Synergos Cultivate the Soul: Stories of Purpose-Driven Philanthropy

Suzanne Bowles is a philanthropy strategist, collaboration designer, and post-capitalist systems architect devoted to helping funders and movements meet this moment of profound transition with integrity, courage, and relational depth. She is the founder and Chief Strategist of Cattail Strategy, a consultancy that supports philanthropic organizations, funding collaboratives, and cultural stewards t...

Xavi Ginesta  founded  Voxel  in 1998, a Barcelona-based company that became a global leader in electronic invoicing and payments for the travel industry. Voxel was recognized as the third best workplace in Spain by the Best Workplaces ranking in 2019 and 2020. Xavi’s professional journey has always been closely intertwined with a personal commitment to fostering a more consci...

Hilary Giovale is a mother, writer, facilitator, and community organizer who holds a Master’s Degree in Good and Sustainable Communities. She has taught improvisational dance and has served on the boards of philanthropic, human rights, and environmental organizations. Descended from the Celtic, Germanic, Nordic, and Indigenous peoples of Ancient Europe, she is a ninth-generation American set...

Sharon Salzberg is a meditation pioneer, world-renowned teacher, and New York Times bestselling author. She is among the first to bring mindfulness and lovingkindness meditation to mainstream American culture over fifty years ago, inspiring generations of meditation teachers and wellness influencers. Sharon is co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, and the author of fourte...

After 17 years working for PricewaterhouseCoopers as a Leader in their China business practice, Chun Dong created a Comprehensive Advisory Business Model for Ultra High Net Worth families and their private businesses in 2023, which includes multifamily office, business transformation, legal, financial and tax advisory services. She and her team not only provide these families and busines...

Josef George Kembel is an educator, entrepreneur, and advisor whose work sits at the intersection of creativity, leadership, and systems change. As the founding director of Stanford’s Design School (the d.school), Josef helped launch a global movement in design that has influenced education, business, and social innovation worldwide. Earlier in his career, his entrepreneurial work contribute...

Dilafruz Khonikboyeva is the Founding Executive Director of the Home Planet Fund, the latest tool in the Patagonia philanthropic ecosystem. Ms. Khonikboyeva was previously a political appointee of the US Biden-Harris Administration, spent five years with the Aga Khan Development Network, and eight years responding to conflict and climate crises. Ms. Khonikboyeva is a transformational conflict expe...

Peter Brach, founder of Propel Philanthropy, is a thought leader who advocates for the inclusion of far-reaching social sector acceleration in funders’ portfolios. He partnered with Alliance Magazine and WINGS on two successful campaigns spotlighting the value of Social Impact Infrastructure Organizations (SIIOs). He founded a network of over 60 SIIOs and launched the Funder-to-Funder Infras...

David Evans Shaw is CEO of Black Point Group, with wide-ranging interests in technology companies, impact investing and public service activism. His business creation, leadership, investment and board experience includes more than a dozen successful technology companies, employing more than 15,000 people worldwide, with a combined market valuation of tens of billions of dollars. These companies ha...

Kristine Tompkins is the president and co-founder of  Tompkins Conservation , an American conservationist, and former CEO of Patagonia, Inc. For three decades, she has committed to protecting and restoring wild beauty and biodiversity by creating national parks, restoring wildlife, inspiring activism, and fostering economic vitality as a result of conservation. Kristine and her late husband D...

Camille Massey is President and CEO of Synergos, a global organization that has pioneered the use of bridging leadership, which builds trust and collaboration to solve complex problems. She joined the organization in this role in November 2023. Camille combines decades of experience working on complex development challenges together with deep recognition of the values of inclusion, of listening, a...

Teresa Corção was the Chef and Owner of the restaurant O Navegador from 1981 to 2020. The restaurant closed during the Covid 19 pandemic. In 2001, she joined the International Slow Food Movement as co-leader in Rio de Janeiro, becoming interested in the socio-environmental influence linked to the world of food. In 2002, she created the Cassava Project, researching the importance of t...

Alexa Firmenich is an investor, consultant and facilitator focused on climate and biodiversity. She is the founder of Naia Trust, an animist investment vehicle that supports early stage nature-based solutions, scientific research and new economic models. She is also senior advisor at the Crowther Lab at ETH Zurich, and was co-director of its initiative SEED that is develop...

Through A Growing Culture, Loren has worked to shift cultural narratives around food and farmers to center justice. The organization’s work has grown from over a decade of Loren’s work building relationships of deep trust with peasant- and Indigenous-led movements around the world — movements that are seeding radical hope for a just and dignified future for all. A Growing Culture brings together g...

Chavalit Frederick Tsao is the fourth-generation steward of TPC (Tsao Pao Chee), a family business with more than 120 years of history. Chavalit believes business reform is needed, and quantum leadership is the way. He is committed to this journey and is reforming his family business, TPC, with a renewed mission “To Serve Well-being of Life and Create Wealth at the Same Time.” He founded OCTAVE, a...

Nipun Mehta is the founder of ServiceSpace, a global community working at the intersection of technology, volunteerism and a gift culture. As a designer of large-scale social movements that are rooted in small acts of service and powered by micro moments of inner transformation, his work has uniquely catalyzed "many to many" networks of community builders grounded in their localities and rooted in...

Rohini Nilekani is the Chairperson of Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies and Co-founder and Director of  EkStep , a non-profit education platform. She is also the Founder and Former Chairperson of  Arghyam , a foundation she set up in 2001 for sustainable water and sanitation, which funds initiatives across India. From 2004 to 2014, she was Founder-Chairperson and chief funder of  Pratham Books , a no...

Building trust and taking collective action are essential when tackling complex issues—and it is in this spirit that we bring you this episode from our partner  System Catalysts , co-hosted by GPC member Jeffrey Walker and English Sall.   System Catalysts shares stories of change makers who put their egos aside to improve the systems that run the world. In this  episode , Ellen Agler, former CEO o...

Listen to learn how Cristiane is working at a systems level to strengthen the philanthropic sector in Brazil as she builds strong partnerships with grantees based on trust and deep listening. Cristiane has a Law Degree from Mackenzie University, a Masters in Banking Law from IBMEC-SP, with specializations in Private Bank from IBMEC-SP and Corporate Law from Getúlio Vargas Foundation, she also comp...

Richard Schwartz began his career as a systemic family therapist and an academic. Grounded in systems thinking, Dr. Schwartz developed Internal Family Systems (IFS) in response to clients’ descriptions of various parts within themselves. He focused on the relationships among these parts and noticed that there were systemic patterns to the way they were organized across clients. He also found that...

Victor is a social service worker and impact investor. He co-founded Tianren Culture, a next-generation social platform that serves as a catalyst and enabler of social innovation with the mission to foster positive global values and lifestyles. Tianren Culture's core philosophy is “One with Nature” and its strategic focus is to promote "One Wisdom, One Health" by encouraging and enabling contempla...

Listen to hear Rodney speak about the role that he plays to support Love, with a capital “L” in today’s world. How, at Fetzer, they are creating space and communities to explore how one can demonstrate love in one’s philanthropy. Meet Rodney I come from a people where community is essential and life saving. Community has saved me from loneliness, from being afraid that I wasn’t loved by God and su...

Scott Kriens, chairman and former CEO of Juniper Networks, has been in the technology industry for more than 35 years. In 1996, he co-founded Juniper Networks, growing the company to $4 billion in global sales and more than 10,000 employees in 100+ countries. In 2010, Scott and his wife Joanie launched 1440 Foundation, a grant making organization committed to the cultivation of truly real and conn...

Sudnya is an Indian American artist who has made San Francisco Bay Area her home since 1996. She has pursued her passion for storytelling through visual art, public installations, a novel publication, and now FREMONT, her first feature film. As a champion of the world’s displaced sisterhood, Sudnya has made it her life’s mission to tell stories - arrestingly beautiful and awe inspiring stories - t...

Listen to hear how David Less and the Abrahamic Reunion are shifting consciousness by bringing people together in the Holy Land so they can change the narrative and move from separation to unity. David is a founding member of the  Abrahamic Reunion , a bottom-up grassroots organization designed to overcome the problem of segregation and separation in Israel and Palestine by bringing together group...