Philip Staehelin
Philip is an innovator and a leader who blends contagious optimism with pragmatic realism.
Philip is an innovator and a leader who blends contagious optimism with pragmatic realism.
He is a Professor in Socio-cultural Anthropology and Development at University College Roosevelt,Utrecht University in The Netherlands where he also directs its Social Impact Lab. Previously, John has worked for Cambridge University, the United States Peace Corps, Oxfam Canada, the UN Population Fund, and the Government of the Republic of Namibia.
John’s interest in global eye health emerged during one of his early periods of long-term fieldwork in rural northwest Namibia, when his own severe myopia forced him to purvey a pair of new glasses from the nearest optician…. 500 kms away! That experience inspired him to reach beyond his anthropological teaching, research and academic writing.He went on to found Adaptive Eyeworks, a Belgium-based social enterprise that develops innovative solutions to address uncorrected refractive error, as well as Foundation Beautiful Vision International, a non-profit charity that assists with the delivery eye glasses to those in need. He is also a co-founder
of Dialvision LLC (USA), and has served as an advisor to the Focus on Vision Foundation (The Netherlands), Eyes for the World (Belgium), and Veritas Vision(Nigeria).
John holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan (USA), and Master’s and PhD degrees from Cambridge University (UK).
For the last 10 years, Bradley has applied himself to developing social businesses with and for vulnerable communities in sub-Saharan Africa. His aim is to support communities to address their own issues sustainably through business. Bradley founded WSV with Adam, a social franchisor and consultancy which develops community run businesses for low income communities. WSV developed over 30 products and services, set up over 250 businesses in 4 countries and impacted over 50,000 people who benefit from the businesses.
Bradley also co-founded the Action Accelerator which supports scalable impact initiatives. Action Accelerator is now a global programme being implemented with a range of partners for their network members.
Bradley is a speaker, mentor and life-long student. He has received significant recognition for his drive and passion for positive cultural change, including being ranked 5th in the Top 100 Future Leaders publication.
Adam is driven by finding solutions that work for people who need them the most, this caused him to co-found WSV, a social franchisor and consultancy which develops community run businesses for low income communities. Prior to joining DOT Glasses, Adam led WSV, alongside Bradley, to develop a range of social franchises and supported other organizations to develop community businesses for communities living on under $5 a day.
WSV became the distributor for DOT Glasses in Kenya in 2020, Adam instantly fell in love with the product and distribution system. Now, as CEO, Adam is taking the lessons on the ground in Kenya to create a global playbook for spreading DOT Glasses impact to new communities.
Adam has an ability to analyze and understand problems, then guide people to develop innovative solutions. This, combined with an approach which inspires energy in those around him, ensures quality solutions that work for everyone.
Sindile is a motivated change agent with a fervent passion for attaining the unachievable by means of analysis, innovation and collaboration. He also runs his own start bicycle shop with a focus on providing affordable bicycle mobility and building the culture of cycling in township.
Angela is passionate about improving lives in Uganda and has occupied leadership roles for local and international NGOs and consulted for agencies on health, education and information technology.
He has completed a Negotiation Mastery certificate program from Harvard Business School online and graduated from Colorado State University’s Sustainable Peace and Reconciliation Studies Graduate Interdisciplinary Studies Program . He also holds an MBA degree in Global Leadership and Management from Tribhuvan University School of Management and Handong Global University, South Korea. Meanwhile, he has contributed roughly 10 years to development-related organizations.
Not only does he actively participate in the field of businesses and NGOs, Sudip also focuses on social work. He is the charter President of the Rotaract Club of Manohara, Leo Club of Kathmandu Fulbari and the Nepal Entrepreneurs Lions Club, and an honorary member of the Fort Collins After Work Rotary Club, and the President of the Rotary Club of Rudramati Kathmandu district 3292 Nepal and Bhutan (2020-21).
With his active involvement and the support of many national and international partners/organizations, more than 150 community development projects have been implemented in various parts of Nepal.
A holder Master of Science Project Management, he has 12 years of experience in Mining, Engineering,Construction, Water & Sanitation, and Fintech Industries as a Project Management and Business Improvement expert, with notable work experience being with Konkola Copper Mines Plc, one of Africa’s biggest copper Mine as Operational Excellence & Business Excellence Coordinator, and for the Zambia Water and Sanitation Project (ZWSP), a 150 Million Euro Water and Sanitation Improvement Project in Zambia (funded by EU, EIB,AFD and GRZ) as a PMO Lead.
Moses has also attended several prestigious trainings and conferences around the world, including the US Department of State’s run Tech-Camp Programme for Tech Innovators in Ghana 2016 and in Nigeria 2019, Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Southern African Leadership Program at University Of South Africa in 2019, and as Panelist at the United Nations Economic and Social Council in Prague in 2018 and many more local and regional.
Previously, Mr. Butler held several different positions in the advertising and marketing division of The Procter & Gamble Company from 1969 to 1983. He’s served as the Chairman of Eyeshop (a private optical concept company), Chairman of Sight Resource Corporation, and a Director of 1-800 Contacts Inc. (the publicly held US-based contact lens retailer). He currently is on the Advisory Board of CooperVision, is a Director of Neurolens, and in the past he also served as a longtime Board member of Adlens (focusing on delivering self-adjustable spectacles to BoP populations), as well as Lenskart.com (India’s leading multi-channel optical retailer).
Liliana oversaw the distribution of millions of dollars in grants to eyecare organizations in developing countries as the manager of U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Child Blindness Program. She has produced research and supported work aimed at understanding academic and productivity advances as a result of providing eyeglasses to schoolchildren alongside some of the most highly recognized researchers on these topics.
She has served as a member of the Advisory Panel for Eyeglasses for Global Development: Bridging the Visual Divide, the Program Advisory Committee for USAID’s EP-SCALE, and as a board member for Our Children’s Vision, a global campaign working to provide eyeglasses to 50 million children.
Her current endeavors include managing a minority-owned, woman-owned business, DSA Global Partners that provides public health management and strategic planning; resource mobilization for social missions; epidemiological research; and now the distribution of COVID-19 serologic kits and PPE to those at highest risk for the disease.
His career started in technology industry with Project Management, leading R&D operations, Sales and Business Development units within Europe, Middle East and Far East locations.
His past experiences open for us new business opportunities especially in the corporate world and creates an interesting connection between different worlds of developing countries and enterprises.