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40 Years of Social Innovators
The Center for Social Innovation and the Public Management Program invited alumni to tell their stories of creating change for social good.
The focus on public management and social innovation at the Stanford Graduate School of Business started with the creation of the Public Management Program by Dean Arjay Miller in 1971. The Center for Social Innovation, founded 10 years ago, has extended the work to develop the field of social innovation.
In October the center celebrated 40 years of educating leaders who understand and contribute to society with a conference that turned the audience into the program. Alumni were invited to the stage to describe their experiences, including the sampling presented here.
Uri Pomerantz, MBA '08, recently founded an innovative student loan company called Bright Frontier, which helps needy students afford college while providing investors with competitive financial returns. It's not his first foray into public service. As a Stanford undergrad, he launched a nonprofit microfinance organization to help fund small businesses throughout the West Bank and Gaza.
Yoriko Kishimoto, MBA '81, is a director of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, which aims to purchase, restore, and protect lands to form an open space greenbelt on the San Francisco Peninsula. Before that, as a longtime Palo Alto City Council member and mayor, she fought for green building projects, renewable energy, farmers markets, and more walkable neighborhoods.
Louis Boorstin, MBA '87, a former investment banker with Inter-national Finance Corp. and Lehman Brothers, has spent the last 15 years promoting innovative approaches to international development problems — conceiving and executing programs totaling some $500 million. Since 2005 he has served as deputy director of water, sanitation, and hygiene at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Susan Rothstein, MBA '78, has spent 25 years managing entrepreneurial nonprofits and has held staff, consultant, and interim executive director positions. She leveraged this experience as a volunteer in rural Cambodia, strengthening the resources of a grassroots nonprofit that protects vulnerable children from sex trafficking, child labor, child abuse, drugs and gangs. In her talk, she reflected on what she was able to accomplish in just two months, and how the experience transformed her.
Jack May, MBA '84, was looking forward to retirement after three decades in real estate development. Then he discovered Kangaroo Island, Australia, and became deeply involved in efforts to restore and preserve its endangered native plants, birds, and other animals. His nonprofit organization, BioR, uses innovative strategies to restore degraded agricultural areas.
Daryn Dodson, MBA '07, moved swiftly in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to convince Fortune 500 companies, business schools, and private equity firms to invest more than 30,000 hours and $1 million in promising New Orleans entrepreneurs. Today he serves as venture capital and private equity consultant to the $15 billion-strong Calvert Funds board of directors.
Ernie Ting, MBA '80, directs SmartVoter.org, a popular website that provides voters throughout the United States with up-to-date information about state and local ballot initiatives and candidates. Before that he served as a senior advisor on broadband, wireless, and telecommunications issues to federal officials, state-level agencies, and business executives.
Monte Rosen, MBA '85, was so alarmed by the lack of services for children with autism in China that he quit his tech job in Shanghai to devote full time to the problem. Today he runs the Essential Learning Group, a self-funded social venture that provides special education services to expat youngsters and Chinese children suffering from the developmental brain disorder.
Steve Zuckerman, MBA '87, spent much of his career in the private sector, including 15 years with McCown De Leeuw & Co., a middle market leveraged buyout firm. Now he's hard at work building the Self-Help Federal Credit Union, a California financial institution designed to responsibly serve low-income families and communities.