building key partnerships to foster sustainable business performance, NGO management, procurement and consulting services for private and public actors. From an educational background in Political Science and International Economics in France, Germany, Spain and the UK, his international experience and language skills serve him well in his daily work.
Alison has over 25 years’ experience gained in both operational and specialist global HR leadership roles across professional services, retail and STEM industries working for employers such as law firm Hogan Lovells, the John Lewis Partnership and BAE Systems plc. She is a subject matter expert in the field of diversity, inclusion, and workplace wellbeing. Alison is UK CEO & Global Strategy Director for the City Mental Health Alliance, a global network of large organisations, predominately in the financial and professional services sector, collaborating together to create mentally healthy workplaces. In her role, Alison works closely with the Board to set and deliver the CMHA strategy to ensure CMHA is well positioned to deliver to its future vision. Alison leads the Thriving at Work programme, working closely with member organisations, providing workplace assessments and consultancy support in helping them to identify priority areas in terms of mental wellbeing in the workplace, providing practical guidance, and working collaboratively across member organisations to deliver projects that support these priorities. Alison is a Fellow of the CIPD and a trained and accredited Mental Health First Aid Instructor.
Ciaran O’Donnell is a Policy and Project Officer at Eurochild, Europe’s premier umbrella network for children’s rights. At Eurochild he is responsible for coordinating research & policy projects that underpin Eurochild’s EU advocacy, primarily in the areas of children in alternative care and inequality in education.
Through his work, Ciaran supports Eurochild to shift the chess-pieces of European policymaking to improve the lives of society's most vulnerable children. He does through mobilising expertise across Europe, building Eurochild’s evidence base on key issues for children including poverty, alternative care and education, and represents the organisation at international expert fora, including with EU, CoE, UN and international civil society.
Courtney Brown, Ph.D, is vice president of impact and planning for Lumina Foundation, an independent, private foundation in Indianapolis that is committed to making opportunities for learning beyond high school available to all. As the chief data and research officer, Brown oversees the foundation’s efforts in the areas of strategic planning, learning, impact, and effectiveness. She also leads Lumina’s international engagement.
She joined the foundation in 2011 with a strong background in performance measurement, research, and evaluation. Before 2011, Brown was a senior research associate at the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana University. There, she led studies and evaluations focused on education and post-high school programs within the United States and across Europe.
Brown is a frequent speaker and panelist in the United States and other countries regarding postsecondary strategy, student success, data-driven decision making, and evidence-based practices. She has developed and shared manuals, working papers, articles, and books related to undergraduate research, performance measurement, randomized-control trials, and other evaluation methods, as well as conducted webinars and workshops on topics such as evaluation, performance measurement, and success in education beyond high school.
Brown serves on the University of Virginia’s School of Education and Human Development Board of Directors, on the advisory board for the Center for First-Generation Student Success, and the advisory board for WGU Indiana. She holds a bachelor’s degree from James Madison University and earned her master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Virginia.
Carmen got involved with the student movement in Spain for the first time in high school. Since then, she has held multiple leadership positions at local, national, continental and global level. She is the former president of the National Unions of Students in Spain, CREUP. Carmen served as the Membership Coordinator of the European Students Union and currently is a member of the Steering Committee of the Global Student Forum Steering. Carmen holds a Bachelor degree in Political Science and Public Administration from Complutense University of Madrid and Master’s degree in Political Science: Politics and Governments from Université Libre de Bruxelles. She is passionate about organisational development and the role of young people and students in shaping education policies.
Brigid Schulte is an award-winning journalist, public speaker and author of the New York Times bestselling book on time pressure, gender and modern life, Overwhelmed: Work, Love & Play when No One has the Time. She was a staff writer at The Washington Post and The Washington Post Magazine and was part of the team that won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. She now serves as the director of the Better Life Lab, the work-family justice and gender equity program at New America, a nonpartisan think tank, Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, Atlantic, Harvard Business Review, BBC, Financial Times, Vox, The Guardian, Washington Monthly, New York magazine and others. She hosts the popular Better Life Lab podcast on Slate.