People
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Chairperson of SIX—Geoff Mulgan
Social Innovation Interests
I got involved in thinking about social innovation as a practitioner trying to do it – I wanted to find out what others were doing, what was working and what wasn’t. The field is now at an incredibly exciting stage – but also still quite underdeveloped in terms of methods and knowledge. Hopefully that means there may be the potential for rapid progress.
Social Innovation Experience
Geoff Mulgan is Chief Executive of NESTA (National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts).
NESTA has been quite involved in supporting social innovation – as a funder – as we’re trying to develop new ways of using funding, from grants and prizes to investments. From 2004-2011 I was the first Chief Executive of the Young Foundation, which helped initiate many projects and new ventures, from schools to leadership programmes, healthcare to the web. An offshoot of this practical work was a programme of research on social innovation – from issues of creativity to scaling.
Between 1997 and 2004 I have had various roles in the UK government including director of the Government's Strategy Unit and head of policy in the Prime Minister's office. Before that I was the founder and director of the think-tank Demos. I have also been Chief Adviser to Gordon Brown MP; a lecturer in telecommunications; an investment executive; and a reporter on BBC TV and radio. I am a visiting professor at LSE, UCL, Melbourne University and a regular lecturer at the China Executive Leadership Academy. I am an adviser to many governments around the world, and has been a board member of the Work Foundation, the Health Innovation Council, Political Quarterly and the Design Council, and chair of Involve.
Looking forward—Social Innovation Aspirations
I want NESTA to become a more effective supporter of social innovation – whether through targeted programmes dealing with particular issues, such as innovation in platforms for giving money or sharing time, or through supporting skills and methods. Our aim is to work closely with SIX.
My favourite social innovation (October 2011)
I’m not sure if it’s my favourite but it’s certainly very interesting: India is trying to provide identification numbers to a billion of its citizens, under the leadership of the founder of Infosys, Nilekani. The infrastructure this provides may make it possible to radically reinvent welfare. Its going to be difficult and controversial – but my hope is that they may achieve ways of handling payments, repayments and protection rights that were impossible for welfare states designed before the digital era.
Head of SIX—Louise Pulford
SIX is based at the Young Foundation, London, where I have worked for 4 years, and where I was involved in the development of UpRising –a new leadership programme at the Young Foundation to support and train a new generation of public leaders.
I am a keen Mandarin speaker and a member of a leading Sino-British business organisation, the 48 Group Club. I am involved in many community activities like the Spitalfields Music Festival Programme Advisory Group. I am also a member of the Advisory Board of One Young World
Project Developer—Kine Nordstokka
I work to support SIX’s global network for social innovation. I work on design and delivery of new and existing programmes, TelePresence debates and international gatherings for social innovation. I also contribute to public presentations and represent SIX at conferences and events.
I holds a Bachelor degree in Development Studies and an MSc in NGO and Development Management. My masters dissertation was entitled "Patterns of Protest in Burma" and focused on relations between the state and its opponents. I volunteers as a Burma Advocacy Officer at Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust and volunteered as a social worker and teacher working with children with HIV and AIDS in Kigali, Rwanda.
Project Developer—Connor Friesen
At SIX I am responsible for coordinating the online activity of the Social Innovation Europe (SIE) Initiative- a two year project funded by the European Commission and run by a consortium of partners across Europe, and led by SIX. Concretely, I’m working to develop and animate the web-space and virtual networks for social innovation and social innovators in Europe. I’m glad to be involved with SIX and SIE as Europeans, and citizens globally, begin to understand and value the potential of social innovation tools, methods and outlooks.
I hold two degrees in English Literature from McGill University and the University of Toronto in Canada. At McGill I focused my work on novelistic responses to the AIDS crisis in New York. At Toronto I worked across multiple media, studying the communications tactics of health and wellbeing campaigns. I have worked on a Crisis Helpline, a couple of magazines and a Housing Trust for the disenfranchised.
Intern—Janne Geurts
I have previously worked for the Netherlands Centre for Social Innovation. This centre stimulates non-conventional and innovative approaches to improve empowerment, talent development, sharing, and learning and encourages the generation of (creative) output within companies and public institutions, or between them.
I hold a BA and MA in Humanistic Studies with a focus in critical organisation & intervention studies, and education. I have also gained my First Grade Teaching Licence, which allows me to teach and train at all levels of education in the Netherlands.