GLG Celebrates 2014 Social Impact Fellows

NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --  GLG, the world's largest membership for professional learning and expertise, on Monday celebrated its inaugural class of Social Impact Fellows at its new global headquarters in Manhattan. The GLG Social Impact Fellowship gives twelve promising nonprofit leaders access to one-to-one learning from GLG's 400,000 teaching members, without cost. These creative problem-solvers are among the most promising and gifted social sector leaders. The Fellowship allows them to move beyond the advice and mentorship typically provided by board members and donors.

GLG convened the Fellows in New York today to learn from each other and from GLG's community of top professionals. The two-day summit and its Monday evening reception represent GLG's first major gatherings in its new global headquarters, designed by award-winning architect Clive Wilkinson, which opened for business midsummer. GLG's office is the first of its scale in the United States to embrace activity-based working, an innovative concept that eschews assigned personal workspaces for a more flexible and productive approach to work life.

"Our mission is to transform the way the world's top professionals share expertise, learn, and make decisions. This vital one-to-one learning has been available to top professionals across the private sector, and now we're making it available to the best and brightest innovators in the social sector, where the need for learning is particularly acute, and the opportunity for innovation especially rich," said GLG President and CEO Alexander Saint-Amand. "And we couldn't be prouder to start this new chapter in our new headquarters with these promising leaders."

Jen Field, Director of Social Impact at GLG, explained, "The 2014 GLG Social Impact Fellows were chosen from a diverse group of leading early-stage and growing nonprofits and social enterprises invited to apply and interview. The competitive selection process, which occurs annually, was based on organizations' missions and models and on applicants' articulation of how GLG's resources would help them increase efficacy and scale at key moments in their organizational growth."

The Fellows have joined GLG's community of leading investors, entrepreneurs, corporations, and consulting firms, who learn every day from academics, current and former C-suite executives, scientists, policy specialists, former public sector leaders, and other professional leaders. Fellows and their teams work collaboratively with GLG research teams to leverage the breadth and depth of the GLG network to inform their strategic decisions and increase their impact. GLG's total in-kind donation to the Fellows and their organizations is estimated at $1.5 million.

The Fellows and their organizations tackle a range of social challenges around the world – from community health and entrepreneurship to extreme poverty in Africa and disaster response in the U.S. They are:

• Rachael Chong, founder & CEO, Catchafire; New York, New York (U.S. skills-based volunteering)
• Aaron Fishman, founder & Director, East Bali Cashews; Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia (cashew processing social enterprise)
• Christina Lewis Halpern, Founder & President, All Star Code; New York, New York (men of color in technology)
• Jake Harriman, Founder & CEO, Nuru International; Palo Alto, California (sustainable global development)
• Leila Janah, Founder & CEO, Samasource; San Francisco, California (global enterprise digital service jobs for underserved women and youth)
• Leticia Jauregui, Founder & Executive Director, Crea Comunidades de Emprendedores Sociales; Mexico City, Mexico (business support for marginalized women entrepreneurs in Mexico)
• Manmeet Kaur, Founder & Executive Director, City Health Works; New York, New York (community health services in East Harlem)
• Oliver Libby, Co-Founder & Board Chairman, The Resolution Project; New York, New York (global youth social entrepreneurship)
• Ben Powell, Founder & CEO, Agora Partnerships; Washington, District of Columbia (early-stage impact entrepreneurship in Latin America)
• Zack Rosenburg, Co-Founder & CEO, St. Bernard Project; Chalmette, Louisiana (US long-term disaster recovery)
• Eugenie Teasley, Founder & Chief Executive, Spark+Mettle; Brighton, England (career support for marginalized youth in England)
• Andrew Yang, Founder & CEO, Venture for America; New York, New York (post-college entrepreneurship in US cities)

About GLG / Gerson Lehrman Group
GLG is transforming the way the world's top professionals share expertise and learn. GLG curates custom learning experiences among professionals and thought leaders across fields, within a rigorous compliance framework. GLG scales one-to-one learning through conversations, mentorships, small group convening, surveys, and other interactions with its network of more than 400,000 experts. Global, technology-driven, and nimble, GLG is the world's largest membership for professional learning and expertise. Its 900 employees work in 21 offices in 12 countries. To find out more, visit www.GLG.it and follow @GLG.

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 Julliard School, among others. To find out more, visit www.GLGSocialImpact.com.

SOURCE GLG