Examples of Social Entrepreneurs

Below is a list of a few of the most successful social entrepreneurs. Some of these have already been interviewed or featured in recent documentaries.

Peter Eigen - founder and President of Transparency International and leader of global coalitions to fight corruption, he developed indexes, surveys and communities that track and tackle corruption at every level of society.

Victoria Hale – founder of the Institute for OneWorld Health, the first not-for-profit pharmaceutical company in the United States. Although 90 percent of the world’s disease burden falls on developing world, only 3 percent of the R&D budgets of pharmaceutical companies are directed towards developing country diseases. OneWorld Health is developing drugs and vaccines for neglected diseases such as leishmaniasis, malaria, and pediatric diarrhea.

Wendy Kopp – founded Teach for America on the basis of a proposal in her senior thesis. Goal is to recruit top college graduates to teach in low-income public schools. By the 4 th grade, students in low-income areas are on average three grade levels below their peers in high-income areas in reading ability. This year, 17,000 seniors applied for 2,100 openings – including 12 percent of Yale’s graduating seniors. Nearly two-thirds of TFA’s alumni still work full-time in education, most in low-income communities.

Martin Fisher – founder of Approtec, which develops and markets low-cost technologies in Africa. These are used by local entrepreneurs to establish highly profitable small businesses. Examples include micro-irrigation pumps, which allow farmers to grow and sell as many as three to four high value vegetable crops every year.

Muhammad Yunus - A leader in microcredit and founder of the Grameen Bank, he spread microcredit globally and pioneered global marketing of major social change. He is also a pioneer in social business ventures. Grameen Phone, for example, is the second largest telephone service provider in Asia, and Grameen Telecom enabled village women to become profitable sellers of phone service to their communities.