10th Anniversary: Evening Gala Speaker & Honorees

Keynote Speaker: Jed Emerson
Co-Author, “Impact Investing: Transforming How We Make Money While Making A Difference”

Jed Emerson is an internationally recognized thought leader in sustainability, sustainable finance, impact investing, social entrepreneurship and strategic philanthropy and has authored four books in these fields. Currently, Emerson holds high-level positions around the globe, such as Chief Strategist at ImpactAssets; Senior Advisor to The Sterling Group, The River Star Group, IML Group and the Piton Foundation; Senior Fellow at the University of Heidelberg’s Center for Social Investing; and a Clinical Professor at NYU-Abu Dhabi.

Emerson’s career has spanned the diverse fields of management, academia, investing, and human services. He has launched nonprofit ventures, led foundation initiatives, and engaged in research assessing global innovations in sustainable investing and finance. Emerson has played founder roles with some of the nation’s leading venture philanthropy, community venture capital, and social enterprises including serving as Managing Director for Integrated Performance at Uhuru Capital, Senior Fellow with Generation Investment Management Foundation, and Project Manager with the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation.

Mr. Emerson has written extensively about blended value, performance metrics, and capital investment strategies seeking multiple returns.

In early 2001, he began focusing on the Blended Value Proposition and he spends much of his time addressing conferences, students, and practitioners. Mr. Emerson has presented at numerous conferences and events both nationally and internationally including the World Economic Forum in Davos; the Caisse de Depots in Paris; and the London Business School and Oxford University in England. Among United States based academic institutions, he has presented his work at Harvard, Yale, UNC, Northwestern, and UCLA. Emerson’s written work can be found at www.blendedvalue.org. He recently released his new book, “Impact Investing: Transforming How We Make Money While Making a Difference.”

Honorees: Desh & Jaishree Deshpande
The Deshpande Foundation

In 1996, Jaishree and Desh co-founded The Deshpande Foundation as an umbrella for their global efforts in philanthropy and social entrepreneurship. Through their foundation, the Deshpandes foster social entrepreneurship by supporting a variety of charitable organizations in the areas of health, education, microcredit and agriculture.

Among the contributions of the Deshpande Foundation is the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation at MIT, which the couple founded in 2002 to improve the impact of MIT technologies in the global marketplace. Since then, the Deshpandes have established three more innovative research centers around the world.

Honoree: Allan Liu
The Robert N. Chang Foundation

In 2001, Robert N. Chang Charitable Foundation became Give2Asia’s first donor. Allan Liu, the foundation’s president, became the donor advisor on Give2Asia’s first grant. Today that partnership continues in the form of an ongoing program to provide scholarships to students at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. The alliance between Give2Asia and the Chang Foundation was established to assist Chinese students who demonstrate financial need.

Raised and educated in China before immigrating to the US, Robert N. Chang attended Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and the Foundation intends to provide scholarships to students attending educational institutions Mr. Chang was affiliated with in China. Working together, the Foundation and Give2Asia have granted over $1 million for scholarship to deserving students during the past 10 years.

Honoree: Gwendolyn Moore
The Children of China Fund

Gwen Moore was at the height of her career as a management consultant at Accenture when a 1995 New York Times article changed her life. For over 20 years, Moore had helped clients to design and implement strategies to make their organizations more effective. However, after reading the article on the hardship of peasant life in rural China, Gwen Moore dedicated her life to bettering the quality of education for the young children in the region. Her fund has helped to mobilize thousands of supporters and to improve education for children in some of China’s most remote areas.

Sadly, Gwen Moore passed away in the spring of 2012. Sharon Frederick, a close colleague and friend of Ms. Moore will be present to accept the honor on her behalf.

Honoree: William and Patricia Taylor
The Bill and Pat Bali Fund

On a holiday trip to Bali in 2005, Bill & Pat Taylor were introduced to the Widhya Asih Orphanage IV in Untal-Untal. Moved by the tremendous need for assistance and the financial burden of education for families, they agreed to support the education of two girls. Upon returning to Bali the following year they became aware of how many girls were still without sponsors and agreed to arrange sponsorships for an additional eight girls. They now travel to Bali at least once each year and now arrange sponsorships for all 70 girls at the Untal-Untal orphanage along with continuously seeking new ways to assist the entire Widhya Asih Foundation, parent organization to seven orphanages, including Untal-Untal.

Bill & Pat Taylor have inspired hundreds of others in the United States to rally around their cause, and to sponsor these young girls in need.

RSVP Today!

Seats are limited for Give2Asia’s 10th Anniversary Awards Gala. The price per seat is $300 and tables of 10 are also available.

CONTACT US

Email: rsvp@give2asia.org
Twitter: @give2asia
Anniversary Hashtag: #g2a10