2012 Take Action! SPEAKERS

His role at the company is to take the big ideas that are important to Autodesk and make them more valuable inside and outside the company. This involves tracking and analyzing trends in design, technology, business, and society, and applying those trends to Autodesk and its customers.

Bill also runs The Innovation Genome Project, where he and his team are in the process of researching the top 1,000 innovations in world history, looking for practical patterns and insights that people can apply to their day-to-day work. Bill has presented findings from this project to internal Autodesk teams, Autodesk customers, international trade delegations, and business schools such as the Haas Business School at UC Berkeley and the Hult Business School in San Francisco.

Bill has 25 years of experience working on projects at the intersection of content, business, technology, design, and culture, and has lived and worked in New York, London, Boston, and San Francisco.

After earning a degree in literature from Franklin & Marshall College, Bill worked in publishing at Houghton Mifflin Company, then became Creative Director at a leading Boston multimedia firm called Interactive Factory. Moving to San Francisco, he worked as Marketing Producer and Columnist at CNET’s News.Com (where he accepted a Webby Award for the team), Managing Editor at Ninth House Network (a VC-backed online business learning network), and Executive Director at the San Francisco EpiCenter (a short-lived but very exciting dotcom incubator).

Bill has written and presented widely on all things Internet, including a piece called “Create or Be Created: The Internet Renaissance” on the peer-reviewed journal First Monday.Org, as well as appearances on CNN and at Yale University. He currently serves on the advisory boards of two Bay Area technology startups. He is a long-time student of creativity and innovation, and has been a guitarist, singer, and songwriter since he was 15.

Bill can be reached at bill.oconnor@autodesk.com.

Caprice has served on numerous boards, including the Board of Education of the Los Angeles Unified School District, on which she presided as President, as well as the Governor’s Advisory Committee on Education Excellence (California), the Fordham Foundation, and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, and Apple Academy Charter Public Schools, among others. She is a recipient of the Coro Foundation Crystal Eagle Award for Achievement in Public Service.
Caprice holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale University, a Master of Public Administration from the University of Southern California, and a Doctorate of Education from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Interested in innovative solutions to leverage resources for social change, Kristin entered the space of impact investing while serving as a board member for various not-for-profit organizations and foundations. She serves on the board of  directors for the Mosaic Project, the Nicholson Foundation, Playworks and CAFWA.

Later, when her family sold their investing business, and started a foundation, she helped move the foundation assets to being 100% mission aligned. Since then, Kristin started the Nia Community Fund concentrating on conscious investing in Oakland. She is also a co-founder of Hub Oakland and serves as a peer coach urging friends and colleagues to investigate their holdings to ensure their investments are aligned with their personal and organizational values.

Kristin attended Tufts University where she earned her BA and teaching credentials. She holds an MA in Research in Bilingual Education from Stanford University and a PhD in Urban Education from UC Berkeley. She lives in Piedmont with her 2 boys and 4 chickens.

Bridging the gaps between funding and the services provided in low-income communities, Center for the Greater Good has revolutionized funding community development by providing a measurable positive impact on society. Socially responsible, financially viable and able to break the binds of poverty in our communities; our funding speaks to our nation’s need to build stronger communities, by working with the people who live in them and funding the services necessary for personal growth. 

In 2006, the U.S. Patent Office awarded Liu a patent on the breakthrough technology invention known as the Wildflowers Model-building process. The Wildflowers Model-building process invites individuals and groups to construct three-dimensional models of their community, which in turn uncover their universe, relationships, and what is important to them. He has used this methodology in communities around the world. In addition to fifteen communities in the San Francisco Bay Area, Stockton, Los Angeles, Olympia, Albuquerque, and Boston, Liu and his staff have conducted training at the Governor’s Office of Ningbo in the People’s Republic of China, the Salzburg Global Seminar, the San Francisco Office of Civic Engagement & Immigrant Affairs, The San Francisco Foundation, The Russell Family Foundation, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, and the W. K. Kellogg Institute for Food and Nutrition Research.

Liu offers new tools to help people strengthen the infrastructures of their community. One tool is the making of an illustrated map that shows the social and cultural order. These maps identify activities that develop values and maintain the culture of community. Another tool is a social investment fund that deploy resources simply and effectively. The fund leverages informal capital and invests in sustainable community solutions. Initially, the fund provides low-interest loans to support the vertical integration of food providers, from farmers to restaurant owners. Over half of the profits from the fund will be reinvested to strengthen the social fabric of the community. A third tool is a leadership program in partnership with the Aspen Institute to help individuals from different communities uncover their internal compass of values to guide them in leading their own community and an external compass to know what is good for society.

Liu was elected to the board of trustees of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation in 1996 and continues to serve on the board today. He was its chairman from 2003 to 2005. His experiences at the Kellogg Foundation have exposed him to communities around the world and have helped him think more deeply about change theories, tools for philanthropy, and social impact.

Liu is a 2009 Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the Clinton School of Public Service, Center on Community Philanthropy, University of Arkansas; a 2006 Purpose Prize Fellow; and a Gerbode Fellow. He has given presentations about informal capital at The Atlantic Philanthropies; the Clinton School Speakers Series: Inspiring Ideas and Action, at the University of Arkansas; the Craigslist Foundation Bootcamp; the Loeb Fellows at Harvard University; the Kalliopeia Conference; and the Sierra Health Foundation.
 

Katherine also spent two years at the Fidelity Foundations acting as Program Officer for these large philanthropic organizations. She has traveled the world as an active volunteer for Habitat for Humanity and has held numerous volunteer positions with Wellesley College and its Business Leadership Council (currently serving on the board of the Alumnae Association). Katherine is Co-Chair of the board of Common Impact, a nonprofit that facilitates collaborations between global companies and local nonprofits, and serves as an advisor to Ethical Markets Media. She is an alumna of Wellesley College, holds a CFA designation, and has recently completed an MTS degree at Harvard Divinity School.