Special Address by Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu with John Hope Bryant, H.R.H. Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, Pekka Himanen, and chaired by Klaus Schwab at the World Economic Forum.
Bio
John Hope Bryant
John Hope Bryant is an American financial literacy and poverty eradication activist, and "silver rights" entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Operation HOPE, America's first non-profit social investment banking organization, a leading self-help provider of economic empowerment tools and services for the underserved.
His work to empower low-wealth communities has earned him a role as the Vice Chair of the U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy and the Chairman of the Council's Under-Served Committee.
Crown Prince Haakon
Crown Prince Haakon of Norway is the heir apparent to the throne of Norway.
The Crown Prince and Crown Princess' Humanitarian Fund was established in 2001 in connection with the wedding of the Crown Prince and Crown Princess.
Pekka Himanen
After obtaining his PhD in Philosophy as the youngest doctor ever in Finland at the age of 20 (University of Helsinki 1994), Himanen moved to carry out research first in England and then in California (Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley).
The best-known publication of this research is the book The Hacker Ethic (Random House 2001). Himanen has also coauthored with Prof. Manuel Castells the influential book The Information Society and the Welfare State (Oxford University Press 2002), which has been discussed worldwide in the leading academic and political circles. Himanen is nowadays a popular lecturer around the world.
As a sign of his impact, Himanen's work has been recognized with several awards, such as the World Economic Forum's respected Global Leader for Tomorrow Award in 2003 and his selection of being one of the 200 Young Global Leaders in 2005. Dr. Himanen has also had an important role in the actual making of the information society policy. He has advised leading global organizations and corporations. In Finland, Dr. Himanen has recently finished the preparation of a new information society strategy for the Finnish Parliament's Committee for the Future and a national innovation strategy for the Finnish Technology Industry.
Klaus Schwab
Dr. Klaus Schwab, Executive Chairman and Founder of the World Economic Forum, has been dedicated for more than thirty years to improving the state of the world. He is the recipient of numerous international and national honors for initiatives undertaken in the spirit of entrepreneurship in the global public interest and for peace and reconciliation efforts in several regions.
His work at the World Economic Forum has been providing a collaborative framework for leaders of the world to address global issues, engaging particularly its corporate members in global citizenship.
Dr. Schwab holds numerous positions of civic, academic and editorial leadership. He currently serves as Trustee for the Peres Center for Peace, Israel and the Ibrahim Hussein Museum and Cultural Foundation, Malaysia. His academic activities include: Professor for Business Policy, University of Geneva, Member, Overseers’ Visiting Committee, JFK School of Government, Advisory Board Member, Center for International Development, Harvard University, Member of the Corporate Visiting Committee, MIT and Member of the Royal Academy of Morocco. He is a Member of the Editorial Board for Foreign Policy, Chairman of the Editorial Board for World Link Magazine and author of the annual Global Competitiveness Report, in addition to numerous articles and several books.
Previously, Dr. Schwab was a member of the United Nations High-Level Advisory Board on Sustainable Development, Vice-Chairman of the United Nations Committee for Development Planning and member of the Earth Council when it was located in Costa Rica.
Dr. Schwab holds a Doctorate in Economics (summa cum laude) from the University of Fribourg, a Doctorate in Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and a Master’s of Public Administration from the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Additionally, he has been the recipient of six honorary doctorates, the most recent granted by the London School of Economics.
Born 1938 in Ravensburg, Germany, he is marred to Hilde Schwab, with whom he co-founded the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, which supports social innovation projects around the world. He has two children, a son, Oliver and a daughter, Nicole.
Reverend Desmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African cleric and activist who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid.
In 1984, Tutu became the second South African to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Tutu was elected and ordained the first black South African Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, and primate of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (now the Anglican Church of Southern Africa).
Tutu chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and is currently the chairman of The Elders. Tutu is vocal in his defense of human rights and uses his high profile to campaign for the oppressed.
Tutu also campaigns to fight AIDS, poverty and racism. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism, and the Gandhi Peace Prize in 2007.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu says "a caring dominion" of community, compassion, and family understanding will help resolve climate change and other global issues.
He says, "You are meant to live in a delicate network of interdependence, of complementarity - family."
