Gargee Ghosh
Gargee Ghosh is the President, Global Policy & Advocacy at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gargee oversees government affairs, economic policy, advocacy, and philanthropic partnerships in support of the foundation’s goals around the world. She is also responsible for the foundation’s regional offices and strategic presence in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.
Her previous positions at the foundation included director of the Development Policy & Finance team and director of the Program Advocacy & Communications team. In those roles, she worked with international finance and economic decision-makers and led the development and implementation of the foundation’s issue advocacy and communications strategies.
Gargee previously held senior positions at McKinsey & Company, Google, and the Center for Global Development, and she served on the board of CAMFED USA and on President Barack Obama’s Global Development Council.
She holds graduate degrees in development economics from the University of Oxford and in international relations (MSFS) from Georgetown University, and she has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Victoria in Canada.
Don Gips
Don Gips, CEO of the Skoll Foundation, leads the organization’s work investing in, connecting, and championing social entrepreneurs to create transformational 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 board of 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 is a venture partner at Draper Richards Kaplan. Don and Liz have three grown sons: Sam, Peter, and Ben.
Tim Hanstad
Tim Hanstad leads the Chandler Foundation as its CEO. The Chandler Foundation seeks a world of shared prosperity in which nations are well-governed, businesses help drive economic growth and societal well-being, and all individuals have the opportunity to flourish. Tim previously co-founded and was the longtime CEO of Landesa, the world’s leading land rights organization. Tim led Landesa’s growth from a 2-person operation to the #1-ranked human rights NGO in the world. He launched Landesa’s programs in China, the former Soviet Union, and India – where he lived for many years.
As a Skoll Social Entrepreneur Awardee and Schwab/WEF Outstanding Social Entrepreneur he has been recognized as a solutions-oriented leader, bridge-builder and innovator across the social investment and global development sectors. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Washington Post, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Huffington Post and beyond. He has two law degrees from the University of Washington and has completed certificate programs at Harvard Business School and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Tim is the proud spouse of Chitra and a father to four adult children from whom he draws inspiration.
Robyn Calder Harawi
Robyn Calder Harawi is Executive Director of The ELMA Foundation, and board member of The ELMA Philanthropies Services (U.S.) Inc., the services arm of The ELMA Group of Foundations. The ELMA Group of Foundations invests in: healthcare and education for children in Africa; relief for communities across the world affected by humanitarian crises; the growth of social enterprises in Africa; and youth development through music in the United States.
Robyn is a member of the Royal Bank of Canada Philanthropy Advisory Council, Last Mile Health’s Advisory Council, and the board of The END Fund, which focuses on ending neglected tropical diseases.
Robyn has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, a MSc in Political Sociology from the London School of Economics, and a BA in Development Studies from UC Berkeley.
Per Heggenes
Per Heggenes is the CEO of IKEA Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Stichting INGKA Foundation, the owner of the Swedish home furnishings company IKEA. As CEO, Heggenes sets and drives the Foundation’s funding and innovation strategies, and is a tireless advocate for children living in some of the world’s poorest communities. Since becoming the Foundation’s first CEO in 2009, Heggenes has presided over the Foundation’s evolution into a global, independent, strategic philanthropy with a laser focus on fighting climate change and improving livelihood opportunities for the poor.
He serves on numerous advisory boards for humanitarian and development organizations and has taken a special interest in helping reform the way the global community works to embrace the rights of refugees and migrants – aimed at positive integration that leads to economic independence and self-reliance.
In 2019, Heggenes was appointed by the UN Secretary General to join the High Level Panel on Internal Displacement with the goal of developing durable solutions to protracted internal displacement.
Previously, Heggenes held global and regional leadership roles for the shipping and logistics company Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics and global public relations firm Burson-Marsteller, based in London and New York. Heggenes served in the Norwegian Air Force and graduated from the University of Augsburg in Germany with a “Diplom Oekonom”.
Rohini & Nandan Nilekani
Nandan Nilekani co-founded Infosys and is the Non-Executive Chairman of Infosys from 24 Aug 2017. He is the Co-founder and Chairman of EkStep, a not-for-profit effort to create a learner-centric, technology-based platform to improve basic literacy and numeracy for millions of children. He was most recently the Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in a Cabinet Minister’s rank.
Rohini Nilekani is the Chairperson of Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies and Co-founder and Director of EkStep, a non-profit education platform. She is also the Founder and Former Chairperson of Arghyam, a foundation she set up in 2001 for sustainable water and sanitation, which funds initiatives across India. From 2004 to 2014, she was Founder-Chairperson and chief funder of Pratham Books, a non-profit children’s publisher that reached millions of children during her tenure. She sits on the Board of Trustees of ATREE, an environmental think tank.
Elizabeth Yee
Liz Yee is the Executive Vice President, Program Strategy and Chief of Staff at The Rockefeller Foundation. She oversees The Foundation’s portfolio of global programs, and leads the advancement of The Foundation’s strategic priorities. She joined The Rockefeller Foundation in 2019 as Managing Director, Climate and Resilience. In 2015, Yee joined 100 Resilient Cities, where she held various executive leadership roles. Prior to 100 Resilient Cities, Yee co-led the Public Power and Utilities practice at Barclays Capital. During her seventeen years in banking, she and her team developed, structured, and executed over $30 billion of infrastructure transactions. She and her team were two-time winners of the “Bond Buyer Deal of the Year” for their innovative approaches in project finance. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
