Mel Young has dedicated over two decades to tackling homelessness in Scotland, in the UK and around the world. A serial entrepreneur, his most recent achievement is catalysing the global use of football as a means to engage and empower homeless people to change their lives, and successfully bridge them into a sphere of inclusion.

Listen to Mel Young, founder of the Homeless World Cup

Rufus Pollock is building a global movement to empower people to answer the questions that matter. Questions like where do my taxes get spent to what’s the best school for my child? What’s the latest research on my medical condition? What’s in the drugs we take and are they safe? At present, we often don’t have access to the information we need to answer these kinds of questions because its locked away in governments and corporations. At the Open Knowledge Foundation we work to open up that information and empower people with the skills and tools to use that information both to understand and to drive change.

Listen to Rufus Pollock, founder of Open Knowledge

Roman Krznaric is a cultural thinker and writer on the art of living. He is a founding faculty member of The School of Life in London, and advises organisations including Oxfam and the United Nations on using empathy and conversation to create social change. He is also founder of the world’s first Empathy Library. His latest book is Empathy: A Handbook for Revolution (published in the US as Empathy: Why It Matters, and How to Get It). He has been named by The Observer as one of Britain’s leading lifestyle philosophers.

Listen to Roman Krznaric, writer and co-founder of the School of Life

David Green is enabling developing countries to produce, distribute, and service high-quality, affordable health care products. Having already directed the successful production and distribution of two products–intraocular lenses and surgical sutures, David is now launching an effort to manufacture and distribute top-of-the-line, cost effective, cosmetically acceptable, and locally maintainable hearing aids.

Listen to David Green, co-founder of Aurolab

Faisel is challenging retail financial systems in the UK that discriminate against and exclude the most marginalised people and that allow predatory lenders to exploit these vulnerable populations. To change these systems, he is increasing transparency and accountability by providing critical information to key decision makers – banks, regulatory agencies and borrowers – to transform current lending and reporting to better reflect the credit-worthiness of disadvantaged people. 

Listen to Faisel Rahman, founder of Fair Finance

By creating a tool for rating and assessing the strengths and weaknesses of medium-sized agricultural producer groups, Lucas Simons is able to form a common language and standard of information enabling previously disparate stakeholders to communicate and increasing access to financial products for the agricultural sector.  Through ScopeInsight, Lucas is able to provide direct and tangible information to these farmers, pinpointing their strengths and identifying areas for improvement. 

Listen to Lucas Simons, founder of SCOPEInsight

Across much of Africa, people in prisons are closed away from society and stripped of their basic rights, often without having been convicted of a crime.  Through education, access to health and nurturing leadership, Alexander Mclean is bringing humanity back into these prison systems and transforming how prisoners are regarded by the public, by prison staff, and by themselves. 

Listen to Alexander McLean, founder of African Prisons

Ruth Ibegbuna founded RECLAIM to tackle the UK’s low rates of social mobility. RECLAIM is building a new strand of working-class youth leadership with the mission of “being seen, being heard and leading change”, coming out of the most marginalized areas in regional cities with a powerful influence on politics, the media, and mindsets locally and nation-wide.

Listen to Ruth Ibegbuna, founder of the RECLAIM Project

Akanksha Hazari is an inspiring social enterprise that provides products that enhance livelihoods to the bottom of the pyramid with a revolutionary loyalty programme. By creating ‘extrinsic rewards’ for products and services purchased by communities, Akanksha is nurturing positive behavior among the urban poor and creating opportunities that were previously inaccessible.

Listen to Akanksha Hazari, founder of m.Paani

Al is creating a two-way flow of learning between isolated subsistence communities in Madagascar that are dependent on fragile and threatened marine ecosystems. The model he has created encourages and promotes the creation of local, community-run Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) that both increase the communities’ income and protect the marine environment.

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