"This is one of the greatest moments in the history of the foundation"
- i[2]y Cancer Foundation
"I had no idea what to expect from the [CLASSY Awards] and all my expectations were surpassed..."
- Matthew Paneitz, Long Way Home
"I’ve never been in a room filled with so much positive, good energy. It makes me realize I need to surround myself with more people like that."
- Wayne Brown, Acromegaly Community
The Soldiers Project
More info »
Long Way Home, Inc.
More info »
Marley's Mission
More info »
Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation
More info »
Invisible Children
More info »
Faith Huckel/Restore NYC
More info »
I'm Too Young For This! Cancer Foundation
More info »
Northwestern University Dance Marathon
More info »
Blanchard Memorial School's 6th Grade Class
More info »
Troy Yocum
More info »
Panera Bread
More info »
Nika Water
More info »
JAMIE-LYNN SIGLER is best known for playing Meadow Soprano on HBO's critically acclaimed drama "The Sopranos." Jamie-Lynn's TV credits include recurring roles on ABC's hit comedy "Ugly Betty" and HBO's hit series "Entourage."
Sigler's work on "The Sopranos" earned her the 1999 and 2000 Hollywood Reporter Young Star Award for Best Actress in a Dramatic Series, as well as two ALMA Award nominations for Best Actress in a Drama Series (2001 & 2002.) She also starred in the original mini-series "The Gathering" co-starring Peter Gallagher, Kristin Lehmann, Jenna Boyd and Peter Fonda.
Sigler's film credits include IFC's BENEATH THE DARK, HOMIE SPUMONI, a comedy co-starring Donald Faison, Joey Fatone, and Whoopi Goldberg' LOVEWRECKED opposite Amanda Bynes and Chris Carmack, and the thriller DARK RIDE, in which she stars.
Sigler's talents extend to the stage as well. She made her Broadway debut as ‘Belle' in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" in October 2002, remaining in the role through February 2003. In the summer of 2001, she starred in the national tour of Rodger's and Hammerstein's "Cinderella" opposite Eartha Kitt. Additional theater roles include New York regional productions of "Annie," "The Wizard of Oz," "The Sound of Music," "The Wiz," and "Gypsy."
Most recently, Sigler wrapped production on three independent films to be seen in the near future: Jewtopia, Divorce Invitation and Anatomy of the Tide.
Adam Garone is the CEO & Co-Founder of Movember, the annual world-wide charity movement dedicated to changing the face of men’s health- all through the power of the moustache. To date, over a million moustaches have been grown for Movember, raising more than $178 million to change the face of men’s health.
Premal first began dreaming of “internet microfinance” while working at PayPal, the online payments company. In late 2004, Premal took a 3 month leave from PayPal to develop and test the internet microfinance concept in India. When he returned to Silicon Valley, he met other like-minded dreamers and quit his job at PayPal to help bring the Kiva concept to life and eventually to scale. Kiva today raises over $1 million each week for the working poor in +50 countries and was named a Top 50 Website by TIME Magazine in 2009. For his work as a social entrepreneur, Premal was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and selected to FORTUNE magazine's "Top 40 under 40" list in 2009. Premal began his career as a management consultant and graduated from Stanford University.
Yael founded F Cancer in 2009 after her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Determined to make a real impact within the cancer space, Yael created an organization that activates Generation Y to engage with their parents about early detection, and teaches supporters how to look for cancer instead of just find it. Over the last year, Yael has grown F Cancer into an inspirational and influential player in the charity space. She has attracted a host of A-list celebrities that are lined up to participate in the movement and use their influence to help garner support from the public. F Cancer’s message has also begun to get the attention of some very noteworthy groups; Yael was honoured to be invited to and attend the Next Generation Leadership discussions at the White House. She was also amongst the audience at the Clinton Global Initiative and TEDWomen 2010, and shortly before that, had the unique opportunity to share her inspiring message in person as a speaker at TEDx Vancouver 2010. She was a sat on the host committee and as a speaker at the UN Nexus conference in summer 2011. Through F Cancer, Yael has earned the respect and admiration of those who truly have the power to effect change.
Scott spent 10 years as an event promoter in New York City before leaving to volunteer on a hospital ship off the coast of Liberia, Africa as a volunteer photojournalist. Returning home to New York City two years later, he founded the non-profit organization charity: water. Turning his full attention to the global water crisis and the one billion people without clean water to drink, he created innovative public installations and unique online fundraising platforms to spread international awareness of the issue. In four years, with the help of more than 200,000 donors worldwide, charity: water has funded more than 3,800 water projects in 17 developing nations. Those projects will provide over 1.7 million people with clean, safe drinking water.
Adriana is the founder and CEO of Girls in Tech, a non-profit organization, which she launched in February 2007. As a woman in tech, Adriana’s passion lies in bolstering opportunities around the empowerment, engagement and education of women in tech. Previously, Adriana worked as the Vice President of Marketing at SecondMarket, the global marketplace for illiquid assets. She was responsible for SecondMarket’s marketing, branding strategy, event production and digital media efforts. Prior to joining SecondMarket, Adriana worked at a variety of technology start-ups spearheading marketing, communications and analytics. She worked at hi5, SocialGamingNetwork (SGN), Jambool’s SocialGold, GUBA as well as Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide as the Vice President of 360 Digital Influence and Edelman as the Vice President of the Digital Group. She is an “Intel Insider,” serving as a brand and product advisor for Intel. She is an advisor to a variety of start-ups including Involver, Numiyo Technologies, Palindrome Advisors, CharityBlossom, DooChoo, and Change.org. In 2009, Adriana launched SmittenWithMittens, a 501 (c) 3 providing fair trade mittens, clothing, uniforms and resources to orphans in developing countries. Adriana holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Economics from the University of California at Davis, received a degree from El Tecnologico de Monterrey in Aguascalientes, Mexico in 2000, and participated in Semester at Sea, University of Pittsburgh in 1997. Adriana is fluent in Spanish and speaks some Japanese and French.
Laura received her J.D. from the University of San Diego, School of Law where she was Editor-in-Chief of the Motions, the law school newspaper, where she began highlighting a lot of tech-related Intellectual Property and Antitrust cases. She was the Fundraising Chair for the Women’s Law Caucus and hosted a charity auction to benefit a local women’s domestic violence shelter. She earned certificates in areas of international law in Florence, Barcelona, and Paris. During and following law school Laura worked in-house, setting up the Intellectual Property protection program for an environmental compliance company based in Carlsbad, California. Laura received her LL.M. from the University of San Francisco, School of Law where she was a staff editor on the Intellectual Property Law Bulletin and comment author. She worked on the Intellectual Property and Internet Justice Clinic where she advocated for students being sued by the RIAA for alleged illegal downloading of music. Currently Laura is a legal editor for LexisNexis and does IP transactional work with trademarks, copyright and domain names.
Jeff Rosenthal is the co-founder and curator of Summit Series, a collaborative community of entrepreneurs dedicated to using business as a means to make the world a better place. Jeff curates the Summit Series community, drives strategic direction, culture, and purpose, builds content of Summit Series events, and invests through the Summit Series Action Fund. Jeff' believes that giving unselfishly is the most selfish thing you can do, we see things not as they are but as we are, and in stewarding a community that can change the world.
Invisible Children's status as more than a charity is intentionally curated by Jedidiah Jenkins. His primary job is to digest the vision of Invisible Children handed down from the collective leadership and articulate it, expand it, and build the world we hope to see in 100 years. His job is to be in all parts of the organization, from engaging with the interns to leading trips to Uganda to drafting partnership contracts and investing in donors. His legal background gives him a broad grasp on the implications of changing social consciousness, and he intends to do just that. Jed is the main voice and vision of Invisible Children's blog. He likes people and books and drawing with a black pen. His affinity for exploration has yielded his obsession for studying maps, navigating back roads, and treasure-hunting on YouTube.
Tabreez Verjee is a seasoned investor and serial entrepreneur who is pursuing his passion and launching a new impact-investing platform combined with an ecosystem to support for profit social entrepreneurs. Tabreez is an early seed funder and member of the board of directors at Kiva.org. He started his first entrepreneural venture at 21 years old, where he co-founded and served as Managing Director of Global Entertainment Capital, which raised $150 million for innovative media financings and pioneered deals like the first ever stand alone investment grade bond securitization of music royalties for heavy metal band Iron Maiden. He then moved over to the technology and internet sector where he co-headed Sonique, maker of internet music software that became the 5th most downloaded application on the Internet in 1999, and spearheaded its sale for over $70 million. After Sonique, Tabreez co-founded Global Asset Capital, which started as an angel investment fund and grew into a venture capital firm where he directed more than $500 million in committed assets across multiple venture capital funds and over 40 portfolio companies in the U.S. and Europe.
Some of the recent projects that Tabreez has invested in or serves as an advisor to include Novica, Blissmo, Priya Living, Women 2.0, and FounderLabs. Tabreez started his career at Bain & Company and received a bachelor of science in Environmental Engineering with honors from University of California at Berkeley. He is also a charter member of TiE, a global, non-profit network dedicated to the advancement of entrepreneurship.
Chris grew up in Central California, but after being in San Diego the past 14 years, he can be officially listed as Southern Californian. His education is extensive, so get ready: undergrad at UC Berkeley, followed by a Master's degree in Agribusiness at Kansas State, topped off with an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. You're still following? Okay, good. As COO, Chris oversees all of IC's operations, putting us in the best possible position to end this war (internally we refer to his work as the fuel). We can thank Our former CFO Jay for getting Chris involved and introducing him to Laren. After the three spent a morning surfing and talking all-things-IC, Chris was convinced -- this was where he needed to be. He worked with Ben Keesey over the next couple years and made a trip to Gulu before coming on full-time in 2010. And we can't end this without mentioning the role baseball's played in his life. He grew up an Orioles fan, listening to games on the radio with his grandfather, then worked as a sports agent for two years after college (not to mention a 10-year stint helping build software company Active.com). We're thankful his career path eventually steered him away from Jerry Maguire's footsteps... and towards Invisible Children.
Jake Wood graduated from the University of Wisconsin, where he played football, with a double major in Business and Political Science. He honorably served four years in the United States Marine Corps, deploying to Iraq in 2007 as an infantry squad leader and to Afghanistan in 2008 as a Scout-Sniper Assistant Team Leader. He graduated the Scout-Sniper Basic Course at the top of his class and was the Jim Gulardi Award recipient. In 2007 he was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with “V” for valor in the face of the enemy.
Spilger founded of social enterprise and environmental movement, GreenLaces.org in 2008 as a way to bring environmental awareness and action into the athletic world. Thousands of athletes, from Olympians to grade-school kids, wear the emblem of "green laces" and have made a "promise to the planet" online to showcase their environmental stewardship. As the Director of Community Building for Summit Series, Spilger leads a number of initiatives, including focus on the female community and "greening" event operations. Spilger specializes in discovering emerging social entrepreneurs, "fringe culture" trend leaders and incredible female professionals while having deep understanding of building community through online tools. Spilger has played professional soccer for 3 years. In 2010, while playing for the Chicago Red Stars, Spilger was named the first ever WPS Citi Sportswoman of the Year. Spilger has a BS and MS from Stanford in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Green Construction Engineering Management. Personally, Spilger is interested in Dubstep, mindfulness, environmental appreciation and protection, freedom in personal expression and hopes to learn kite surfing.
William McNulty is the Co-Founder of Team Rubicon and serves on the Board of Directors. He is a Marine who served in both the infantry and Intelligence. He has worked in support of the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Council’s Iraq Threat Finance Cell, and the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. He holds a BA in Economics and Communication Studies from the University of Kansas and an MA in Government/Security from The Johns Hopkins University.
Alex Bard is a passionate entrepreneur who has been part of the founding team of 4 internet start ups including eShare Technologies (Customer Service Software, 1996-1999), eAssist Global Solutions (Customer Service Software, 1999-2004), Goowy Media (Widget Analytics Platform, 2004-2008) and Assistly (Customer Service Software, 2009 - Now). He has held executive roles including VP Customer Solutions - eShare, VP Sales / Marketing - eAssist, CEO - Goowy, VP Products AOL, and is currently the CEO of Assistly - a hosted customer support platform. He is also an advisor / investor in several start-ups including Kabam, Klout, Offandaway, Social Leverage, StayClassy and Foodzie. Alex has lived all over the world including NY, Toronto, London, LA, and currently split time between San Francisco and San Diego.
On June 27, 2007, 23-year-old Captain Barrington Irving secured his place in history as the youngest person and first black pilot to fly solo around the globe. On his 97-day journey, he flew 30,000 miles in a single-engine aircraft called Inspiration, encountering thunderstorms, snow storms, icing, sand storms and monsoons along the way. His purpose in making the trip was to show other youth that if he could achieve his dream, they can too.
Scott Keatley is an award winning community activist, educator and law student. Scott is co-founder of Nourishing NYC a nationally recognized community food program that feeds, educates and advocates for tens-of- thousands annually and has secured relationships with such corporations and foundations as Post Foods Inc., Trader Joes, Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, and Microsoft. Scott has been featured on television and in print for this dedication and advocacy.
Gina Keatley is an award-winning chef, nutritionist, humanitarian, and proud founder and creator of Nourishing NYC, a community food program that feeds, educates, and advocates for tens-of-thousands of in need families annually. Utilizing her professional and educational experiences, Gina has become known for her food-focused television appearances on such programs and networks as the Food Network, the Dr. Oz Show, AFP Global News Network, ABC Channel 7 New York City, as well as her cookbooks and campaign against the use of processed foods in low-income areas. Gina's professional experience spans the food world; she has worked in hunger management as the founder of her own community food program, as a culinary consultant, food writer and fine dining professional. Gina is a culinary writing contributor to several food and lifestyle websites, magazines and digital based content and is proud to be debuting her inspirational weight loss/money-saving cookbook in 2012. Gina has been recognized for her work by The Women Chefs and Restaurateurs, American Culinary Federation, as well as The James Beard Foundation for humanitarian and culinary service. Gina also performs culinary demonstrations at such events as the American Diabetes Expo and many local community events. Gina holds a seat on the task force board of Diabetes Impact, Mount Sinai Hospital and believes that through community support we will be able to combat childhood diabetes and obesity.
First introduced to DREAM in 2004, Josh saw early on what is possible when you connect typically underserved populations, children living in subsidized housing developments, with an often underutilized resource, college students. Josh has been focused on supporting DREAM’s growth and expansion ever since. In 2008 Warren helped launch DREAM’s first satellite office in Southern Vermont, allowing the organization to deliver its high-impact, low-cost mentoring model to children and families living in hard to reach rural housing developments. In 2009 he supported the start-up of DREAM’s first regional office, bringing programming to low-income housing developments in the Greater Boston Area, and this is just the start. With programs now flourishing in Vermont and Massachusetts, DREAM mentors are expected to provide youth with over 30,000 hours of one-to-one and group mentoring during the 2010-2011 academic year. Convinced that they’ve developed something that is “too good not to share,” you can expect to see DREAM on a college campus or in a community near you in the coming years. The DREAM Program won two CLASSY Awards in 2010 for Philanthropic Small Business of the Year and Most Influential College Student or Organization.
Scot founded StayClassy, an enterprise fundraising software company for Nonprofit organizations, in 2006. He is currently the company’s CEO and Chairman.
Recently Scot was selected by Businessweek as one of the top 5 most promising social entrepreneurs in America. In 2009, Scot was chosen as one of the top 40 young leaders under 40 years old by San Diego Metropolitan Magazine. He has been quoted or featured on CNN, AOL News, The Huffington Post, TechCrunch, Mashable and more. Prior to StayClassy, Scot worked as a Senior Consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton specializing in process improvement on the Economic Business Analysis team. Scot is certified as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt from the American Society of Quality, and holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, with a Mechanical Engineering concentration, from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Pat co-founded StayClassy in 2006 and has led the company’s business development and marketing initiatives. Pat is focused on StayClassy’s strategic growth - building charity relationships, business partnerships, and growing the organization’s internet presence across the US.
Recently Pat was selected by Businessweek as one of the top 5 most promising social entrepreneurs in America. Prior to StayClassy, Pat worked for General Dynamics Corporation as the Deputy Program Manager of the largest commercial shipbuilding contract in the United States, with previous positions in Operations and Strategic Business Development. Pat holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering with a minor focus in Economics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Dan Novak is vice president of global marketing, public relations and communications at Qualcomm. Novak has over 20 years of executive leadership in integrated marketing, branding, media, and public relations. In his current role, Novak is responsible for developing Qualcomm’s overarching brand strategy and leading worldwide public relations.