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Board of Advisors
The Board of Advisors possess expertise in fields covering the full range of the foundation's activities and provide guidance on particular projects and larger strategic initiatives.
Andreas Widmer North America
Widmer is the co-founder of S.E.VEN Fund, a philanthropic organization run by entrepreneurs who invest in original research, books, films, and websites to further enterprise solutions to poverty. Widmer and his business partner Michael Fairbanks initiated the Pioneers of Prosperity Awards, a first-of-its-kind industry program that finds and promotes the best entrepreneurs in emerging markets. Widmer works closely with top entrepreneurs, investors, and faith leaders around the world to foster enterprise solutions to poverty and promote virtuous business practices.
Widmer is the co-founder of S.E.VEN Fund, a philanthropic organization run by entrepreneurs who invest in original research, books, films, and websites to further enterprise solutions to poverty. Widmer and his business partner Michael Fairbanks initiated the Pioneers of Prosperity Awards, a first-of-its-kind industry program that finds and promotes the best entrepreneurs in emerging markets. Widmer works closely with top entrepreneurs, investors, and faith leaders around the world to foster enterprise solutions to poverty and promote virtuous business practices. He has developed entrepreneurial initiatives at the intersection of business and faith including his faith and prosperity blog, the Catholic Mental Models Project, the joint 2010 Essay Competition with the Center for Interfaith Action, and a partnership with the Carpenter’s Fund. Widmer is Research Fellow in Entrepreneurship at the Acton Institute and an advisor to the Zermatt Summit, an annual business leadership event that strives to humanize globalization. He also serves as an advisor to Transforming Business, a research and development project at the University of Cambridge. And currently serves on the advisory boards of the Global Adaptation Institute, Spring Hill Equity Partners, Karisimbi Business Partners, and Catholics Come Home. He is on the board of directors at the New Paradigm Research Fund, Virtual Research Associates, and the World Youth Alliance, a global coalition of young people committed to promoting the dignity of the person and building solidarity among youth from developed and developing nations. He was appointed by the Center for Interfaith Action on Global Poverty as a member of the Task Force to Advance Multireligious Collaboration on Faith, Health, and Development, which presented its findings at the White House in November 2010. Widmer is a seasoned business executive with experience in high-tech and international business strategy consulting and economic development. He was an executive in residence at Highland Capital Partners, a venture capital firm. He served as CEO of OTF Group (formerly part of the Monitor Group) and helped lead Eprise Corporation, Dragon Systems, and FTP Software. Widmer has worked extensively in the United States, Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America, and has brought more than 100 leading-edge technology products to market. An author on the connection between entrepreneurship, economic development and spirituality, he blogs regularly at www.faithandprosperity.com. He contributed two chapters to the book In the River They Swim: Essays from Around the World on Enterprise Solutions to Poverty. His book on values and leadership will be released from Emmaus Road Press in Fall 2011. He has authored articles and been featured in various business and general interest media including the Financial Times, Bloomberg News, Sky TV, Kigali Times, FastCompany, Catholic TV, EWTN Radio, and First Things. Widmer served as a Pontifical Swiss Guard from 1986-1988, protecting Pope John Paul II. He holds two business degrees from Switzerland, plus a B.S. in international business from Merrimack College and an M.A. in ministry from St. John’s Seminary in Boston. He was one of the founding members of the Catholic Men’s and Women’s Conferences in Boston and was recently knighted in the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre and is a member of Legatus, the Catholic CEO organization.
David Sloan Wilson North America
SUNY Distinguished Professor of Biology and Anthropology at Binghamton University. He applies evolutionary theory to all aspects of humanity in addition to the rest of life, both in his own research and by directing programs designed to reform higher education and public policy formulation. He is known for championing the theory of multilevel selection, which has implications ranging from the origin of life to the nature of religion.
SUNY Distinguished Professor of Biology and Anthropology at Binghamton University. He applies evolutionary theory to all aspects of humanity in addition to the rest of life, both in his own research and by directing programs designed to reform higher education and public policy formulation. He is known for championing the theory of multilevel selection, which has implications ranging from the origin of life to the nature of religion. His books include Darwin’s Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society (Chicago, 2002) and Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin’s Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives (Bantam, 2007). His next book is titled The Neighborhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block At A Time (Little, Brown, 2011).
David J. Wood North America
Senior Pastor of Glencoe Union Church, a non-denominational church in Illinois. An ordained minister in the American Baptist Churches, Wood was awarded a master of divinity degree from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary and a master of sacred theology degree from Yale University. His studies centered in theology and ethics. After serving as a parish pastor, he accepted a call to serve as the first associate director of the Louisville Institute—a Lilly Endowment funded Project for the Study of American Religion based at Louisville Presbyterian Seminary.
Senior Pastor of Glencoe Union Church, a non-denominational church in Illinois. An ordained minister in the American Baptist Churches, Wood was awarded a master of divinity degree from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary and a master of sacred theology degree from Yale University. His studies centered in theology and ethics. After serving as a parish pastor, he accepted a call to serve as the first associate director of the Louisville Institute—a Lilly Endowment funded Project for the Study of American Religion based at Louisville Presbyterian Seminary. As associate director, Wood sought, through grant making and convening groups, to stimulate a sustained, critical, constructive, and ecumenical conversation about the practice of pastoral leadership in a changing church in a changing culture. He also served on the adjunct faculty of Louisville Presbyterian Seminary in their doctor of ministry program. In 2002, he became pastor of the First Baptist Church of Gardiner, Maine, and also served as a consultant to the Lilly Endowment as the coordinator of the Transition into Ministry Program, which focuses on recent seminary graduates as they make their journey from classroom to congregation. Currently, this program includes a total of thirty-four projects across the country and the denominational spectrum. Nineteen of these programs are congregation based and the remaining eight are institution based—a variety of denominational offices and seminaries. To date, more than 750 recent seminary graduates have participated in these programs. Since 2008, Wood has helped to design and run two major programs in the John Templeton Foundation science for ministry initiative: Science for Ministry and Scientists in Congregations.