Sir Richard Branson is Founder and Chairman of the Virgin Group. Virgin is one of the world’s most recognised and respected brands and has expanded into many diverse sectors from air and ground travel to telecommunications, health, space travel and renewable energy through more than 200 companies worldwide, employing approximately 50,000 people in 29 countries.

In 2004, Richard established Virgin Unite, his non-profit foundation. It mobilises the talent and resources from across the Virgin Group and beyond, to tackle tough social and environmental problems in an entrepreneurial way. It is built on the belief that, the only way we can address the scale of the challenges facing the world today is by revolutionising the way businesses and the social sector work together – driving business as a force for good. Richard has been working closely with Virgin Unite to bring together the right partners to help create new global leadership models to address conflict, climate change and disease.

Richard and his close friend, Peter Gabriel, had an idea about the need for a new leadership model for our ‘global village’.

Inspired by the role that elders play in traditional societies, as a source of advice, wisdom and experience, they took the idea to Nelson Mandela and were thrilled when he agreed to help bring a group of ‘global elders’ together.

Founded in 2007 with the support of Virgin Unite and a great group of partners, The Elders convened visionary leaders including Graça Machel, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan and President Carter.

In 2009, Richard brought together a group of the world’s top entrepreneurs to initiate the Carbon War Room. The vision is to mobilise capital, innovation, expertise and international collaboration to increase the effectiveness of climate change efforts already underway and to focus on filling any gaps. These keen entrepreneurial minds will work together to help speed and scale solutions that will deliver a low-carbon economy.

Richard and Virgin Unite also support a number of initiatives that lead to economic empowerment and healthy communities. These initiatives range from; the creation of sustainable healthcare models in Africa, to supporting young entrepreneurs through the Branson School of Entrepreneurship in South Africa, to creating opportunities for disadvantaged young people in the US and the UK.

Richard is married to his wife Joan and they have two wonderful children, Holly and Sam.

Peter is co-founder of the group Genesis with whom he made seven albums. He has also recorded eleven solo albums and composed soundtracks for films including Birdy (1984); The Last Temptation of Christ (1989); and Rabbit Proof Fence (2002) as well as the Oscar-nominated song 'Down to Earth' for the film Wall-E (2008). In 1980 Peter founded WOMAD (World of Music Arts and Dance), which has presented over 150 festivals in over 40 countries.

A long time advocate for human rights, Peter coordinated and participated in Amnesty International's Human Rights Now! Tour in 1988 and also co-founded WITNESS to give cameras and computers to human rights activists around the world. In cooperation with WITNESS, Peter was instrumental in the launch of The Hub, dubbed 'a YouTube for Human Rights'.

Peter's business interests cover music, media and technology and include the Real World group of companies, OD2 which has now become Nokia's Music Store and Solid State Logic, the world's leading manufacturer of mixing consoles for music recording, broadcast and post-production.

Peter has received many awards for his pioneering work in the fields of music and human rights, including the Man of Peace award of the Nobel Peace Laureates, the 'Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres', BT's Digital Music Pioneer Award and Grammy awards for his music and video work. 'Sledgehammer' was voted best video of all time, and his interactive work 'Eve', won the Milia D'Or for Multimedia.

Don Gips is the CEO of the Skoll Foundation and leads the organization’s work investing in, connecting, and celebrating social entrepreneurs to create lasting social change around the world. His experiences span public service, politics, business, finance, and technology. 

Most recently, he led Albright Stonebridge Group’s Africa Practice, consulting with companies, entrepreneurs, and foundations investing across the continent. Previously, he served as Director of Presidential Personnel in the Obama White House, ushering in the most diverse administration in U.S. history. He served as U.S. Ambassador to South Africa where he managed more than 1,000 staff and a budget of over $600 million across multiple government agencies.

Early in his career, he helped design and create a $650 million start‐up government corporation to promote community service which became the AmeriCorps program, still operational today. He served as Chief Domestic Policy Advisor to Vice President Al Gore and Chief of the International Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission. Still earlier in Don’s career, he developed a clean water project with Sarvodaya, a leading social enterprise, and managed a refugee camp in Sri Lanka.

He sits on the boards of Zayo Group, a fiber and internet infrastructure service provider; Liquid Telecommunication, a Pan‐African provider of fiber and telecommunications services led by Strive Masiyiwa, one of Africa’s preeminent entrepreneurs and philanthropists; and the President’s Council on International Affairs at Yale University.

Don received an MBA from the Yale School of Management and his undergrad degree from Harvard University. He is married to Elizabeth (Liz) Berry Gips, who leads education programs for Village Health Works, bringing health care and development to rural Burundi. Don and Liz have three grown sons: Sam, Peter, and Ben.

Srik Gopal is the Managing Partner at Humanity United, a foundation dedicated to cultivating the conditions for enduring freedom and peace. He works on ensuring Humanity United’s focus and alignment around mission, values, and overall strategic direction, while simultaneously engaging with a variety of external colleagues, stakeholders, and networks globally to change the systems in which Humanity United is active.

He was previously Vice President of Strategy and Program at the Democracy Fund, also part of the Omidyar Group. At Democracy Fund, he oversaw the organization’s strategy and programmatic portfolio and instituted learning systems to ensure that the organization is highly impactful in its work. Prior to that, Srik served as Managing Director at social impact consulting firm FSG, co-leading the Strategic Learning and Evaluation practice.

Srik’s articles on systems change, strategy, and evaluation have been featured in The Stanford Social Innovation Review, Foundation Review, The Guardian, and Forbes India, among others.

Lisa Harris is the founder of Align Capital, LLC a private equity firm in Austin, Texas. Ms. Harris is a major investor and involved in all aspects of Align Capital, LLC, including investment opportunities, acquisitions, portfolio oversight, and overall firm management. She has over 35 years of experience in banking, family office investments, real estate and private equity.

Ms. Harris manages the family office investment portfolio of ARH Family Partnership, which holds commercial real estate, early stage capital in young companies, and numerous other investments in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.

Ms. Harris currently serves on multiple corporate boards, including as the Chairman of Americas Technology Acquisition Corp [NYSE ATA.U] which operates as a blank check company and aims to acquire one or more businesses and assets, via a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, and reorganization.

Additionally, Ms. Harris serves and has served as a board member for non-profit boards, including Jeremiah Program, Gen Austin, and others. She is an advocate for transforming families from poverty to prosperity two generations at a time. Her non-profit work prepares determined single mothers to excel in the work force and readies their children to succeed in school, reducing generational dependence on public assistance.

As an ambassador to A Glimmer of Hope she is very passionate about her work in Ethiopia to provide clean water, education, health care and microfinance loans which support resilient communities and empower women and girls.

Judith Lingeman is the director of international affairs of the Postcode Lottery Group, a private company with a social purpose, that brings together business and ideals. It operates Postcode Lotteries in five European countries to raise funds for charity. With a lucky winning postcode (zipcode), neighbours win together. At the same time, thanks to these player communities, vital funding is raised for charities and good causes, making the Postcode Lottery Group the third largest private charity donor in the world after the Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust.

Judith holds a degree in Dutch Corporate Law from the University of Amsterdam Law School. She worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers as a recruiter for the Tax & Legal Services. In 2002 she joined the Dutch Postcode Lottery, where she became responsible for the allocation processes, formal affairs and relationships with the long-term charity partners in the Netherlands. Currently Judith plays an international role in the alignment of the Postcode Lottery Group and in investigating the opportunities for further expansion into other countries.

Judith was selected as a 2013 Young Global Leader, thanks to her professional accomplishments, her commitment to society and her potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world through her inspiring leadership. She represents the lotteries at numerous occasions around the world, driven by her passion to create a better, just world. She is well-known for her fresh thinking, multistakeholder engagement and dynamic ways of collaborating. One of her credos is ’nothing is impossible’.

Randy Newcomb is a Senior Advisor at The Omidyar Group. The Omidyar Group is a diverse collection of global companies, organizations, and initiatives founded by Pierre and Pam Omidyar that strive to catalyze social impact globally.  

As Senior Advisor Mr. Newcomb explores future trends, new and alternative thinking, and diverse points of view to address the challenges we face in the 21st century. Drawing from twenty years of leadership at international levels, Mr. Newcomb supports the mission of The Omidyar Group by weaving together networks of individuals and organizations working together towards a common purpose.

Previously, Mr. Newcomb was the founding President and CEO of Humanity United for fifteen years. Working closely with the Omidyar family, Randy grew HU as a values-based organization dedicated to cultivating the conditions necessary to address intractable problems such as violent conflict, atrocities, human exploitation, and modern-day slavery. Prior to serving as CEO of Humanity United Randy was a Vice-President at the Omidyar Family Foundation and the Omidyar Network. 

Jean is the founding CEO and President of Virgin Unite. Over the last 17 years, she has worked with partners to lead the incubation and start-up of several global initiatives, including: The Elders, The B Team, The Carbon War Room (successfully merged with the RMI), The Africa Donor Collective, Ocean Unite (now ORRAA), The Caribbean Climate Smart Accelerator, and 100% Human at Work. Jean also served as a Partner in the Virgin Group leading their people strategy. 

She spent seventeen years living and working on six continents to start and help lead mobile phone companies in South Africa, Colombia, Bulgaria, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, and the US. She was the joint CEO of Virgin Mobile in Australia prior to starting Virgin Unite. 

Jean holds several advisory board roles, including The Elders, Vintro, Vatican Humanity 2.0, and the Sara Blakely Foundation. She is on the boards of RMI, The Caribbean Climate Smart Accelerator, AID Live, Unite BVI Foundation, The B Team, Penn State Board of Visitors, and Just Capital. She is also honoured to be a B Team leader. She is the author of Partnering and co-founded Plus Wonder to spark more meaningful deep connections and collaborations in the world.

Rob was a co-founder of Aconex, a Melbourne-based construction-tech company that was sold to Oracle in 2018 in what was, at the time, the largest technology acquisition in Australian history.

Rob was always drawn to the world of construction and how people work together. His time on site exposed him to the pain of dealing with the complex information flows that occur between the hundreds of companies on large projects, leading to the genesis of Aconex. Aconex grew to become the largest of its kind, with offices in 42 cities around the world, and supported the construction of numerous, globally iconic projects including Marina Bay Sands, the Panama Canal expansion, Dubai Metro, Hong Kong airport and New York City Hall.

Rob’s passion is now running Gravel Road Ventures and Gravel Road Foundation, which have the mission to find and encourage those who can make a positive difference. The investment arm identifies and supports technology founders who can drive a new wave of innovation. They seek out and bring together awesome people to solve difficult and complex problems using technology. The foundation aims to find people, particularly girls and Indigenous Australians with drive and potential but who have something holding them back, the chance to shine.

Rob believes that technology, coupled with smart and passionate people, can be used to make our world better and help tackle environmental destruction and climate change. Imagine what we could achieve if we had all the brightest minds focused on tackling our most pressing problems.

Shannon Sedgwick Davis is CEO of the Bridgeway Foundation, the charitable giving arm of Bridgeway Capital Management, Inc. An attorney, Shannon is a passionate advocate for social justice and international human rights. She is a well-known strategist engaged in promoting peace and ending human atrocities across our globe.

Shannon is a recipient of the Spirit of McMurry award, given annually to one outstanding alumni, as well as Baylor Law School's 2011 Young Lawyer of the Year award. Shannon's work has been featured a number of times on radio, television, and through print media.

Shannon previously served as Vice-President of Geneva Global, and Director of Public Affairs at International Justice Mission. She is currently a board member of several organisations within the US and abroad including The Elders, Humanity United, and Toms Shoes.

Jeff Skoll creates businesses that result in positive social change. As eBay's founding President, he helped generate entrepreneurial opportunities for millions of individuals around the world. He also launched the eBay Foundation with pre-IPO stock.

In 1999, he created the Skoll Foundation, which supports social entrepreneurs whose innovations are poised to achieve large-scale impact. The Foundation reflects Jeff's belief that, to bring about a more peaceful and prosperous global community, we must deploy the most innovative solutions on critical challenges like health, environmental sustainability, economic and social equity, human rights, institutional responsibility, and peace and security.

The Foundation co-hosts with the Saïd Business School at Oxford the annual Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. The Forum convenes 800 social entrepreneurs, thought leaders, policy makers, philanthropists and students to learn, problem solve and build community.

In 2004, Jeff founded Participant Productions (now Participant Media) to create entertainment content that would have a long-term benefit to society. Among other films, Participant has produced Good Night and Good Luck, An Inconvenient Truth, Darfur Now, The Kite Runner, Charlie Wilson's War, Chicago 10, The Visitor and The Soloist.

In April 2009, Skoll founded the Skoll Urgent Threats Fund and named Dr Larry Brilliant president of the new organisation. The fund addresses urgent challenges confronting humanity and the planet, including climate change, water scarcity, pandemics, nuclear proliferation and Middle East conflict.

John R. Taylor is the President of Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, a private grantmaking foundation based in New York, NY and Washington, DC, dedicated to the effective advancement of social justice. Since co-founding Wellspring in 2000, John has led the foundation’s work to support movements and cultivate accountable social systems and structures that uphold human dignity, strengthen agency, and advance equity for all people.

Prior to his time with Wellspring, John practiced law for 14 years, concentrating on plaintiff’s class action litigation in the Federal (U.S.) court system. His commitment to social justice is grounded in his more than 40 years of involvement in the movement to advance LGBTQ+ rights. John has served on many nonprofit boards, including Human Rights Watch (New York); Haverford College (Haverford, PA); Survivor Corps/Landmine Survivors Network (Washington, DC), the Planned Parenthood Foundation (New York); the Philadelphia Lesbian & Gay Task Force; the Center for Lesbian & Gay Civil Rights (Philadelphia), the Attic Youth Center (Philadelphia); Nine Dots Learning Center (Los Angeles); and The Little Market (Los Angeles). He received a BA from Haverford College and a law degree from Cornell Law School.