Despite being diagnosed with a learning disability at the age of five. Walter accomplished his lifelong dream of making it to the NFL, playing for the Philadelphia Eagles, Indianapolis Colts, Buffalo Bills, and Cincinnati Bengals, Mendehall’s desire to educate young minority males prompted him to walk away from football to pursue his passion for teaching the next generation of leaders. Mendenhall founded the Male Mogul Initiative which seeks to positively transform the way young men live and lead in their communities through leadership and entrepreneurship development. Under the leadership of Walter Mendenhall, the Male Mogul has been awarded the Prestigious Chicago Innovation award, Wintrust Bank Neighborhood award, and a MIT_Solve semi finalist.

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https://www.pledge.to/mmi2023

www.malemogulinitiative.org

Email: walterm@malemogulinitiative.org

Facebook

Greg is the founder of SocialEntrepreneurU. He is a former Ashoka Leadership Group Member, a two-time Ashoka Globalizer Fellow, and a World Economic Forum "Social Entrepreneur of the Year for 2012 (Latin America)." Greg is the principal designer of the award-winning MicroConsignment Model, now being applied globally. Over 20 years, he’s founded, led, and/or consulted for dozens of organizations, teams, and communities in 25+ countries. He has designed (social) entrepreneurial experiences, taught courses, and led workshops for thousands of students and professionals. Greg recently published It’s What You Set In Motion: A Toolbox for Collaborative Changemaking.

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collaborativechangemaking.com

LinkedIn

Dr. Gina Merritt, MBA is founder of Northern Real Estate Urban Ventures (NREUV), LLC, and has over 26 years of hands-on real estate development, finance, construction, and asset management experience. She has participated in the development of over 8,200 units of housing and has underwritten approximately $4.5B in real estate development transactions. Merritt is an experienced owner, developer and asset manager that brings her practical development knowledge and perspective to her business model. Her team brings practical experience to its municipal, non-profit and institutional clients to provide unmatched real estate advisory services. Merritt is also the founder of Project Community Capital®, a social capital platform that connects people in low-income communities with jobs ensuring that subcontractors who have socio-economic goals from state and federal funding can meet their requirements by connecting them with individuals who are “Ready-To-Work.”

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www.nreuv.com

https://projectcommunitycapital.net

LinkedIn

NREUV on LinkedIn

Project Community Capital on LinkedIn

Sarah-Jayne Ashenhurst is proud to serve as the Social Enterprise Director at Bright Endeavors, a social enterprise of New Moms, where she provides strategic leadership and business management to a growing workforce development social enterprise and home fragrance brand. Informed by a background in the arts and a deep commitment to racial, social, and economic justice, Sarah-Jayne is a community weaver focused on building an economy that works for workers and puts people and planet over profit. Her professional mission is to advocate for and contribute to the proliferation of unconventional business structures like social enterprises, public benefit corps, and worker-owned cooperatives as a mode of fundamentally transforming structural power dynamics and creating a just and sustainable economy.

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brightendeavors.org (use code SEA20 for 20% off!)

YouTube

Kristen Powers serves as the Executive Director of Benevolence Farm. In her role, she is proud to work alongside formerly incarcerated women by providing and creating opportunities for housing, employment, and community across the rural South.

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www.benevolencefarm.org

Helping social enterprises manage the headache of fulfillment with HHPLift’s 3PL services (Warehousing and Fulfillment). With over 10 years experience, state-of-the-art technology, and an opportunity to provide job training in the growing logistics field, HHPLift will take the headache off your plate so you can do what you do best - create impact.

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Dena is President & CEO of HHPLift, a Chicago-based non-profit, and a People and Planet First Verified social enterprise. HHPLift's mission is to create quality jobs for the people who need them most, and through their LiftWorks program, has served over 250 individuals from 36 under-resourced communities in Chicago. Her primary focus includes: establishing and strengthening strategic partnerships, educating companies about increasing ways they can source products for their programs in a socially sustainable way, and expanding the impact of its LiftWorks Program, HHPLift’s job creation and career development program.

Isela Flores enjoys working at a social enterprise where the day to day translates directly to meaningful impact. She oversees HHPLift’s Operations. Prior to working at HHPLift, Isela worked at a larger corporation for many years. Her experiences with HHPLift have been rewarding and she enjoys the family-like atmosphere and working for a nonprofit.

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hhplift.com

John McDonald has over twenty-five years of experience as an entrepreneur, most recently as the Managing Entrepreneur of NEXT Studios, Indiana’s first Benefit (B) Corporation Innovation Studio. He was the founder and CEO of ClearObject, the fastest-growing technology company in Indiana for 5 years in a row, which successfully exited to private equity in 2019. Prior to that, John served as CEO of Chicago-based startup CloudOne, and also at IBM, where he led technical sales for their software development tools product line.

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nextstudios.org

LinkedIn

Lauren Edwards is the Executive Director of SEA Change, the Principal/Owner of Next Step Business Consulting, Co-owner of the social enterprise Apex Leadership Co of Central Ohio, and a Lecturer in the City and Regional Planning and Non-Profit Management departments at the Ohio State University. Her passion lies in helping organizations and individuals alleviate poverty through program and business development, vision realization, and facilitated conversation.

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SEAchng.org

nextstepbusinessconsulting.com