Bill Drayton

As the founder and CEO of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, Bill Drayton is a true social entrepreneur. During his time as a student at Harvard, Balliol College in Oxford University and Yale Law School, he launched a number of organizations, including Yale Legislative Services and Harvard's Ashoka Table, an interdisciplinary weekly forum in the social sciences. In 1970, he graduated from Yale Law School and began his career at McKinsey and Company in New York. From 1977 to 1981, Mr. Drayton served as Assistant Administrator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where he launched emissions trading (the basis of the Kyoto Protocol) and other reforms. In 1981, while working part-time at McKinsey and Company, he founded both Ashoka and Save EPA, the predecessor to Environmental Safety. With the support that he received when elected a MacArthur Fellow in 1984, he was able to devote himself fully to Ashoka. Over the past 30 years, Ashoka has elected nearly 3,000 social entrepreneurs as Ashoka Fellows, providing them with living stipends, professional support, and access to a global network of peers. In addition to his current role as Chairman and CEO of Ashoka, Mr. Drayton is the chair of Youth Venture, Community Greens, and Get America Working!