GLG Launches 2015 Social Impact Fellowship; Class Features 12 World-Leading Innovators & Nonprofits

NEW YORK, Oct. 19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- GLG (Gerson Lehrman Group, Inc.) today announced its second class of Social Impact Fellows (GLGSocialImpact.com), giving twelve rising social innovators and their organizations access to the world's leading platform for expertise, professional learning, and mentorship.

Beginning today with a two-day convening in New York City, the 2015 class joins GLG's community of top investors, entrepreneurs, corporations, and consulting firms, who benefit every day from academics and policy specialists, C-suite executives, scientists, former public sector officials, and other professional leaders. Fellows and their teams will have free, unlimited access to GLG's membership of more than 425,000 experts, helping them to solve their toughest challenges and increase social impact.

"The opportunity for innovation and impact is especially rich in the social sector and the need for expertise and learning is particularly acute," said GLG President and CEO Alexander Saint-Amand. "At GLG, our mission is to transform the way the world's top professionals share information and make decisions—it's a privilege to extend this model to some of the world's top social innovators as they pursue critical missions."

The 2015 Fellows were chosen from more than 400 leading early-stage and growing nonprofits and social enterprises from six continents. The competitive selection process was based on applicants' missions and models, in addition to how well GLG's resources could help organizations improve their efficacy and achieve impact at key moments in their growth.

The Fellows and their organizations tackle a range of social challenges around the world – from sustainable building and hygienic sanitation to empowering women and girls in East Africa to urban innovation in New York City. They are:

• Mark Arnoldy – CEO, Possible Health; Achham, Nepal (healthcare);
• David Auerbach – Co-Founder, Sanergy; Nairobi, Kenya (sanitation & health);
• Donnel Baird – Founder & CEO, BlocPower; Brooklyn, New York (community development & energy efficiency);
• Kanya Balakrishna – Co-Founder & President, The Future Project; New York, New York (U.S. education);
• Jason Ballard – CEO, President, & Co-Founder, TreeHouse; Austin, Texas (sustainable building);
• Dan Barasch – Co-Founder & Executive Director, The Lowline; New York, New York (urban public space);
• Melissa Beard – Executive Director, Sustainable Health Enterprises; Kigali, Rwanda (women's and girls' empowerment);
• Mohammed Dalwai – Co-Founder & Director, The Open Medicine Project; Cape Town, South Africa (healthcare);
• Sangu Delle – Founder & CEO, Golden Palm Investments; Accra, Ghana (impact investing/job creation);
• Erine A. Gray – Founder & CEO, Aunt Bertha; Austin, Texas (access to human services);
• Sherry Riva – Founder & Executive Director, Compass Working Capital; Boston, Massachusetts (economic empowerment); and
• Rebecca van Bergen – Founder & Executive Director, Nest; New York, New York (global artisan empowerment).

Fellow bios and organization overviews are available at GLGSocialImpact.com/fellows.

"Each of these dynamic Fellows tackles some of humanity's biggest challenges with vigor and savvy; they are a perfect fit for GLG," said Jennifer Field, who oversees the Fellowship as GLG's Director of Social Impact. "We learned a lot from working with last year's Fellows, and we look forward to leveraging that wisdom with this great group."

"Pursuing our mission requires creative solutions and new partnerships across the value chain – and to get there we need the insight you can only get from deep experience and expertise," said Rebecca van Bergen, Founder and Executive Director of Nest and 2015 Social Impact Fellow. "I'm excited to join this fantastic class of Fellows and learn together."

GLG launched its Social Impact Fellowship in 2014 to extend the benefits of GLG's learning model to social sector leaders who could best take advantage of it. In its inaugural year, GLG experts worked with Fellows taking on critical social challenges, including community health services for underserved New Yorkers, disaster response across the U.S., and extreme poverty in Africa and Latin America.

Manmeet Kaur, who leads the innovative healthcare nonprofit City Health Works and was a 2014 GLG Social Impact Fellow, explained, "GLG Social Impact brings together thought leaders and practitioners to help an organization stretch its imagination. I'm sure the new Social Impact Fellows will leverage this incredibly valuable resource to support their teams, strengthen their programs, and scale their missions."

About GLG / Gerson Lehrman Group

GLG (Gerson Lehrman Group, Inc.) is the world's leading platform for professional learning. Business leaders, investors, consultants, social entrepreneurs, and other top professionals rely on GLG to learn in short- and long-term engagements from more than 425,000 members and other experts. Clients partner with GLG to address their most complex strategic challenges, make better business decisions, and advance their careers through conversations, mentorships, small group convenings, surveys, and other interactions—all within a rigorous compliance framework. Global, technology-driven, and nimble, GLG's approximately 1,000 employees work in 22 offices in 12 countries. For more information visit GLG.it.

About GLG Social Impact

GLG Social Impact connects social sector organizations with experts across industries and geographies for perspectives and expertise to accelerate the impact of their work, including through the GLG Social Impact Fellowship. GLG Social Impact partners with leading social sector organizations around the world, including The Clinton Development Initiative, Endeavor Global, The Bridgespan Group, and The Juilliard School, among others. To find out more, visit www.GLGSocialImpact.com.

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