Washington, DC (December 16, 2009) Ashoka, a global network of leading social entrepreneurs, and YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization), a networking and education organization of 17,000 young chief executives in more than 100 countries, today unveiled a new strategic partnership. Together the two organizations will collaborate to enable their members to effectively address and mitigate social and environmental challenges facing the world today.

“This partnership with Ashoka fits well with our mission of ‘Better Leaders Through Education and Idea Exchange’,” said Simon Preston, a YPO member from Manchester, England and the organization’s 2009-2010 International Chairman. “We hope many more YPO members will take an interest in the innovative and impactful work undertaken by the Ashoka entrepreneurs.”

Commenting on the impact of this partnership, Bill Drayton, Founder and CEO of Ashoka said, “By bridging the worldwide networks of Ashoka and YPO, we are recognizing and harnessing the power of collaboration between business leaders and leading social entrepreneurs to accelerate widespread social change.”

Effective immediately, Ashoka and YPO will focus on three strategic components in this relationship: knowledge transfer, skills and expertise exchange, and special projects. Each component will facilitate greater learning and engagement opportunities between YPO members, their families and companies, and Ashoka Fellows who will bring their knowledge of social entrepreneurship and specific social issues to YPO.

Jim Greenbaum, a YPO member from San Diego, learned about Ashoka three years ago. “I met with Ashoka’s founder, Bill Drayton, and it became clear what we had to do — that was to bring together YPO’s business entrepreneurs and Ashoka’s social entrepreneurs to collaborate to make this world a better place,” Greenbaum said.  “I’m delighted that a formal agreement now exists between these two outstanding organizations.”

Ashoka Fellows will benefit from the business and operational expertise of YPO members in areas such as strategic planning, scaling of enterprises, finance and other business-related topics. “This global agreement represents a wonderful opportunity to bridge the worldwide networks of Ashoka and YPO, and to combine the power of business leaders and leading social entrepreneurs to accelerate widespread social change,” said Lisa Nitze, Vice President for Global Engagement at Ashoka.


ABOUT ASHOKA
Founded in 1980, Ashoka is the world’s working community of more than 2,000 leading social entrepreneurs. It champions the most important new social change ideas and supports the entrepreneurs behind them by helping them get started, grow, succeed, and collaborate. As Ashoka expands its capacity to integrate and connect social and business entrepreneurs around the world, it builds an entrepreneurial infrastructure comprised of a series of global initiatives that support the fast-growing needs of the citizen sector. Ashoka’s vision is to create change today, for an Everyone A Changemaker™ society to become the reality of tomorrow. For more information, visit www.ashoka.org.


ABOUT YPO
YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization) is a not-for-profit, global network of young chief executives connected around the shared mission of becoming Better Leaders Through Education and Idea Exchange.TM Founded in 1950, YPO today provides 17,000 peers and their families in 100 countries with access to unique experiences, world-class resources, alliances with top learning institutions, and specialized Networks that help them enhance their business, community and personal leadership. For more information, visit www.ypo.org. 

For additional information on this partnership, please contact:

Ashoka
Neema Mgana
+1.703.600.8248


YPO
Michele Foster
+1.310.993.5432