While many civic-minded business leaders want to improve K-12 education in the United States, without education backgrounds, they don’t necessarily know where best to channel their passion.

2.6 billion people worldwide lack access to sanitation.  The resulting diseases kill nearly 1.6 million children each year.  It was these startling statistics that prompted Lindsay Stradley, a Siebel Scholar from MIT’s Sloan School of Management, to cofound Sanergy with her classmates, David Auerbach and Ani Vallabhaneni.  The trio shared a vision for using technology and innovative business models to address the social and economic issues that affect those living in urban poverty in the developing world. 

Sean Harrington helps electric and gas utility companies motivate their customers to reduce energy usage and carbon emissions as Director of Client Solutions in the San Francisco office of Arlington, Virginia-based OPOWER.

OPOWER offers a suite of products that allow utilities to provide actionable insights to customers beyond standard energy bill usage data.  It combines information from the utility companies – like meter and account data – with third-party statistics like weather and demographics.  The result is a customized report showing comparisons to similar homes or businesses, highly targeted what-if scenarios, usage trends, and other detailed insights to drive reductions in energy usage.  As of early December 2010, OPOWER has saved over $21 million on energy bills and abated over 272 million tons of CO2, according to its website.

Sean joined OPOWER as its first West Coast employee and heads up the small but growing team in San Francisco tasked with bringing on new utility customers.  Currently, OPOWER boasts eight of the ten largest utilities in the United States as clients.

Outside of the office, when he’s not teaching his toddler French or caring for his infant daughter, Sean is probably running.  He’s an ultra runner, going extreme distances.  He and his wife were part of a 20-person relay team that ran non-stop around the world, covering 15,200 miles and 16 countries in 95 days.  Last year, he visited the Grand Canyon to run from the South to the North Rim and back in 14 hours, covering 48 miles and 10,000 feet of elevation gain and loss.

In addition to his Master’s degree in Business Administration from Stanford University, Sean holds a Bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Calgary.

For the past three years, Allison Barmann has been directing the Itasca Project for McKinsey & Company, where she works with local CEOs and civic leaders to improve the regional competitiveness and quality of life in the Minneapolis/St. Paul region.

As a Project Manager, she helps this virtual organization tackle education, job growth, infrastructure, and other civic issues to directly impact their local community.  For example, to improve the quality of education for Minneapolis public schools, they developed a strategic plan for the district, and are now offering support and guidance to the schools as they implement the plan. 

Managing the Itasca Project allows Alli to both embrace her interest in the social sector as well as reduce the travel required of a typical consultant – giving her more time to focus on her 3-year-old twins and infant child. 

Alli received a Bachelor’s of Science from MIT, and started her career as an engineer at 3M.  However, she wanted a smaller, entrepreneurial environment, so she joined a startup in San Francisco, where she found her interest in business and marketing.  To further develop her business skills, she earned her MBA at Kellogg.

Her family keeps her busy, but she’s looking forward to getting back on her bicycle for endurance rides.  After business school, she and her husband rode on a 1200-mile, 3-week trip from the coast of Oregon to Montana following the Lewis & Clark trail.   While they’re not planning yet another long journey, they participate in an annual 150-mile, 2-day trip to support multiple sclerosis research.