David’s primary interest is in the interface between the private, public and social sectors – how for-profit capital can be used to achieve social goals and how philanthropy and government can serve to foster entrepreneurship and sustainable growth. David began his career at McKinsey and now works for Bridges Community Ventures, the UK’s leading Social Venture Capital Fund. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of Taia, an ethical gold mining company in West Africa, and Heropreneurs, a UK non-profit that aims to help members of the armed forces communities to start businesses.

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James is currently Co- Director of The Social Healing Project funded by the Kalliopeia Foundation, and this work has taken him to Rwanda, Israel/Palestine, N.Ireland and elsewhere. He is also a member of the Evolutionary Leaders group founded by Deepak Chopra and Diane Williams and lectures widely on emerging worldviews, and integral approaches to social transformation.   In 2010 he will be the keynote speaker at several conferences exploring the interface of science, consciousness, and societal healing.

James is committed to dialogue as a practice and is engaged in dialogues at SEED Graduate Institute between native elders, physicists, and thought leaders; between Israeli and Palestinian psychologists and social workers, and contributes to dialogue on systems thinking and government policy making with the DC based Global Systems Initiatives.

A former Executive Director of the Seva Foundation, an international health and development organisation, and a former Director of the Washington DC office of Amnesty International, James has also been a part of dialogue initiated with the Obama Administration on systems work and policy making. He and Dr Judith Thompson co-led a series of international dialogues called Compassion and Social Healing.

Paul brings a vast network of family office and UHNW experience and is motivated by the widening view of charitable giving as an ‘investment’ by donors, focusing on generating a social return rather than a financial one.

Paul is also a director of Purest Solutions (www.purestsolutions.com), an innovative water technology business, producing a spectrum disinfectant and decontaminant product. The business provides clean water solutions and medical supplies to developing countries and continents such as Africa.

Sophie is one of the founding trustees of Heropreneurs, the UK’s first social venture fund to support veterans of the Armed Forces community to start-up in business. Heropreneurs is an innovation in venture philanthropy; adopting a commercial VC model with which investees repay seed funding, either as a loan repayment over an agreed period or through a successful exit transaction. The charity will therefore become largely self-funding through reinvesting its returns from successful investees into the next generation of Heropreneurs. The charity launches nationally later this year.

Almost a quarter of high net worth individuals (HNWIs) globally say charity is a top spending priority, according to a new report by Barclays Wealth. Global Giving: The culture of philanthropy attempts to chart trends in philanthropy among the wealthy by surveying 2,000 millionaires around the world. The US, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Ireland have the highest percentage of respondents saying that philanthropy is among their top three spending priorities, while three of those four (the exception is Saudi Arabia) also feature at the top of the list of those who say they spend over five hours a week on charity. Philanthropy among this group, believes the report, looks set to increase, with 44 per cent of respondents saying they are more likely to make charity a spending priority when they retire, and the amount of time they allocate to charity set to increase overall by 194 per cent. Men are more active philanthropists in developed countries, but in emerging economies women take the lead. Taken by region, those in developing countries are the second most likely to give money after those in North America.

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“Fine words butter no parsnips” was the reaction of Lord Paul Myners to the launch of the Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s drive to boost arts philanthropy that includes an £80m match fund “to create a new generation of philanthropists”. The announcement was made on Wednesday (8th December) at the European Association of Philanthropy and Giving’s (EAPG) event held in partnership with the Cultural Leadership Programme.

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A huge charity gift by a high-tech tycoon has shone a harsh light on the philanthropic track record of India’s established and emerging billionaires. Azim Premji, who transformed a family-owned cooking oil firm into the software giant Wipro, announced earlier this month that he was giving two billion dollars to fund rural education. The 100 wealthiest Indians have a net worth equal to 25 percent of India’s GDP and Premji’s donation — by far the largest ever made by an individual — was seen as a challenge to others in the ultra-rich club.

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