IMPACT VENTURERS - Change-makers Share their Stories

Isaac Sesi is an entrepreneur, engineer and innovator passionate about leveraging technology to solve some of Africa's most pressing problems. He leads the team at Sesi Technologies where they are developing affordable technologies to solve problems in the world's food systems with a focus on Africa. They currently develop and manufacture a suite of post-harvest management technologies aimed at helping farmers and agribusinesses reduce losses, maximize productivity and increase their income. He is a 2019 MIT Technology Review Innovator Under 35. His work has been featured in several prestigious publications and he has had the opportunity to showcase his work to several heads of states including the president and vice president of Ghana, the former Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel and Prince Charles of Wales.

Anastasia Tsiloglou began her career as a projects coordinator at BP. She later became Business Planning Manager at Microsoft-Greece. In 2010 she joined Doctors without Borders and became aware of her interest in social entrepreneurship. This led her to joining the newly founded Action finance Initiative in 2014, as its first General Manager. She helped this fledgling NPO develop into the most significant microlender in Greece. In this episode, she discusses microlending in developed countries as well as developing countries, and explains ways in which microlending can help local entrepreneurs launch new and much needed businesses.

Alexandra Mitsotaki was born in one of Greece's most prominent political families, but chose to turn her back on 'party politics' and focus on what she calls 'Political Activity with a Capital P'. She is Co-Founder and Chair of the World Human Forum, which was the result of  20 years of experience in different social initiatives, starting with the creation of ActionAid Hellas in 1998 and followed by work on cultural diplomacy, as since 2009 she chairs and directs the Greek Cultural Centre (CCH) in Paris, promoting Greek culture in the Francophone world. 

Marina Hatsopoulos was Founding CEO of Z Corporation, an early market leader in 3D printing out of MIT. The Company was the winner of the "New England Technology Fast 50" for 2001, a ranking of the 50 fastest-growing technology companies in the region, and was listed in the Inc 500 ranking of the nation’s 500 fastest-growing private companies by Inc Magazine. She is currently Chair of the Board of Levitronix Technologies, the worldwide leader in magnetically-levitated bearingless motor technology and Founding Advisor of Inkbit, an MIT startup. She is on the MIT Corporation Visiting Committee for the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and she is President of Hellenic Innovation Network. She is on the Advisory Board of the Nantucket Conference, MIT Enterprise Forum Greece, Eurobank's EGG accelerator, Mindspace entrepreneurial program, and Cyprus Seeds research commercialization program.

Ana Maria Aristizabal is an operator, investor and board member of impact organizations with 18 years of experience. She is passionate about unleashing human potential through education, mentorship and smart capital. She currently advises the Employment Technology Fund, a VC Fund specialized in workforce development and teach impact investing at Columbia University. Over the past five years. She led KIPP's expansion and advocacy work in Northern California and before, invested and supported growing social enterprises across LATAM as a principal at Bamboo Capital Partners. She started her career as an investment banker at Citi and ABN AMRO working with government and infrastructure companies. She has a BS in Finance & International Relations, an MPA from Columbia University and a Master’s in Education Leadership from the Broad Residency.

Elijah Anderson is an American sociologist. He is the Sterling Professor of Sociology and of African American Studies at Yale University, where he teaches and directs the Urban Ethnography Project. Professor Anderson is one of the world's leading urban ethnographers and cultural theorists. He has written several very important books, including: Code of the street: Decency, violence, and the moral life of the inner city, and Against the Wall: Poor, Black, and Male. In his latest book, Black in White Space, Professor Anderson discusses the burden and unique challenges black people are faced with as they navigate "white" space".

John Cronin is an entrepreneur, a sock-tycoon, a public speaker, a philanthropist, a dancer, an athlete, a podcast host, a boyfriend. He also happens to have Down Syndrome, however, he has not allowed it to hold back his dreams and love for life. In 2015, he founded a company, 'John's Crazy Socks', with the help of his father, Mark Cronin, an accomplished entrepreneur with a long and successful track record. Together, they have built it into what they call 'the world's largest sock store', referring to the over 4,000 different designs that are available through their website, JohnsCrazySocks.com. John and Mark have been using John's Crazy socks as a platform for spreading happiness to their customers as well as an incredibly positive message about the ability of people with special abilities to do great work and play active, useful roles in various types of businesses. Today, John's Crazy Socks has annual revenues of over $2.5 million and a growing a staff of over 30 employees, many of whom are people of special abilities.

Barika Edwards is an award-winning social impact innovator and entrepreneur with a unique interdisciplinary background in tech, media management, and production. She was the founder of OweYaa, a social impact HR Tech company that equipped veterans and military spouses for transitioning out of the military and into high-tech careers. She is well-known and well-liked in the circles of public radio as the executive producer of the 'Artsy Fartsy Show', where for 9 years she discussed the intersection of art and culture in politics, science, technology, and history with world-renowned creatives including Oscar winners, Hollywood heavyweights, National Poet Laureates, music legends, scholars, and activists. She is currently pursuing a MSc in Business at Harvard University. 

Mahfuzul Islam is a social entrepreneur with 7+ years in business and philanthropy sectors. He is the co-founder and CEO of Jhal, a food startup, employing 12 stay at home immigrant mothers, helping them build skills, & preparing them for a career or a path toward higher education. He’s currently running for office (2024) to encourage residents of Queens to participate in the community. He wants to make local government the place people gather — a place you go when you need to know where to get childcare, how to apply to college, and how to feed your family.He holds degrees in International Political Economy and International Relations and Affairs from Fordham and Harvard. 

Alexander Kopelman is the Co-founder, President and CEO of Children's Arts Guild, an organisation focused on helping children become creative problem-solvers, develop self regard, and feel empowered to take action in the world. He co-authored the book 'The Empress Has No Clothes: Overcoming Self-Doubt to Embrace Success', along with Joyce Roche, in which they explored Impostor Syndrome and how to manage it. Prior to all that, Alex was the Director of Marketing and Communications at Girls Inc. 

Joyce Coffee is the founder and President of Climate Resilience Consulting, a company that has developed Climate Resilience Strategies for or in collaboration with institutions such as the EPA, US Climate Alliance, National Association of Realtors and others. Joyce is also the Chair of Anthropocene Alliance, the nation's largest coalition of frontline communities fighting for climate and environmental justice. Anthropocene supports over 100 American communities and leads partnerships with national organizations like Thriving Earth Exchange, US Army Corps of Engineers Silver Jackets and others. 

Val Okaru-Bisant is a social entrepreneur with over 15 years of high-level advisory & work experience in economic development, business, trade, water and gender sectors. She is the CEO, Founder and General Counsel at Afrocosmo Development Impact, LLC, Maryland, USA. She has over 15 business and scholarly publications & has private sector & World Bank experience. She was one of the pioneering members of Jean-Roger Mercier’s initial World Bank project environmental review team that categorized and reviewed project compliance with Bank procedures. She & her team started the process of formulating World Bank operational policies, including OP 7.50 (international waters), OP 4.01 (environmental assessment and OP 4.12 (involuntary resettlement). She & her World Bank team (Pauline and Mike) also monitored & supervised the $300 multi-donor financed RUSAFIYA water supply project & within the framework of the project, they introduced the concept of community based participation to World Bank management (as referenced in Maggi Black, Learning What Works, A Twenty Year View on International Water & Sanitation Cooperation). Her 2011 published law review article also spearheaded the concept of corruption risk insurance coverage which some prominent Banks adopted in their portfolios. 

Jamel Robinson is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Foster Youth Impact (FYI). Based in Harlem, New York City, FYI is a social justice nonprofit, disrupting the status quo, innovating opportunities, and creating equitable solutions that reimagine and advance foster youth wellness, opportunity and success.

Alex Peay is the Founder and "Chief Trouble-Maker" of Ones Up (onesup.org) , a non-profit organisation based in Philadelphia, which is focused on helping black and brown youth from disadvantaged backgrounds address issues in their community while gaining access to employment, education and entrepreneurship opportunities. Alex has over thirteen years of experience in the field of public service and was an Echoing Green Fellow from 2016 to 2020. 

Carolyn Johnson does not sleep... and if she does, it is not clear how she manages to find time for her cultural touring company, 'Welcome to Harlem', her musical event company, 'Harlem Jazz Boxx', and the toy she is producing, 'Harlem-opoly', on top of being Senior Project Leader in the Legal Division of the New York Liquidation Bureau!!! One thing is for sure: Carolyn lives, eats, walks, talks, observes, listens and thinks Harlem 24/7, and has done so ever since she was a girl in the sixties and seventies, back when living in Harlem was not necessarily ... "Cool" yet. Her passion for this amazing neighbourhood is relatively easy to understand for those of us who have visited or lived there and have ended up loving it. However, there is something special about her relationship with it, similar to the that of Tesla with electricity. In this episode, we discussed Harlem, as the focus of her business, as well as its development, from centre of the African-American 'Harlem Renaissance', to today's on-going gentrification. (Btw ... Check www.WelcomeToHarlem.com)

Carolina Pozo is the Founder and Executive Director of Avanti Ecuador, a non profit organisation based in New York, NY and Quito, Ecuador. Avanti is an educational non-profit organisation, founder in 2009, which designs and implements social innovation projects to generate sustainable development in small villages of Ecuador. She is also CEO of Muze Cacao, a social enterprise working alongside AVANTI, and producing organic, vegan and bean-to-prism chocolate crafted at origin. Muze works together with farmers and their families to help them rise out of poverty and generate sustained growth. 

Anna Bruni Sabhaney spent 8 years as a civil engineer at major international engineering firms aligning different public and private stakeholder interests, until she decided to transition to the world of Non Profits. She founded The Confluencers Ltd in 2018 with the vision of amplifying Non-profits’ missions by helping them powerfully communicate their impact. She has been working with non-profits through her online coaching programme ever since, helping tens of leaders transition to Relational Impact Based Fundraising; make communication of complex impact fun and attract trust based long term core funding. Check out https://www.theconfluencers.com/case-study to find out more!

Kristin Van Busum is the Founder and CEO of Project Alianza, a 501(c)3 organization, which has developed a community-led scalable model that employs local women as educators to improve literacy outcomes and increase school retention among girls. To date, Project Alianza has supported 19,000+ children living in isolated farming communities in Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador, and they continue to grow their impact. 

Akintola (Tola) Adesanmi is the CEO of Spleet, a prop-tech startup located in Lagos, Nigeria, which is focused on the development of products for improving aspects of the Nigerian Rental Market. In this episode, we discussed Spleet's innovative solutions as well as the Nigerian entrepreneurial ecosystem. 

Lanre Ajakaiye is the Founder & CEO of 25 Bough Street.
25 Bough Street is currently a vacant, 15000+ sq ft building in the Olneyville section of Providence, Rhode Island taking up a city corner block. The vision is to re-develop 25 Bough Street taking it from a blighted property to in-demand public space with six (6), integrated use cases with community partners at the center yielding workforce development, career and self awareness, financial literacy and empowerment for thousands physically and virtually also including a cultural experience museum.

Kathy LeMay is a veteran in the world of Philanthropy, with over thirty years of work as a Fundraiser and Leader of several organisations, including Women for Women International, World Pulse Media, Zana Africa, Beyond Words Publishing, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and others. In 2005, she founded Raising Change Inc, of which she was the CEO for over 14 years. Kathy is currently the Director of Philanthropy at Amazon Watch, an organization that works in solidarity with Indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin to defend the rainforest. She is also getting her Master’s degrees in Advanced Trauma-Informed Mental Health Counseling to support those on the front lines of social change and global unrest. She’s based in western Massachusetts where she operates a farm sanctuary and rescue with her sister. In this episode, Kathy shared her wisdom on philanthropy, fundraising, empathy, listening, leading, teaching, and explained the effect that 'surrendering' has had in her own quest to deal with trauma as well as helping others deal with theirs... 

Garri Rivkin is an Entrepreneurial Educator, Learning Specialist, Higher Education Administrator, Career Coach, and Community Organizer.
He founded The City Tutors, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that expands access to equitable, no-cost volunteer tutoring and mentoring support for historically underserved communities. His vision is for all New Yorkers to have the privilege of increased academic and professional preparedness vital to upward economic mobility. You can visit the website of The City Tutors at thecitytutors.org.

Frank Azeke is a College Professor and Entrepreneur with a passion for transforming young minds, universities, and organizations by sharing real-world experience in entrepreneurship, education, and startup business. 

Lisa Selin Davis is the author of hundreds of essays and articles for publications like the New York Times, Time Magazine, The Washington Post, The Guardian, New York Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and many others. She is also the author of 'TOMBOY', a non-fiction book, where she explores the evolution of Tomboyism, honouring girls and women who defy gender norms. In this episode, we discuss the history, science and psychology of gender non-conforming girls, what their future holds, and how we understand them now in the context of gender identity. 

Gabriel Brodbar's career in the field of social impact spans over 25 years. He began by developing and operating award-winning drop-out prevention and college prep programs for at-risk youth in Houston and New York. He later founded and directed Dartington-i NY, a national and international consulting firm, providing a wide range of research and tools to city and state child social service systems. In 2005, he became the founder and Executive Director of NYU's Reynolds Program in Social Entrepreneurship, where he stayed for 13 years. The program provided funding and support to students, faculty and other parties from across NYU and around the world, focused on realising pattern-breaking change of social importance in sustainable and scalable ways. Today, he is the founder and Principal of GB Consulting, a firm that focuses on the strategic management and policy needs of social enterprises, non profits and government agencies, as well as an Ambassador to The Black Entrepreneurship Initiative. In this discussion, Gabe shares experiences from his long career and offers insight into the world of social impact. 

Micah Kotch is a nationally recognized thought leader with deep relationships across multiple mobility, urbantech and energy-related sectors. His current position as Managing Director of Urban-X, an Urban-Tech venture accelerator affiliated with the BMW Group, allows him to work at the forefront of innovation, helping early-stage Urbantech startups succeed. 

Frank Mruk is an architect, a strategist and a social entrepreneur. He is the Executive Director of the Center for Smart Building Technology in Roxbury, MA, a center focused on training the workforce for hybrid professions related to smart buildings. He is also the Executive Director of the Center for Strategic Innovation. In the past he has served as the Associate Dean of NYIT's School of Architecture and Planning, and has held numerous faculty positions at colleges like Parsons, RISD, and NYU. His unique background combines a bachelor's degree in Architecture from Pratt, with an MBA from Pace and a Postgraduate degree in Strategy and Innovation from the University of Oxford. 

Anvit Goyal is manager of business process improvement at 'Vital Strategies', where he has served as member of the DEI Task Force, a cross-functional group with the task to guide and champion change and serve as the foundation for sustained work in diversity, equity, and inclusion. He is also a co-founder and Strategy Lead at "Legacy Impact Ventures Africa', an impact investing company providing Impact Measurement and Management (IMM) services and working to drive capital to African, women-led businesses and gender-balanced teams. He is a passionate change-maker with years of experience leading innovations for the greater good and empathizing with stakeholders to design solutions for societal impact across industries- manufacturing, retail, healthcare, and non-profits. 

Nikos Ververidis is a founder of a cultural platform ελculture and co-founder of 'Aephoria', a sustainable business incubator, with its trademark project - annual innovation competition in blue economy BlueGrowth. He is also a co-founder and shareholder at Medculture and Openfarm.gr (a spinoff of Medculture). 

Caroline Weinberg is the Founder of Plan A, a non-profit organization offering a variety of healthcare services for free to uninsured people in the Mississippi Delta area. Caroline has extensive experience in public health and policy  and is passionate about confronting the social determinants of health. She has a BA in Psychology from UVA, got her MD at NYU, where she was a Reynolds Fellow, and a Masters in Public Health from Columbia University. 

Antonia Bowring was named to 2021 Top Coaches List, NY. She is a highly credentialed consultant, executive coach, and strategic facilitator with comprehensive experience in early-stage and corporate settings helping leaders reframe their opportunities and challenges, and then execute on them. 

In this episode I am joined by Anu Gupta, who is the Founder and CEO of Be More, a company dedicated to unleashing human capital by breaking bias.

Anu is an expert in mindfulness and unconscious bias.

With a background in Philosophy as well as Law, he developed Be More’s methodology through multidisciplinary research that lasted over a decade and has brought his methodology to over 15,000 professionals nationwide, in sectors like healthcare, finance, law, technology and government.

We discussed how Be More brings together mindfulness and technology to help heal communities from the damaging effects of unconscious bias.

Ian Marvy is an award winning social entrepreneur with 25 years of experience working at the intersection of community/economic development, food systems change and youth empowerment. As a social entrepreneur and urban farmer he works locally, nationally and internationally on initiatives that build stronger, healthier, more just and equitable communities. 

In this episode, we discuss 'Added Value', a non-profit organization Ian co-founded over 20 years ago, and the way in which farming and producing food can be used as a vehicle for the social and economic redevelopment and even spiritual healing of of low income communities.

Andrew Greenblatt has spent his career as a Social Entrepreneur and teacher who creates for-profit and not-for-profit businesses with a social mission. He is the Founder and current Executive Director of IDG Benefits Fund. IDG Benefits Fund is working with government entities, companies, and labor organizations to help low-wage workers get access to benefits usually reserved for traditional employees.In this episode, Andrew discusses IDG Benefit Fund's model for providing benefits to low-wage workers of companies like Uber and Lyft. 

Interviewed by Evangelos P. Limpantoudis

Hiba Tagelalla is a Rotational Project Engineer at a Structure Tone, a General Contractor in Manhattan. She is also an African American woman in an industry of white men. Her promising career in the world of construction started with a dream at a young age to one day become an architect. Today, her dream has adjusted, but she has not compromised, even though there have been several moments in her academic and professional career so far, when compromise seemed inevitable. In this episode, we discuss her perspective on racial and gender (in)equity in the academic and professional world of architecture and construction.

Hiba Tagelalla is a Rotational Project Engineer at a Structure Tone, a General Contractor in Manhattan. She is also an African American woman in an industry of white men. Her promising career in the world of construction started with a dream at a young age to one day become an architect. Today, her dream has adjusted, but she has not compromised, even though there have been several moments in her academic and professional career so far, when compromise seemed inevitable. In this episode, we discuss her perspective on racial and gender (in)equity in the academic and professional world of architecture and construction. 

Martin Pedersen describes his thoughts on the past, present and future of architectural and design criticism and discusses the mission, achievements and obstacles of CommonEdge.org. He also shares an incredible story of how he got his first job, which eventually led to an entire career in publishing.

Martin is a veteran of the design-publication industry. He began his career as the editor of Graphis, and later spent 14 years as Executive Editor at Metropolis Magazine. In 2016, he founded Common Edge Collaborative, a a non-profit online publication.

Martin Pedersen describes his thoughts on the past, present and future of architectural and design criticism and discusses the mission, achievements and obstacles of CommonEdge.org. He also shares an incredible story of how he got his first job, which eventually led to an entire career in publishing.

Martin is a veteran of the design-publication industry. He began his career as the editor of Graphis, and later spent 14 years as Executive Editor at Metropolis Magazine. In 2016, he founded Common Edge Collaborative, a non-profit online publication.

Pavlos Pavlakis is an currently an associate at Venture Friends a venture capital fund in Athens, Greece. He was Head of Strategy and Finance at Quiqup, a tech and logistics start-up in London, and also worked in structuring and transaction execution at capinvest, a financial and investment management firm. He has a BS in Math and Economics from London School of Economics, and an MS in finance from the Imperial College Business School.

Interviewed by Evangelos P. Limpantoudis

Pavlos Pavlakis is an currently an associate at Venture Friends a venture capital fund in Athens, Greece. He was Head of Strategy and Finance at Quiqup, a tech and logistics start-up in London, and also worked in structuring and transaction execution at capinvest, a financial and investment management firm. He has a BS in Math and Economics from London School of Economics, and an MS in finance from the Imperial College Business School.

Interviewed by Evangelos P. Limpantoudis

Pavlos Pavlakis is an currently an associate at Venture Friends a venture capital fund in Athens, Greece. He was Head of Strategy and Finance at Quiqup, a tech and logistics start-up in London, and also worked in structuring and transaction execution at capinvest, a financial and investment management firm. He has a BS in Math and Economics from London School of Economics, and an MS in finance from the Imperial College Business School.

Interviewed by Evangelos P. Limpantoudis

Lee Tabas is President of Tabas Funding Ltd and is an expert in community banking and entrepreneurship. For 30 years, he grew from bank trainee to bank president, and under his leadership, Royal Bank of Pennsylvania (acquired by Bryn Mawr Trust in 2017) grew from $20 million in assets to $500 million. He has served as trusted advisor to bankers, and has invested in several small businesses through Tabas Funding Ltd.

Interviewed by Evangelos P. Limpantoudis

Lee Tabas is President of Tabas Funding Ltd and is an expert in community banking and entrepreneurship. For 30 years, he grew from bank trainee to bank president, and under his leadership, Royal Bank of Pennsylvania (acquired by Bryn Mawr Trust in 2017) grew from $20 million in assets to $500 million. He has served as trusted advisor to bankers, and has invested in several small businesses through Tabas Funding Ltd.

Interviewed by Evangelos P. Limpantoudis

Emily Galvin is the co-founder and co-executive director of Partners for justice (PfJ), a group focused on improving the lives of low-income people by empowering and supporting them through holistic defense. In this episode of Urban Impact Podcast, we discussed PfJ's approach of 'holistic legal representation', and the transformative effects that it can have on disenfranchised communities around the US.

Emily has been a public defender in California and New York, and has worked to protect both people facing charges, and people returning home from incarceration. She is a graduate of Harvard University and Stanford Law School, and was honored as one of the American Bar Association’s Top 40 Young Lawyers in 2017

Interviewed by Evangelos Limpantoudis

Emily Galvin is the co-founder and co-executive director of Partners for justice (PfJ), a group focused on improving the lives of low-income people by empowering and supporting them through holistic defense. In this episode of Urban Impact Podcast, we discussed PfJ's approach of 'holistic legal representation', and the transformative effects that it can have on disenfranchised communities around the US.

Emily has been a public defender in California and New York, and has worked to protect both people facing charges, and people returning home from incarceration. She is a graduate of Harvard University and Stanford Law School, and was honored as one of the American Bar Association’s Top 40 Young Lawyers in 2017

Interviewed by Evangelos Limpantoudis

In the second part of the interview with Terri Belkas-Mitchell, we discuss what it takes to develop affordable housing, and how it can contribute in the redevelopment of underserved urban communities.

Terri is an expert in affordable housing development. She is a founding principal at Xenolith Partners LLC, a very successful, woman-owned affordable housing development firm based in Connecticut.

In this interview with Terri Belkas-Mitchell, we discuss what it takes to develop affordable housing, and how it can contribute in the redevelopment of underserved urban communities.

Terri is an expert in affordable housing development. She is a founding principal at Xenolith Partners LLC, a very successful, woman-owned affordable housing development firm based in Connecticut.