January 30, 2008, 7:30 – 9:00am
State Street Financial Center
One Lincoln Street
36th Floor
Boston, MA 02111
RSVP @ socialinnovationforum.org

Presenters:

Carol Atwood
CEO, Spartacus Media Enterprises and Co-Founder of Generous Returns

Carol Atwood is a successful entrepreneur who is actively involved in creating, investing in, and participating in socially focused ventures. She is a recipient of many awards including “NYC Entrepreneur of the Year award, sponsored by NASDAQ, Kaufmann Foundation, and Ernst and Young. Carol is the founder of Spartacus Media Enterprises, a social mission media company which produces conferences and advisory support for mission-driven media makers and their supporters. She is also the CEO of  Spartacus Capital, a firm that assists with fundraising and fund formation helping to raise funds and facilitate strategic partnerships. Two major focuses of the firm include assisting in the facilitation of socially responsible joint ventures and other business partnerships with Asian companies as well as with global renewable energy buyers and funders. Carol is also committed to many non-profit and socially minded organizations, serving as a member, board member, advisor, or committee head of many of these organizations.


Rick Burnes
Co-Founder, Charles River Ventures and a Director of The Boston Foundation

Rick Burnes was a co-founder of Charles River Ventures in 1970 and has played a major role in the firm's development into one of the country's major venture firms with offices in Waltham, Mass. and Menlo Park, California. Over the last 15 years, Rick has focused on investments in the fields of communications and information services. Among the successful investments he has led on behalf of Charles River are: Cascade Communications, Chipcom Corporation, Epoch Systems, Abacus Direct, Summa Four, Concord Communications, Prominet, Aptis and Sonus Networks. Apart from venture capital, Rick has been active in community organizations. Currently he is Chairman of Boston's nationally recognized Museum of Science, Chairman of the Entrepreneur's Foundation of New England, Vice Chairman of Sea Education Association and Director of The Boston Foundation. He is a past Chairman of the Board of the Middlesex School. Rick holds a B.A. in history from Harvard College and an MBA from Boston University.


Ken Nickerson
Chairman, ASA Investments and Co-Founder and Trustee of the Eos Foundation

Ken Nickerson cofounded ASA Investments in 2006, a small privately held hedge fund, where he currently serves as Chairman. Previously, Mr. Nickerson was a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley where he was the technical leader of the highly successful proprietary trading group PDT
and the architect of PDT’s most successful trading system. PDT trades equities worldwide using statistical computer models to manage market-neutral portfolios. Early in his career, Mr. Nickerson was Vice President of Software Development and one of 4 partners who cofounded the Princeton Transportation Consulting Group. PTCG created logistic software for the nation’s top motor carriers. Mr. Nickerson received his masters in Operations Research from Stanford University and graduated Summa Cum Laude from Princeton University. Mr. Nickerson has served on several nonprofit boards, but currently focuses most of his philanthropic efforts through his work as a cofounder and trustee of the Eos Foundation. The Eos Foundation invests in children’s futures by supporting nonprofit organizations and public policies aimed at
nourishing children’s bodies, nurturing their minds, and building family economic security.


John Simon
Managing Director, General Catalyst Partners and Co-Founder and Board Chair, GreenLight Fund

As a Managing Director of General Catalyst Partners, John Simon invests in both new and existing technology businesses.  Areas of special interest include technology-intensive, industry-leading software and systems platforms; in particular: mission critical enterprise software applications and subsystems; software-based connectivity platforms with an emphasis on wireless; and software-based companies which sit at the intersection of media and technology.  John is a board member of the following mission critical enterprise software applications and subsystems companies: GTESS; OutStart; and Vette. He also is a board member of connectivity platform companies, such as: BridgePort Networks; Hands-On Mobile; and JumpTap (General Catalyst co-founded the company). John is a board member of media/technology companies, such as: BzzAgent; Maven Networks; QuickPlay Media; and 80108 Media (General Catalyst co-founded the company). He formerly served on the boards of: m-Qube (General Catalyst co-founded the company), a General Catalyst investment that was acquired by VeriSign in May 2006; ProfitLogic, a General Catalyst investment that was acquired by Oracle in July 2005; and Taleo (NASDAQ: TLEO; f/k/a: Recruitsoft), which went public in September 2005.   

Prior to co-founding General Catalyst Partners, John was founder, Chairman and CEO of UroMed Corporation.  UroMed completed its initial public offering in 1994 and was subsequently merged to form Alliant Medical Technologies.  Prior to founding UroMed, John led marketing and sales at Adaptive Networks and was a venture capitalist with Highland Capital Partners and Charles River Ventures.
 
John is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO).  He is a co-founder and current trustee of The Steppingstone Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides educational opportunities to deserving inner-city students. In addition to serving on the boards of Steppingstone and Steppingstone-Philadelphia, John has continued his involvement with the non-profit sector by founding the GreenLight Fund Network, which catalyzes the replication and growth of innovative non-profits.

John earned a B.A. from Harvard University and an M.A. from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.


Mark D. Thompson
CEO, Boston Private Bank and Trust Company and Chair, Business Partners Committee, Boston Symphony Orchestra

Mr. Thompson is Chief Executive Officer of Boston Private Bank & Trust Company and serves on its Board. He served as President of the Bank from 2001 to 2003. In 1994, Mr. Thompson joined Boston Private Bank & Trust Company as an Executive Vice President and Treasurer.

Mr. Thompson's prior experience includes: Boston Safe Deposit & Trust Co. as Vice President, Deputy Manager of the Private Banking Deposit and Cash Management Division. In 1987, Mr. Thompson became a Senior Vice President and Founding Officer of Wainwright Bank & Trust Company in Boston. He was named Executive Vice President in 1992, responsible for all private banking activities and deposit services through 1993.

He served on the Board of Directors of the World Affairs Council of Boston from 1998 to 2001.  He is a Board member and past President of the North Shore ARC Board and President of the Partridge Society Board of Norwich University.  He is also an Overseer of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Chairman of the Business Partners Committee, a member of the Casa Esperanza Development Committee, Advisory Board member for Windrush Farm and is on the Transportation Committee for the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.  Mr. Thompson serves on the Financial Services Sub-Committee for Mass Insight’s Global 2015 Committee.
 
Mr. Thompson received his undergraduate degree from Norwich University and his MBA from Clarkson University, School of Management.


Andrew Wolk
Founder and CEO, Root Cause

Andrew Wolk is the founder and CEO of Root Cause as well as a senior lecturer in social entrepreneurship at the Sloan School of Management and the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT.  In four years, Root Cause has grown to a team of over 30 people committed to developing and supporting enduring solutions to social problems through strategy consulting, knowledge sharing, social impact research, and the building of sustainable social enterprises. Andrew has consulted to dozens of organizations working in the fields of civic engagement, economic development, education, the environment, seniors, and more.
 
Andrew founded the two social enterprises that Root Cause leads: ICE and the Social Innovation Forum.  He is now leading a new practice area for Root Cause, Social Impact Research (SIR) which focuses exclusively on the needs of social impact investors.  SIR aggregates, analyzes and disseminates the best information available about social issues and the performance of nonprofit organizations working on those particular social issues so social impact investors and their financial advisors are able to make better informed philanthropic choices.

Lastly, as part of Root Cause’s knowledge sharing focus, Andrew has recently completed the first in a series of Root Cause How-to Guides, entitled Business Planning for Enduring Social Impact, as well as a chapter in the Small Business Administration’s annual report to the president of the United States, titled “Social Entrepreneurship and Government: A New Breed of Entrepreneurs Developing Solutions to Social Problems.”  Andrew began his career as a private-sector entrepreneur, having started, built, and sold a multi-restaurant delivery business in the 1990s. He holds an M.B.A. in Entrepreneurship and Nonprofit Management from Boston University and a B.A. from Lehigh University.