Schwab Series to Address Social Impact through Hybrid Ventures, Tech, Consulting

The Haas School's Center for Nonprofit and Public Leadership will offer three panels this semester through the Schwab Charitable Philanthropy Speaker Series, exploring hybrid business models (Sept. 18), technology for the lowest-income populations (Nov. 2), and social impact consulting (Nov. 15).

The first panel, on how hybrid business models blend purpose with profit, will be moderated by Jim Schorr, a Haas senior fellow in social entrepreneurship; national chair of the Social Enterprise Alliance; and a co-founder of Net Impact, a global network of MBAs applying business skills to solve social problems. (Haas senior fellows are professionals with significant accomplishments in a given field who share their knowledge with students and other faculty, help build relevant offerings, and connect the school with professional networks in the field.)

Participants in the panel moderated by Schorr will include Michael Hannigan, president and co-founder of Give Something Back, an office supply business giving an average of 75 percent of its profits to nonprofits; Andy Fyfe of B-Lab, a nonprofit certifier of B Corporations, which use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems; and Donald Simon, attorney at Wendel Rosen Black and Dean, the first U.S. law firm to gain third-party certification as a “green business.”

Next up in the Schwab Series is a Nov. 2 panel discussion on innovative technology for base-of-the-pyramid populations.  It will be led by Shashi Buluswar, a Haas senior fellow in international development and executive director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Institute for Globally Transformative Technologies. He will lead an exploration of how technology is redefining possible solutions to base-of-the-pyramid problems and helping to alleviate global poverty.

The final event in the fall series will be a Nov. 15 panel on social impact consulting, exploring MBA career paths that tackle complex, strategic questions with social impact as the goal. The discussion will be led by new Haas Lecturer Colin Boyle, ex-partner at the Boston Consulting Group, and will include Jacquelyn Hadley of Bridgespan, Leigh Fiske of FSG, Tim Carlberg of Dalberg Global Development Advisors, and Steven LaFrance of LFA Group.

For registration, information, and more social impact events at Haas, visit nonprofit.haas.berkeley.edu/events.html.

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