We are delighted to introduce our fantastic Global Advisory Board
Ma. Cecilia Flores - Oebanda
Founder, Voice of the Free
Cecilia is an internationally acclaimed slavery fighter. Through VF, she rescues, heals, and reintegrates survivors of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Working together with partners they protected more than 30,000 at risk and exploited young girls.
Cecil was instrumental in the enactment of pioneering laws in the Philippines to promote decent work for domestic workers, legislation to eliminate the worst forms of child labour and anti-trafficking law amendments.
She was appointed by two Philippine Presidents to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking as NGO representative and served for six years. She was also a member of the Presidential-Illegal Recruitment Task force during the Aquino Administration.
Cecilia currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Freedom United, and as part of the Advisory Council of Telos Governance Agency and Board of Trustees of Arise Foundation in London.
She received the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2008 given in Oxford. Her other awards include the US Department of Labor Iqbal Masih Award. Cecilia was one of the 2011 winners of the World’s Children’s Prize (WCP) for the Rights of the Child in Sweden whose patrons include Nelson Mandela and HRM Queen Sylvia. She was also presented with the 2011 Caritas Prix Award from Caritas-Switzerland. In November 2013, Cecilia received the 2013 Trust law Connect Impact Award of Thomson.
Kathryn Hall-Trujillo, DDiv, M.P.H.
Global Community Health Administrator and Advocate. Ambassador, Federation of International Gender & Human Rights
For over forty years, as a public health administrator, community health educator and advocate in the public and private sectors, Ms. Kathryn has been addressing the racial and gender divide in women’s access to healthcare. She was the founding director of Birthing Project USA: The Underground Railroad for New Life, a global maternal and child health organisation, which has provided technical support and resources to maternal and child health stakeholders in 13 countries. Her experience in understanding, translating and bridging policy, administration, services delivery, and client cultures has earned her national and international recognition, including presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Living Legacy Award and appointment as an official Ambassador by the Federation of International Gender and Human Rights (FIGHR), a United Nations affiliate.
Ms. Hall-Trujillo has also received the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Public Health Lifetime Achievement Award and is an Ashoka Global Social Entrepreneur Fellow. She is an Independent Scholar of the Cuba Public Health System, serves on the Medical Advisory Board of IFCO (the administrator of the U.S./Cuba Medical School Scholarship Program), adjunct faculty for Charles Drew University of Medicine, and visiting professor for the Cuba National School of Public Health, where she facilitates courses for U.S. students and professionals. Ms. Kathryn is a consultant and mentor to many community leaders, students, and young professionals, to whom she is affectionately known as Mama Katt.
Attila v. Unruh
Founder TEAM U, restructuring consultant, EARLY WARNING EUROPE, expert for EU projects
Attila von Unruh is a dedicated social entrepreneur who seeks to support entrepreneurs in crisis. His vision is to create a culture of second chances for entrepreneurs and empower them for a successful restart.
Attila was born in Peru in 1961 and has been an Ashoka Fellow since 2011 in Germany. He is a certified turnaround-consultant and systemic business coach. He started TEAM U as a social business after personally experiencing bankruptcy when he realised that there was no effective support system for entrepreneurs in distress. His approach is to encourage entrepreneurs to take action at an early stage of a crisis and to learn from mistakes, offering them a unique combination of support for self-empowerment and consultancy.
TEAM U has helped more than 25.000 entrepreneurs – it is now the biggest organisation in Germany of its kind. The EU Commission has declared TEAM U a role model for good practise. Since 2017 TEAM U trains organisations on behalf of the EU in various countries how they can support SMEs aiming to achieve a high social and economic impact.
Attila is a coach and consultant also for many social entrepreneurs. Most of them do not have sufficient funding for retirement. He supports initiatives that help to solve this major global problem.
Marc Freedman
President and CoCEO of CoGenerate
Marc Freedman, President and CoCEO of CoGenerate (formerly Encore.org), is one of the nation’s leading experts on the longevity revolution and the promise of age diversity. He is a renowned social entrepreneur, thought leader and writer. Under Marc’s leadership, CoGenerate has pioneered innovative programs and sparked a growing movement in the United States and beyond to tap the talent and experience of people past midlife as a human resource for solving our most vexing social problems.
Originator of the encore career idea linking second acts to the greater good, Freedman co-founded Experience Corps to mobilise people over 50 to improve the school performance and prospects of low-income elementary school students in 22 U.S. cities. He also spearheaded the creation of the Encore Fellowships program and the Purpose Prize.
Freedman was named a Social Entrepreneur of the Year by the World Economic Forum/Schwab Foundation, was recognized as one of the nation’s leading social entrepreneurs by Fast Company magazine three years in a row, and has been honoured with the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship and the Eisner Prize for Intergenerational Excellence. He has been a visiting scholar at Stanford University and King’s College, University of London.
Freedman is, or has been, on the boards and advisory councils of numerous groups, including The George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, the Stanford University Distinguished Careers Institute, and the Milken Institute’s Center for the Future of Aging.
Therese Drammeh
Country Director for the Gambia, Riders For Health
Therese Drammeh, or Auntie T as she is affectionately known at Riders For Health, worked in The Gambia Civil Service for 25 years 1976-2001. Rose through the ranks to the position of Permanent Secretary. Worked as PS Personnel Management Office, PS Interior, PS Local Government and Lands and PS Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. Took early retirement from the civil service in 2001. Joined Riders for Health in 2002 and helped set up The Gambia country program and have been leading the program to date.
As country director for the Gambia, she has guided the development of an award-winning nationwide programme there. Therese first became involved with Riders for Health in 2000 when she was Permanent Secretary at the Department of State for Health and Social Welfare. She championed the importance of reliable transport for a health system and now Riders for Health manage the Ministry of Health’s national fleet of health care vehicles. As a result, the Gambia is the first country in Africa to be equipped with complete transportation coverage for its health service.
Mark Cheng
Founder, Social Innovation Circle
Mark Cheng is the Founder and Managing Partner of Social Innovation Circle, an online coaching platform which teaches social enterprise founders how to raise impact investment and build sustainable business models. He is a leading impact investor who has invested in and helped raise over USD 250M for over 100 social ventures worldwide in many different sectors, including education, healthcare, and climate tech. He has personally been a mentor and coach to several founders, and is aware of the many personal challenges faced by social enterprise founders when considering career transitions.
Since 2010, Mark has also been the Senior Advisor on Social Business at Ashoka, the global network of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs. He writes and speaks frequently on social innovation and finance. Mark is the author of the ‘Social Investment Toolkit’, a field manual for social entrepreneurs on how to raise finance. Prior to joining Ashoka, Mark began his career as an investment banker with Deutsche Bank in the UK.
Ágnes Geréb
Founder, Alternatal Foundation
Since she began working at the University Hospital of Szeged as an obstetrician-gynaecologist, Dr Ágnes Geréb has pioneered innovations. These include being the first in Hungary to allow fathers to attend births, and introducing, with the doctors of the neonatal ward, ‘rooming in’ together (allowing newborns to stay with their mothers). In 1993 she transitioned to being the only independent midwife in the country (it was not recognised as an independent profession).
In 1992, she organised the revolutionary International Conference on Childbirth which helped women to recognise and advocate for their needs. At the Alternatal Foundation, founded in 1994, she continued organising conferences throughout the country, publishing books and making films.
She introduced the doula practice and training in Hungary and had been trying to achieve the acceptance / adoption of the homebirth method since 1989 along with the establishment of its statutory framework. Despite regularly visiting the ruling governments, applying for permits at the relevant authorities and participating in the preparation of the regulation on home births in Hungary she was arrested in 2010. Soon after, the Home Birth Regulation was issued in Hungary and independent midwifery became a profession in its own right (2011). Although the Regulation does not include the conditions which allow genuine free choice that she and her fellow midwives fought for, home birth with midwives has been officially accepted in Hungary.
Having been imprisoned, put under house arrest and serving a 15-year obstetric-gynaecological and a 12-year midwifery ban she wants to end her life's work by returning to attending child births.
Mr. Timothy Ma, MH, JP, RSW, FCRP
Founding Executive Director, Senior Citizen Home Safety Association (SCHSA).
Chief Consultant, Ma Kam Wah & Co
Timothy K. W. Ma was the Founding Executive Director, and is now a member of the Senior Citizen Home Safety Association. He is also the co-founding member of the Hong Kong Social Entrepreneurship Forum with Dr. KK Tse. He is currently the Council member of the Hong Kong Chamber of Social Enterprises and has served as the core member of the Organizing Committee for the annual Social Enterprise Summit in Hong Kong since 2008. He is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong on Becoming a Change maker, Fundraising and Resource Development.
He was awarded Schwab Foundation Outstanding Social Entrepreneurship of East Asia (2009) and is one of the contributing authors to ‘Bottom of Pyramid’ and ‘Leadership in Social Enterprise’ by WEF. He also serves as a member of the Expert Network at the Global Agenda Council of World Economic Forum.
Timothy is a member of the Supervisory Board of Hong Kong Housing Society, member of the Elderly Housing Special Committee of the Society and a co-opted member of the Task Force on Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund. He also serves as a training consultant and advisor for NPI (Shanghai) and SEI (Taiwan).
Besides serving as board member of a number of NGOs,, Steering Committee on Long Term Care of SWD, and the Steering Committee of Caring Company, Hong Kong Council of Social Service he also offers consultancy service to NGOs on leadership, strategic plan, fundraising and risk management. He is a popular mentor to many young start-up and social entrepreneurs who wish to create societal change.
Neelam Chhiber
Co-Founder and Managing Trustee
Industree Foundation
Neelam Chhiber is the Co-founder of Industree (https://www.industree.org.in/) and Mother Earth. For the past three decades, Industree has been working on the economic and social transformation of India’s most vulnerable women, rooted in redefining Indian and global creative production as pivotal to the next Regenerative Economy. Industree has impacted 500,000 lives and opened cumulative markets crossing 58 Million USD for vulnerable communities. A regenerative economy involves localisation, enabling inclusive scale and increasing diversity- thus landing the Industree model at the intersection of Equity, Climate, and Gender. Neelam’s experience with enterprise growth models built on impact capital- equity, debt, and philanthropy, makes her a strong proponent of Innovative Finance, as defined by the local needs of communities on the ground.
Backed by India’s 200 million artisanal and smallholder farmer population, Neelam and her team have built a holistic ecosystem, built on digital and financial inclusion, that works with rural communities in India to equip them with the necessary skills and tools to set up self-owned collective enterprises. Industree works to ensure these communities become a part of both national and global mainstream climate-positive value chains. Mission Creative Million, aims to strengthen the resources of 3 million producers by 2030, to achieve Inclusive economic impact, Nature-based enterprise solutions, improved agency and voice for women at home and as leaders in their communities.
Neelam is on the founding boards of Creative Million inc, a 501 C in the US, collaborating on its model globally, initiated with Ethiopia, Zambia, Tanzania, and Mozambique and of the global collaborative Initiative, Catalyst 2030. She was named Schwab Social Entrepreneur of the Year, India (2011), awarded the Women Transforming India (WTI) Award (2021) and She Is: 75 Women in STEAM, (2021).
See the full Advisory Board and our founders on our About page.