GSB Social Innovators : Center for Social Innovation (CSI)

They are inventing the future

Our community of students, alumni, faculty, and program participants is actively engaged in creating a more just, sustainable, and prosperous world.

Penny Pritzker's Latest Challenge: Helping Fix Public Schools

Public education that prepares a workforce for tomorrow's needs is the cause that most challenges her, said Penny Pritzker, JD/MBA '84, the 2011 recipient of the business school's Arbuckle Award.

Stanford Biodesign Program

Founded 10 years ago, the Stanford Biodesign Program is a training incubator in medical technology that brings together multidisciplinary teams of medical, engineering, law and business school students to address unmet medical needs with innovative approaches.

Jacqueline Novogratz (MBA '91)

Jacqueline Novogratz is founder and CEO of Acumen Fund, which builds financially sustainable and scalable enterprises delivering affordable clean water, health care, and housing to the poor so that they can make their own decisions and solve their own problems.

Deepa Gangwani (MBA '04)

Echoing Green Fellow and GSB alumna, Deepa Gangwani, created Together as One (TaO), a social enterprise that generates income opportunities for marginalized communities in India while providing communities with incentives to sort and segregate waste.

Greg McKeown (MBA '08)

Managerial stories form the backbone of a new book by Greg McKeown, MBA '08, entitled Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter (Harper 2010). Socially and environmentally focused leaders will find much in the book to support them in their work.

Woodrow Myers (MBA '82)

Nationally recognized health expert Woodrow Myers is honored at the 2010 BBSA Conference, where he urged Stanford MBA students to aim to fix the world's pressing challenges.

MBA Class of 1980 Pools Funds and Knowledge to Fight Poverty

Project Redwood, a new venture philanthropy fund of the Stanford GSB Class of 1980, has distributed $400,000 over the past 3 years to organizations that use entrepreneurial approaches to fight poverty.

More Innovators

News Makers

Linking Extreme Poverty and Global Terrorism

The New York Times - Tue, 03/13/2012

In the New York Times, Jake Harriman, MBA '08, explains how he now fights terrorism by trying to bring choices to extremely poor Kenyans. "We can't just stop with a single terrorist; we have to root out the whole system. We have to go after poverty."

Tech firms offer solutions in developing countries

San Francisco Chronicle - Sat, 02/04/2012

Justin Finnegan (MBA '09), Managing Director of Mountain Hazelnuts, and Ashish Jhina (MBA '11) founder of NextDrop were just 2 of the 29 companies invited to present their technology solutions to global problems at the USRio+2.0 conference at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. Each of the companies have products based on communication platforms that are relatively inexpensive, and easy to use and implement in the developing world.

Laurene Powell Jobs helps change lives, too

Silicon Valley Mercury News - Mon, 12/12/2011

Laurene Powell Jobs (MBA ’91), wife of the late Steve Jobs, has supported a long range of causes from helping disadvanted students and women to donating money to environmental campaigns. She has also established the Emerson Collective, an organization that focuses on improving academic outcomes for under-resourced students in America’s public schools.

Shaun Paterson Provides Eyeglasses To The Vision Impaired In Developing Nations

The Huffington Post - Thu, 09/22/2011

Shaun Paterson (MBA '08) is the founder of Shaun's Shades, a chic, California-based eyewear brand that strives to "support, empower and help solve the problem of visual impairment and eliminate blindness." Launched in August, the line gives its customers a unique opportunity: all those who purchase a pair of Shaun's Shades sunglasses also provide a pair of eyeglasses to one of 285 million people around the world who suffer from visual challenges as part of a "buy one, give sight" mission.

Hedge Fund Chief Takes Major Role in Philanthropy

The New York Times - Thu, 09/15/2011

Thomas Steyer (MBA ’83) and his brother James Steyer (JD ’83) have been working together to build the Center for the Next Generation, a nonprofit organization that aims to be a loud voice in major public policy debates.

Sam Goldman - d.light design

social edge - Fri, 07/22/2011

Former Peace Corps volunteer Sam Goldman (MBA '07) was inspired to make electric lighting affordable to families living in developing nations during his work in Benin. Today, he makes that dream a reality through d.light, a social venture that replaces dangerous, inefficient kerosene lamps with clean, cheap electric lamps around the world.

Jake Harriman’s Nuru International Seeks to End Extreme Poverty

West Virginia University - Mon, 05/23/2011

Jake Harriman (MBA '08) fought for his country as a US Marine Recon Platoon Commander. But he saw a better way to combat terrorism: target extreme poverty that flares in violence in the world's poorest countries. Today, Nuru International works to empower local communities to uplift themselves from poverty and develop a sustainable path towards a better future.

Stanford startup wins $50,000 prize in seed competition

MercuryNews.com - Thu, 05/05/2011

mOasis, a Palo Alto start-up led by Yohei Iwasaki, MBA '10, won a seed capital competition hosted by North Bridge Venture Partners and Stanford University. The company will receive $50,000 in start-up funds, $25,000 in in-kind services, and six months incubation space. mOasis aims to reduce water shortages by using new conservation strategies.

Jessica Jackley on Empowering the World's Entrepreneurs (Podcast)

treehugger - Sat, 04/02/2011

Jessica Jackley (MBA '07) discusses the challenges she faced when co-founding Kiva.org in 2005. Kiva.org is a micro-lending platform through which donors can invest in small businesses in far corners of the world.

Nuru International: Ending Extreme Poverty Through Their Capacity Building, Design Thinking, Leadership Program

The Columbus Dispatch - Thu, 03/31/2011

Despite having graduated only three years ago, Jake Harriman (MBA '08) is already putting his education to good use by starting Nuru International, a social venture that seeks to eradicate global poverty by empowering local communities rather than through foreign aid. Through Nuru International, Harriman hopes to create self-sustaining communities that will uplift themselves out of poverty without becoming dependent on international aid organizations and foreign countries.

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