Bill Drayton

For other men with this name, see William Drayton (disambiguation).
Bill Drayton

Photo of Bill Drayton

Bill Drayton as Ashoka celebrates its 25th anniversary (2006)
Born William Drayton
1943
New York City
Alma mater Andover,
Harvard University,
Balliol College, Oxford University
Yale Law School
Organization Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
Title Chair

William "Bill" Drayton (born in New York City, USA), is a social entrepreneur. Drayton was named by U.S. News & World Report as one of America's 25 Best Leaders in 2005.[1] He is responsible for the rise of the phrase "social entrepreneur", a concept first found in print in 1972.[2]

Drayton is the founder and current chair of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to finding and fostering social entrepreneurs worldwide. Drayton also chairs two other 501(c)(3) organizations, namely Youth Venture and Get America Working!

Drayton's philosophy of social entrepreneurs are individuals with innovative solutions to society's most pressing social problems. To quote Drayton, "Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry."

Early years

Drayton's mother emigrated to the United States from Australia. His father was an American who became an explorer. Public service and strong values run through the history of both parents' families, including several of the earliest anti-slavery abolitionist and women's leaders in the U.S.[3] Drayton was born in 1943 in New York City.

Drayton attended high school at Phillips Academy, where he established the Asia Society, which soon became the school's most popular student organization. He attended Harvard where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1965, where he created the Ashoka Table, bringing in prominent government, union, and church leaders for off-the-record dinners at which students could ask "how things really worked". Drayton entered Balliol College, Oxford and received a Master of Arts degree in 1967. He attended to Yale Law School where he received his Juris Doctor in 1970. At Yale Law School, Drayton founded Yale Legislative Services, which, at its peak, involved a third of the law school's student body.[4]

Career

Bill Drayton

Drayton became a manager and management consultant, working for McKinsey and Company as a consultant for almost ten years.[5]

During the administration of President Jimmy Carter (1977–1981), Drayton was an Assistant Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency where he launched emissions trading, among other reforms.

Drayton has served as a visiting Professor at Harvard University and Stanford University.[6]

Awards

Drayton has received many awards and acknowledgments for his achievements. He was elected one of the early MacArthur Fellows for his work, including the founding of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public.[7]

The American Society of Public Administration and the National Academy of Public Administration jointly awarded him their National Public Service Award[8] and he has also been named a Preiskel-Silverman Fellow for Yale Law School[9] and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[10]

On May 25, 2009, Drayton was awarded an honorary degree, Doctorate of Humane Letters, by Yale University at commencement.[11]

David Gergen has called Drayton the “godfather of social entrepreneurship.” [12] And in 2008, Drayton was named a "visionary" as one of Utne Reader magazine's "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing the World".[13]

In 2011, Drayton won Spain's prestigious Prince of Asturias Awards for international cooperation for his work promoting entrepreneurs. The prize foundation described him as a "driving force behind the figure of social entrepreneurs, men and women who undertake innovative initiatives for the common good." [14]

Within the next two weeks, Drayton also accepted the John W. Gardner Leadership award, "established in 1985 to honor outstanding Americans who exemplify the leadership and the ideals of John W. Gardner", and the World Entrepreneurship Forum's Social Entrepreneur Award.[15]

In 2012, Drayton was named an inaugural recipient of Middlebury College's Center for Social Entrepreneurship Vision Award, in recognition of the impact of his contributions to the field of social entrepreneurship.[16]

References

  1. ↑ USNews.com: The social entrepreneur: Bill Drayton Archived 2006-11-09 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ↑ see J Banks, The Sociology of Social Movements, London, MacMillan, 1972.
  3. ↑ "GOOD Q&A: Social Entrepreneur Bill Drayton On His White House Years". Huffington Post. 2007-12-03.
  4. ↑ Changing the World on a Shoestring
  5. ↑ Bill Drayton Paints a Vision of Changemaking Archived 2006-10-18 at the Wayback Machine.
  6. ↑ Events - Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship(CASE)
  7. ↑ MacArthur Fellows, November 1984 Archived September 29, 2007, at the Wayback Machine., The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Retrieved February 9, 2008.
  8. ↑ National Public Service Awards Archived 2007-10-27 at the Wayback Machine.
  9. ↑ "Yale Bulletin and Calendar". Yale University. November–December 1999. Retrieved 2009-09-01.
  10. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-12-01. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
  11. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-07-27. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
  12. ↑ Gergen, David (2006-02-12). "The New Engines of Reform". U.S News & World Report. Archived from the original on 2009-10-12.
  13. ↑ Visionaries Who Are Changing the World
  14. ↑ "New York social activist wins Spanish prize". Forbes. 2011-06-08.
  15. ↑ "Bill Drayton of Ashoka Accepts Three Awards in Three Weeks from Europe, US, and Asia". Ashoka. 2011-11-09. Archived from the original on 2012-05-22.
  16. ↑ Vision Award | Center for Social Entrepreneurship. Middlebury.edu (2015-08-13). Retrieved on 2015-08-13.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bill Drayton.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.