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development economics ETH
executive director ETH4D
CO-founder & CEO policy analytics

adina rom is the founder and CEO of policy analytics, executive director of the ETH initiative ETH for development (ETH4D) and serves as a board member of tamtam- together against malaria. she has a PhD in development economics from ETH zurich and a master of public administration in international development from the harvard kennedy school. she was previously responsible for the implementation of numerous impact measures with innovations for poverty action in kenya as well as the center for effective global action (CEGA) at the university of california, berkeley. she has been a consultant for various NGOs and social enterprises as well as the swiss agency for development and cooperation (SDC) and the international committee of the red cross. in addition, she has held training courses on assessments and impact measurement for the world Bank, the poverty action lab at MIT and ETH zurich.

designer
educator 
social entrepreneur

grace jun focuses on diversity and inclusion. she creates educational programs, investigates applied technology for wearable integration undertakes research and is able to develop this work at open style lab (OSL).

OSL was founded in 2014 as a public service project, implementing an interdisciplinary collaboration model that engages with local disabled people to co-design stylish yet functional clothing and accessories. grace increased awareness on how accessible clothing leverages social integration for people with disabilities through events and educational programs.

grace’s own design work can be seen in several early feature phones, smartphones and wearable watches launched through verizon or t-mobile by samsung electronics. with a BFA from the rhode island school of design and MFA from parsons school of design, grace’s latest design was an adaptive jacket with motion tracking sensors to monitor client arm movements for physical therapists. she is currently teaching at parsons Sshool of design in new york.

entrepreneur
founder greenpact

leroy mwasaru is a 21-year-old renewable energy social entrepreneur and sustainable design thinking prodigy. he founded greenpact, a consciously social enterprise that began as a high school project providing alternative renewable energy to local communities and institutions in kenya. greenpact obtains bio-gas from both agricultural and human waste and works with communities to redefine renewable energy as a sustainable and necessary part of everyday energy needs.

for leroy, design is an inseparable part of his professional, social and personal life.

design researcher fjord
managing director accenture

martha cotton is a managing director at accenture and leads design research for fjord, accenture’s digital design agency. she has over 20 years of consulting experience, working as an applied ethnographer across many industries and collaborating with designers, engineers, business analysts, marcomms and brand strategists. prior to joining fjord, she was a partner at gravitytank. she also held leadership roles at HLB, hall & partners and sapient. martha is on the faculty of northwestern university’s MMM program – the kellogg school of management’s marquee design thinking degree, where she developed and now teaches the design research curriculum.

martha has spent her career studying how people engage with products, services and brands, helping her clients work differently and with a human-centred lens. she has conducted in-depth ethnographic research around the globe and across every industry from automotive to zippers. as she helps her clients succeed with their innovation portfolios, much of her work also includes a focus on corporate cultural change and helping organizations learn how to achieve their innovation and sustainability goals.

TESSA CLARKE

co-founder & CEO OLIO

tessa clarke is co-founder & CEO of OLIO, an app tackling the problem of food waste by connecting users who have food they don’t want or need, with neighbors living nearby who would like it. the inspiration for OLIO came four years ago when tessa was moving country and found herself with some food that she couldn’t take with her, but that she didn’t want to throw away.

since its launch, over one million people have joined OLIO and together shared almost two million portions of food. OLIO also publishes ZeroWasteWeekly.com, a website and newsletter that aggregates all the best zero waste news from around the world. prior to founding OLIO, tessa spent 10 years as a digital managing director in the media, retail and financial services sectors, and gained her MBA from Stanford. tessa is passionate about the sharing economy as a solution for a sustainable world.