Bill Drayton

Bill Drayton

As one of the world’s leading thinkers on social change, Bill Drayton has pioneered the field of social entrepreneurship. He is the CEO and founder of Ashoka, a global organization that elects over 2,000 leading social entrepreneurs as Ashoka Fellows, providing them with living stipends, professional support, and access to a global network of peers in more than 60 countries. Through Ashoka, Bill has introduced the world to a fundamentally new model of how ideas can change social systems across the globe, improving the lives of millions. In recognition of his achievement in the field of social entrepreneurship, Bill is the recipient of this year's Martin Essl Social Prize, which comes with a value of € 1,000,000 and will support the first edition of the Globalizer.

Bill has gained international acclaim and is recognized as a visionary. He was named one of America’s 25 Best Leaders by US News and World Report in 2005-2006. In 2004, he was renowned as one of Fast Company’s "Fast 50," a group of "idea elite" who are pushing their industries forward with the power of their vision. In 2002, Business Week named Ashoka’s approach to philanthropy as one of the eleven "most innovative" of the organizations it surveyed. Bill was also elected one of the early MacArthur Fellows for his work, including the founding of Ashoka. He has been a speaker at the World Economic Forum and has addressed audiences around the world.

Bill developed his ideas across an array of fields. As an Assistant Administrator at the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), he successfully led a series of major innovations and reforms in the field, such as the introduction of emissions trading or the use of economic-defined incentives to remove the advantage of delaying compliance. During his time as a management consultant with McKinsey & Co, he gained wide experience serving both public and private clients, and built his understanding of how organizations operate. He also served briefly in the White House and taught both law and management at Stanford Law School and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He is a graduate of Harvard, Oxford, and Yale Universities.