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What: My own start-up promoting socially responsible leadership

The Challenge: When I arrived at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in the fall of 2003, it was with hopes of studying all there was to know at the time about social enterprise and corporate responsibility. To my disappointment, there wasn’t much to study. Not one to site idle, I decided that KSG needed an influx of entrepreneurial spirit and I decided to start an organization that would bring SE to campus.

My Role: As Founder of SEIA, I realized that my biggest challenge was getting people to understand what social enterprise is, and why it is important. Additionally, with the transient nature of a student population, I wanted to not only establish SE as a discipline at KSG, but make sure that the organization would be impactful and sustainable.

To me, being a social entrepreneur is about being a socially responsible leader. With that in mind, I approached David Gergen who, in addition to being a professor of public service director of The Center for Public Leadership had served as a White House advisor to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton. I explained to him why SE was important, and why it belonged as part of a leadership curriculum. Gergen was dubious, and challenged me to "prove it", which resulted in the "Proving the Demand" research paper that I produced extracurricularly while at school.

SEIA’s mission is to cultivate, inspire and mobilize socially responsible leaders through:

• Creating awareness of and building interest in responsible enterprise and leadership
• Providing training in skills needed to lead in socially responsible ventures
• Being socially responsible in our work, our community and our world

During my year at KSG, I built SEIA into one of the largest student-run organization on campus. We hosted established social entrepreneurs, put on workshops and built a membership of over 400. We co-sponsored the Social Enterprise Conference at Harvard Business School and established ties with different SE clubs on the various college campuses around Boston.

Perhaps the most important thing I did in created SEIA was the establishment of succession planning. During the fall semester I recruited first year students from the 2-year program to join the organization. In the spring semester, they were the SEIA chairs. Leadership of the organization now goes from February to February, ensuring continuity over the summer months and minimal re-ramp-up time in the fall.

The Results: SEIA now has over 900 members and is in it’s 4th generation of leadership. It is by far the largest student-run organization on campus.

In July of 2004, The Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation approached Harvard about establishing fellowships for social entrepreneurs. I worked with Gergen to provide backup materials and The Center for Public Leadership at KSG now houses the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation Fellowships in Social Entrepreneurship. KSG now offers a variety of courses in social entrepreneurship and enterprise.

Today I am still involved with SEIA as Chair of the SEIA Advisory Board and continue to advocate for the education and training of responsible leaders.