Dear Net Impact Community,
As we ring in the New Year, we’d like to invite you to “rethink strategy” with change making experts. Please join us on Thursday, January 15th at 6:30PM in the Pinchot University 4th floor learning studio for a conversation on progressive new approaches to strategy. RSVP here!
Moderated by Pinchot/BGI faculty member Steph Sharma, this is an excellent opportunity to explore cutting edge strategy tactics with world-class practitioners.
Speakers:
· Roger Woodworth Avista Chief Strategy Officer
· Charlie Brown Context Partners
Snacks and refreshments will be provided. Hope to see you there!
Speaker and Moderator bios:
Roger Woodworth is VP and Chief Strategy Officer at Avista, the innovative Spokane-based utility founded in 1889 that now serves gas and electricity to customers in communities of Washington, Idaho, and Oregon. In addition to its energy utility services, Avista has pioneered several clean energy enterprises that today thrive as stand-alone businesses in the fields of automated metering (Itron), modular fuel cells (ReliOn), and energy management for multi-site organizations (AdvantageIQ). As Chief Strategy Officer, Roger works to identify entrepreneurial growth opportunities, both inside and outside of the company, including innovative services, emerging technologies and other potential ventures that are in line with Avista's core energy business. He is active in various professional and civic organizations, currently including service as board chair of the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance; chair of Edison Electric Institute’s retail services executive advisory committee; chair of the President’s Advisory Council for WSU-Spokane; and vice chair of the Sirti Foundation board. Roger earned his Bachelor of Science degree in wildlife ecology from Washington State University and is a graduate of Columbia University’s Senior Executive Program.
Charlie Brown founded Context Partners in April 2010 with the explicit goal of supporting organizations’ ability to build purpose-driven and high-impact relationships with their communities. He brings a passion for the power of collective problem-solving and international expertise in launching new ideas, developing community-focused business models and driving executive-level organizational strategy. Since founding Context Partners, Charlie has developed and led projects for clients such as Ashoka, National Academy for State Health Policy and Nike.
From 2006 to 2010, Charlie was the executive director of Ashoka’s Changemakers, where he pioneered the space of prizes and open innovation for social change, building an online community of 100,000 innovators from more than 125 countries and connecting more than $50 million in philanthropic funding. In addition, he has consulted on network-based business models for the Government of Jamaica and The Nature Conservancy.
Charlie is a 2010-11 Creative Commons Fellow and serves on the board of directors for Future Generations and advisory boards for the Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation, RARE Planet and U.S. Center for Peace. He received business degrees from Virginia Tech and an International MBA from the University of Denver.
Steph Sharma, Managing Director of Lead The Difference, provides strategic consulting to senior leaders to support organization-specific adaptability and leadership readiness through a whole human shift in strategy. Through an open-source consulting model they designed, Steph applies a research-based understanding to collaboratively shift the focus linking the unique motivations of individuals to the value they bring to an organization’s reason for being.
She has spent her career in global management consulting in partnership with executives from corporations and not-for-profits in all industries, spanning multiple regions, with achievement of Principal and Partner through Gallup’s management and strategy consulting practices. International business and global citizenship have been consistent areas of customer focus, with leadership and strategic oversight in Gallup’s Sydney Australia operations including support to the broader Asian operations.
She serves on the Social Enterprise Alliance, Thunderbird and Net Impact boards of directors, supports Washington Women in Need and the general social entrepreneurship movement in Seattle.
Kind regards,
BGI, Pinchot Net Impact Leadership