Kathy Calvin is President and Chief Executive Officer of the United Nations Foundation. Her career has spanned work in the public, private and nonprofit sectors.  She is a passionate advocate for multi-sector problem-solving, U.S. leadership on global issues, and the inclusion of women at all levels and in all sectors.

Kathy leads one of the most innovative organizations advocating for the UN and the creation of public-private partnerships.  Her leadership brings together the largest network of supporters of UN issues in the United States and a global network of corporate, civil society and media partners.  The UN Foundation was created in 1998 with entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner’s historic $1 billion gift to support UN causes and activities. The UN Foundation advocates for the UN and connects people, ideas, and resources to help the United Nations solve global problems.  As a public charity with many partners, the UN Foundation’s work is focused on decreasing child mortality, empowering women and girls, creating a clean energy future, using mobile technology for development, and improving U.S.-UN relations.

In 2011, Kathy was named one of Newsweek’s “150 Women Who Rock the World,” and in 2012, she was listed in Fast Company’s “League of Extraordinary Women.”  Her innovative work in the philanthropy and international NGO sector was featured by the New York Times in 2011.  She has received numerous other awards for philanthropy and leadership.

Prior to joining the UN Foundation as Chief Operating Officer in 2003, Kathy served as President of the AOL Time Warner Foundation where she guided AOL Time Warner’s philanthropic activities and was the chief architect of the company’s corporate responsibility initiatives. She joined America Online in 1997 as Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer, and was responsible for the company’s brand, social responsibility, and external relations.

Immediately prior to joining AOL, she was a Senior Managing Director at Hill and Knowlton, a global public relations company, where she led the U.S. Media Relations practice. For 12 years before that, she served as Director of Editorial Administration for U.S. News & World Report, overseeing budget, personnel, innovation and strategy.  From 1976 through 1984, Kathy served as Senator Gary Hart’s press secretary in his Senate office and his 1984 Presidential campaign.

She was one of the first women to hold that title in American Presidential campaigns. Throughout her career, Kathy Calvin has taken an active role in a range of philanthropic activities, including the boards of the International Women’s Media Foundation, City Year, Internews, the Newseum, Share Our Strength, the United Nations Association of the United States of America, and the East-West Center.  She is a frequent public speaker and commenter.

Kathy is a graduate of Purdue University.

Stephanie von Friedeburg was appointed World Bank Group Chief Information Officer and Vice President for Information and Technology Solutions in 2012. With over 20 years of investment and development experience within the World Bank Group, von Friedeburg is bridging the gap between the business and technology, transforming the role of IT at the World Bank Group into that of a strategic business partner.

Von Friedeburg is driving an IT strategy that leverages current technology trends, such as cloud computing and mobility, to enable to the organization’s diverse and decentralized workforce to more effectively communicate, collaborate, and connect with each other and with clients.

Von Friedeburg has been with the World Bank Group since 1992, serving in a wide variety of roles including CIO for the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Senior Manager for IFC Global Information and Communication Technologies, Manager for IFC General Manufacturing Investments in Russia and the former Soviet republics, and Manager for IFC’s Global Telecommunications Portfolio.

Von Friedeburg is on the Advisory Board of Box.org, an organization helping nonprofits be more productive and collaborative in achieving their mission. She is also an advocate for the advancement of women in information and technology, serving as a leader of the International Finance Institutions Women in IT organization. Von Friedeburg also sits on the board of the Bank-Fund Staff Federal Credit Union.

In addition to an MBA from the Wharton School, von Friedeburg holds a Masters of Arts from the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania and an undergraduate degree from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

Alexis Bonnell is the Innovation Evangelist in the U.S. Global Development Lab of USAID. Over her career, Alexis has developed and delivered over a billion dollar of humanitarian and development programming in over 25 conflict, post-conflict, and emergency countries, in almost every sector from education to stabilization, for more than 30 International Bi-lateral donors, 10 UN agencies, the military, and private sector.  She has held positions with every side of development including: implementers, donors, policy makers, and beneficiaries and is proud of her “360 degrees” of development experience. Her more than 20 years of experience in management and communications has provided her incredible opportunities to work on/with: Wall Street, “Dot.coms”, Middle East Peace Plan, Afghan and Iraq Elections, Tsunami Response, Pakistan Earthquake, Haiti Earthquake, over 500 construction projects, and major logistics operations.

After years of living and working overseas, Alexis returned to the USA with USAID as the Senior Advisor on Business Transformation and Knowledge Management.  She then served as the Chief of Engagement for the Office of Education at USAID, where she helped shape the strategic communication and execution of the USAID Education Strategy.  In 2013 she joined the leadership team of the new U.S. Global Development Lab of USAID as the Director of Engagement and Communications. Alexis’s is most excited about her new role as the Innovation Evangelist in the U.S. Global Development Lab, and the platform the Lab serves to bring new minds and ideas to the discovery and scale of solutions to humanity’s biggest challenges.  Her focus at the Lab is to help convene and connect people and organizations around the world with the most innovative applications of science, technology, innovation, and partnership to accelerate the end to extreme poverty. Alexis is leading the team around the new Global Innovation Exchange, a industry level platform to share all globally relevant development innovation.

Alexis received a dual major in Advertising and Public Relations from Pepperdine University (where she later returned as a professor), a Global Executive MBA from Kellogg Northwestern, as well as a Masters in Direct and Interactive Media from NYU.  She maintains a  “CFRE” (Certified Fundraising Executive) as well as an “SAPM”  (Advanced Project Management Accreditation) from Stanford University, and a Certificate in Non-profit Management from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Prior to her career in development, Alexis worked as the Director of Marketing for the Internet Trade Association, where her job was to help Wall Street and the corporate world understand the impact that the internet, innovation, and technology would have on business, customer experience, and society; as well as to match-make new innovative technologies to traditional business paradigms creating strategic change management models as well as major supply-chain and distribution reforms.  Alexis is the co-author of the book “Get your Dream Job”. Alexis is an avid horsewoman, scuba diver, home renovator, and lives with her husband in Virginia.

Dr. Bose is CEO of Vanu, Inc. Founded in 1998, Vanu, Inc. pioneered the commercialization of software-defined radio and was the first company to receive FCC certification of a software-defined radio in 2004. Vanu, Inc. has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Software-Defined Radio Forum Achievement Award, IEEE Spectrum Magazine’s Wireless Winner, and the GSM Association Technology Award for Most Innovative Infrastructure Product. Dr. Bose has been granted the personal distinctions of being named a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer and a ComputerWorld Honors Program Laureate. Dr. Bose is currently serving as a Commissioner to the UN Broadband Commission for Digital Development, as a member of the Army Science Board, and as a member of the MIT Corporation. Dr. Bose was a technical expert for the President’s Council of Advisors (PCAST) report: “Realizing the full potential of government-held spectrum to spur economic growth”, and is the founder of the National Spectrum Consortium. Dr. Bose received his B.S, M.S. and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT.

In her six years at Forbes, senior editor Caroline Howard has tracked the rise of a new generation of education entrepreneurs, and is editor of the leading college ranking based specifically on outcome-based measures, America’s Top Colleges. She is also the editor of the site’s education channel, 30 Under 30, 100 Most Powerful Women and World’s Most Powerful People. Formerly a People correspondent and photo editor at Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, she has been invited to speak at key education summits such as SXSWedu, EdTech Europe, Council of Independent College’s College Media Conference, and Rethink Education.

Shahab is a social entrepreneur based in the DC area. He has over a decade of experience starting, scaling, and exiting companies. Shahab was most recently the co-founder and CEO of CoFoundersLab, which merged in 2014 to create Onevest – an equity crowdfunding platform headquartered in NYC. CoFoundersLab has become the largest community of entrepreneurs in the world with more than 75,000 members worldwide. Prior to CoFoundersLab, Shahab co-founded HyperOffice, where he led product and marketing; he operated the startup for over 7 years serving more than 400,000 customers worldwide, prior to its successful successful exit to Atlanta based Company.com. Shahab’s passion is in helping to build and foster the innovation economy, which he’s currently realizing through his efforts as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland teaching International Entrepreneurship, and as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Startup Maryland.

Shahab speaks around the world on the subjects of entrepreneurship, building startup teams, and fundraising. He earned his BA in Economics from University of Maryland, College Park.

Jean Philbert Nsengimana is the Minister of Youth and ICT of the Republic of Rwanda since 2011. He has spearheaded several initiatives including TransformAfrica Summit in 2013, that is the next generation of ICT4D agenda after Connect Africa. Before joining the Government of Rwanda, Honorable Jean Philbert Nsengimana worked for the Washington D.C-based interactive mobile health services company Voxiva Inc. as a Country Director for Rwanda. During his tenure, Voxiva won several awards and accolades including the African Technology in Government Award (TIGA) for best e-health and e-agriculture solutions. Prior to that, he worked as Regional Coordinator for Africa with the Development Gateway Foundation, advancing the use of modern technology in Aid Management, Public Procurement and Knowledge Sharing.

Jean Philbert Started his career at the National University of Rwanda as Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science. While the University, he initiated and Directed for 5 years the Rwanda Development Gateway, an organization that was instrumental in advancing Rwanda’s Government web presence.

He holds a Global Masters in Business from SP Jain School of Global Management in Singapore and a Masters of Information and Communication Technology from the National University of Rwanda.

Rao is an entrepreneur, technologist, and executive responsible for innovating and bringing products to market in areas including mobile, digital media, hardware (IOT), and e-Commerce. He has built companies, advised, and managed teams of various sizes including launching intrapreneurial projects at large companies. His involvement has been throughout all phases of a company’s life-cycle – pre-concept, early-stage, venture/angel financing, growth, and exits. Core areas are product, strategy, business modeling, and partnerships.

Jonathan is a Senior Editor running the Contributors Network at TechCrunch. Previously he worked as a senior reporter for Dow Jones & Co. writing for its newswires, The Wall Street Journal, VentureWire and LBO Wire, covering venture capital and private equity investment from New York and Shanghai.

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