Kushal Chakrabarti, Co-Founder and CEO of Vittana

Kushal is the founder and CEO of Vittana, an award-winning organization (Fast Company, Seattle 2.0) that pioneered the Vittana Loan — a $750 student microloan that fights youth poverty at the root cause. A student microloan can triple a girl’s income beyond $10 a day and empower her to think beyond her home’s four walls.

Previously, Kushal ran technology for a $1+ billion team at Amazon.com and is the author of 20+ patents, papers and talks. In his free time, he runs Ironman triathlons and trains guide dogs for the blind. Kushal was recently named as one of Seattle’s Top 40 People Under 40 and voted the #1 Game-Changer in Philanthropy by 1.7 million readers on Huffington Post. He is a frequent speaker on youth poverty and education, including SOCAP, Pop!Tech and TEDxBrussels. Kushal lives in Seattle with his 1-year-old German Shepherd puppy.

Joseph Grenny, Best Selling Author and Cofounder of VitalSmarts

Over the past twenty-five years, Joseph Grenny has taught and advised thousands of leaders on every major continent from the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies to the slums of Nairobi, Kenya. He has advised CEOs and senior executives on more than a dozen major change initiatives—receiving credit from Lockheed Martin Aeronautics’ President as a key factor in helping the organization win the $200 billion Joint Strike Fighter program.

Bestselling Author

Joseph is coauthor of four New York Times bestsellers with almost three million copies in print: Change Anything, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, and Influencer.

An expert in topics ranging from influence and leadership to organizational change and effectiveness, Joseph has been cited in every major newspaper including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. He has appeared on hundreds of radio and television programs including ABC News, CNN, Bloomberg, CNBC, and the Today Show.

Dynamic Speaker

Joseph regularly speaks and consults with leaders across the globe from East Asia, to India, to Europe. He has spoken at events such as the HSM World Business Forum and to organizations including NASA, the American Bankers Association, the Supreme Court of California, the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, the American Public Works Association, and the American Society of Training and Development. A seasoned executive and business strategy expert, Joseph has addressed executive-level teams for clients including Baxter, Yale Medical School, IBM, Progressive Insurance, Sprint, Textron, McGraw-Hill, Allstate, Eli Lilly, Texas Instruments, and Genentech. 

Business Results Expert

Joseph cofounded VitalSmarts in 1990, which is one of the most respected corporate training and organizational development companies in the world. VitalSmarts has helped more than three hundred of the Fortune 500 realize significant results using a proven method for driving rapid, sustainable, and measurable change in behaviors. 

In 2007, Joseph and his cofounders were named Ernst & Young Entrepreneurs of the Year for founding and leading VitalSmarts. Named the 2008 Business of the Year by the Association of Learning Providers, VitalSmarts has also been ranked eight times by Inc. magazine as one of the fastest growing companies in America and has trained more than 800,000 people worldwide.

In addition to VitalSmarts, Joseph cofounded Unitus, a non-profit organization that has helped over 15 million third world poor achieve economic self-reliance.

Sharon Eubank, Director of LDS Charities

Sharon Eubank began her career as a legislative aide focusing on environmental issues and legislative policy in the U.S. Senate. Eubank co-founded an educational retail business in Provo, Utah that catered to special needs and gifted children as well as parents and educators.  In 1998, Eubank joined the staff of LDS Charities, the humanitarian arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  She worked to establish 17 international employment offices and directed the humanitarian wheelchair donation program.  In 2008, she became the regional director for LDS Charities for the Middle East North Africa region.  In 2011, Eubank was appointed the chief executive officer of LDS Charities worldwide.  

Jeff Sheets, Director of the Laycock Center

Jeff Sheets serves as director of the Advanced Advertising Lab and adjunct professor of advertising, teaching the theory and practice of integrated marketing communication. He has spent the last 10 years working and consulting with world-class brands and retailers.

Sheets graduated from the advertising program at BYU and immediately went to work in New York City as the marketing communication manager for Time Inc., creating and tracking direct response television advertising. He then returned to Utah, completed a post-grad integrated marketing communication program from the University of Utah, and served as director of marketing for FranklinCovey, DeseretBook Co. and OGIO.

Since 2002, Sheets has been teaching at BYU and working on his own personal consulting business in advertising. He is also currently serving as a member of the Board of Directors for POPAI, the global association for advertising and marketing at retail.

Fraser Nelson, Executive Director, The Community Foundation of Utah

Fraser has held positions of leadership in nonprofit organizations large and small for more than 25 years in places as diverse as Appalachia and New York City and has a deep understanding of the role they play in improving civic welfare.

Fraser led Utah’s Disability Law Center for 10 years, where she established the agency’s strong presence in the state legislature and helped found ‘and Justice for all”. In 2008 she and venture capitalist Greg Warnock founded  the Community Foundation of Utah. The foundation helps people gather assets and ideas to serve Utah for good and forever.

Fraser is the immediate past president of the Utah Nonprofits Association, consults with nonprofit organizations in Utah and across the nation, and is an adjunct faculty member of the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business. In 2011 she will serve as the first Professional in Residence at the University’s Center for Public Policy and Administration.

She holds degrees in Medieval History and Political Science from Duke University, a MA in Human Development from St. Mary’s University and was a Social Innovation Fellow at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. She and her husband Harris Sondak, a professor at the David Eccles School of Business, and 13 year old daughter Neah spend what some consider an inordinate amount of time in Alta.

Aaron Sherinian, Vice President of Communications and Public Relations of the UN Foundation

Before joining the UN Foundation, Aaron Sherinian served as Managing Director of Public Affairs for the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a U.S. government development assistance agency administering poverty reduction grants totaling over $7 billion in 40 partner countries. In this capacity, he oversaw the agency’s strategic communications portfolio, media relationships, and public relations agenda.

His professional background includes a decade of service as a Foreign Service Officer for the U.S. Department of State. Before returning to Washington, he was Press Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Quito, Ecuador, where he was responsible for Embassy relations with media outlets and acted as the Ambassador’s communications advisor.

His diplomatic experience includes a tour as Deputy Political and Economic Chief at the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan, Armenia, where he managed programmatic coordination and outreach for the U.S. government’s annual assistance budget of $90 million.

He served in the Political and Consular Sections of the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica and in the Office of Policy Planning under two Assistant Secretaries of State for the Western Hemisphere. His experience also includes service at U.S. Missions in Colombia and the Holy See (Vatican).

Before joining the Department of State, Mr. Sherinian worked at the Washington International Trade Association (WITA). He also held positions as a marketing consultant for the Italian distributors for Apple Computer and as a freelance interpreter and writer in Italy.  He is a member of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and the National Association of Government Communicators (NAGC).

Mr. Sherinian is a native of Pasadena, California. He holds degrees from the Johns Hopkins University (School of Advanced International Studies – SAIS) and Brigham Young University. In addition to Spanish, he speaks Italian, Armenian, and French. He and his wife have three children.

Fun fact about Aaron Sherinian: Aaron and his wife are known among friends for hosting a weekly “dance party” for their kids and friends in their very own living room…some tunes, some laughs, and a chance to boogie around the Armenian rugs they’ve collected through the years.

BYU Social Innovation Fellows: Natalie Dance, Benjamin Gong, Jace McLaws, Kyle Durfee

Natalie Dance

Natalie is a senior studying marketing and communications at Brigham Young University (BYU). She grew up in Minnesota and began attending BYU as a freshman in 2007. In 2011, after returning from an 18-month service mission in Panama, Natalie participated in several social innovation classes and programs offered by the BYU Ballard Center. She went on to become a BYU Ballard Center Social Innovation Fellow and a team lead on the Social Innovation Leadership Council. She has also done internships with Ashoka U, The Innovation Network, and Ashoka US in Washington, D.C. Natalie currently works as a communications associate with Good Line, a creative collaborative focused on making micro-documentaries for the social sector. 

Benjamin Gong

Benjamin Gong is a senior at Brigham Young University (BYU) studying economics and business strategy. He grew up in New Hampshire and spent two years in Taiwan on a service mission. He developed an interest in microfinance and international business, and worked for two summers in mainland China. During the summer of 2011, Ben interned with a renewable energy company in Beijing, and the following summer as an analyst for a microfinance startup company in Shanghai. Ben is one of BYU’s Ballard Center Social Innovation Fellows and has been a team lead on BYU’s Social Innovation Leadership Council. In his spare time, Ben enjoys pickup ultimate Frisbee, listening to “This American Life,” and playing the violin. 

Jace McLaws

Jace McLaws is a junior studying accounting at Brigham Young University (BYU). He grew up in Spokane, Washington, and his hobbies include basketball, piano, listening to indie music, snowmobiling, and water-skiing. Jace began attending BYU as a freshman in 2008, and after serving a 2-year service mission in Japan, he became fascinated with everything to do with social innovation. After participating in classes and on-campus internships offered by the BYU Ballard Center, Jace traveled to Uganda last summer to teach entrepreneurial and managerial skills to local residents. He went on to become one of BYU’s Ballard Center Social Innovation Fellows and has spent the year involved with the Social Innovation Leadership Council.

Kyle Durfee

Kyle Durfee is a Business Management major with an emphasis in Strategy, and a minor in Sociology.  He spent last summer as a fellow for Polaris Project, a large anti-human trafficking organization.  He will spend this summer in Peru working on an evaluation of Eagle Condor Humanitarian’s self-reliance programs.

Interactive Dance Ensemble lead by Kori Wakamatsu

This interactive dance ensemble is lead by faculty member Kori Wakamatsu, who teaches Contemporary Dance at BYU. The performers are dance majors and minors that represent a broad range of training and experience. Kori is interested in arts collaboration, pop culture, multicultural education, and advocating for dance in public schools. She sees dance as a way to humanistically connect, express, and embody life. Her choreography is featured in the dance animation film Thought of You. She is honored to be involved in TEDxBYU this year!

Jo-Ann Tan, Business Development Marketing Manager at Acumen Fund

Jo-Ann Tan is a business development marketing manager at Acumen Fund, a non-profit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of poverty. Before Acumen Fund, Tan built a marketing analytics team and developed new marketing strategies for a $1 billion apparel distributor.  Tan also worked at strategy consulting firm Marakon Associates in New York and Singapore.  She began her career at the Monetary Authority (Central Bank) of Singapore.  Tan received a BA in Economics and an MS in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University.