Meet the Siebel Scholars

Chris Bradford: 2012 Siebel Scholars Impact Award WinnerStanford University, Business, Class of 2005

Joel Mwale grew up in extreme poverty in a rural village in Kenya. After a bout of dysentery from contaminated drinking water, he developed an innovative method to capture rainwater for his community. He expanded his idea into a water bottling and distribution business called SkyDrop Enterprises, which has now provided more than 100,000 bottles of much-needed clean drinking water to African villagers.

Now, Joel is a first-year student at African Leadership Academy, which received a 2012 Siebel Scholars Impact Award for its work developing future leaders like Joel, who can foster peace and prosperity in Africa.

Founded by Christopher Bradford ’05 and Fred Swaniker, African Leadership Academy identifies the most promising 16 to 19 year old leaders and brings them together for a two-year university preparatory program emphasizing leadership, entrepreneurship, and African studies. Through its merit-based system, students represent a wide range of backgrounds; emerging leaders from refugee camps and orphanages learn side-by-side with budding leaders from middle-class and wealthy families. ALA enables them to gain access to the capital and influential networks needed to drive lasting change. These young entrepreneurs – many of whom started businesses as part of the curriculum at African Leadership Academy – have been featured on CNN, presented at the Clinton Global Initiative forum, and written best-selling books.

No matter their educational background, these students share principles of drive, courage, and perseverance, which enable them to succeed in university-prep classes. In 2009, three were among the top 10 performers in the world on their Cambridge University International Exams, the most widely administered pre-university examinations in the world. African Leadership Academy opened its Johannesburg, South Africa campus in 2008, and now has 120 graduates attending top universities in the United States, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Duke, and MIT.

As alumni expand their global networks, it is critical that they maintain connections to Africa, seeing opportunities that ignite their eagerness to return after graduation. To tackle its challenge of strengthening graduates’ ties to each other and to the African continent, Chris will leverage the Impact Award to reconnect graduates at an event modeled after annual Siebel Scholars conferences, with speakers addressing regional issues that will re-energize graduates about opportunities in Africa.

With the Impact Award comes the backing of the broader Siebel Scholars community, which already includes many active supporters. “The Siebel Scholars are a network of some of the brightest young minds on the planet who can have a significant impact on the young leaders on our campus,” Chris said. “Like the Siebel Scholars community, ALA’s young leaders will work together to drive transformative change for decades to come.”

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Michael Rosskamm: 2012 Siebel Scholars Impact Award WinnerNorthwestern University, Business, Class of 2008

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.

Revive the Dream takes their business expertise and ability to drive change, and provides the context to apply these skills to the education space. By providing the resources, networks, and political savvy to bring about transformative change in the education system, this fellowship program demonstrates how industry leaders can become education reform advocates without building careers in education.

Founded by Michael Rosskamm ‘08, Revive The Dream was named a 2012 Siebel Scholars Impact Award winner for its efforts to revolutionize K-12 education in the United States. Its inaugural 25 fellows were named in fall 2011 and began a series of practical seminars to arm them with the tools needed to change outdated structures, systems, and approaches. Each month, fellows gather with preeminent education practitioners for in-depth discussions on key topics including teacher effectiveness, urban school transformation, alternative models, and advocacy best practices. These leaders are then matched with organizations to serve as strategic partners or board members to leverage their newfound knowledge to impact urban public education.

To develop the program, Mike drew on his experience as a high school math teacher in New York, and later as a management consultant with Boston Consulting Group. He also leveraged the Siebel Scholars community, teaming up with Melissa Kinzler ’08, who sits on the board of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, on initial strategy, and Micki O’Neil ’07, founder of Foundations College Preparatory School, to develop the curriculum.

With the help of the wider Siebel Scholars community and Impact Award, Mike hopes to expand to 20 cities with 500 fellows each year, driving local change at the national level. “The support of the Siebel Scholars community will allow Revive the Dream to build off of our early successes and continue to grow into a national organization with significant impact both locally and across the country,” said Mike.

Mike is currently a Broad Resident and Senior Director on the Teaching and Learning Team at Achievement First, a Charter Management Group in Brooklyn, New York. In addition to his MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, he also holds a Bachelor’s degree from Princeton University.

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Lindsay Stradley: 2012 Siebel Scholars Impact Award WinnerMIT, Business, Class of 2011

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.

Lindsay and her team founded Sanergy in January of 2010 to permanently reduce sanitation-related disease in Africa’s slums by making sanitation accessible, affordable, and sustainable. They developed a cleaner and cheaper alternative to the toilets utilized by inhabitants of the densely packed slums of Kenya, where 80% of the 10 million residents were paying for unhygienic and inaccessible sanitation options that polluted local water supplies.

Sanergy’s innovative sanitation solution begins with the franchise of low-cost, hygienic toilets to residents of slum communities – resulting in decreases in disease, while improving the local job market and increasing the annual wages for these entrepreneurs. Waste from the toilets is then collected and processed off-site by Sanergy employees, preventing the pollution of waterways and once again providing employment opportunities. The processed waste then produces fertilizer for farmers and energy—like biogas and electricity—for the local community.

Sanergy’s pilot locations have provided hygienic sanitation to 150 customers and will expand to serve nearly 5,000 users in early 2012. In less than two years, the company and its founders have already won eight fellowships and awards for their advancements, including the Siebel Scholars Impact Award. “The Siebel Scholars Impact Award enables Sanergy to accelerate its progress towards improving the quality of life for Kenyans living in urban poverty,” said Stradley.

Siebel Scholars are a key asset in helping Sanergy reach their goals. The Siebel Scholars community has already offered to assist with their needs, which include data tracking, waste processing research and development, product design, and operations management. Sanergy has also collaborated with another Siebel Scholars Impact Award-winning organization, the African Leadership Academy, whose graduates have managed sales and marketing efforts locally in Nairobi.

Lindsay has an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management and a B.A. in American Studies from Yale University.

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Sean HarringtonStanford University, Business, Class of 2007

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.

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Allison BarmannNorthwestern University, Business, Class of 2004

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.

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Get to know our featured Scholars. Click the images to learn more.

Andrea Les

Education & Work

School

Stanford Bioengineering

Class

2010

Area of Study

Bioengineering

Scholar Degree

Ph.D.

Professional Interests & Experience

Bio

Andrea is a Ph.D. student in bioengineering at Stanford University. She also earned her bachelor's degree at Stanford, majoring in biomechanical engineering and minoring in cultural and social anthropology. As a Ph.D. student, she uses magnetic resonance imaging and computational fluid dynamics to study blood flow in human abdominal aortic aneurysms. Ultimately, she hopes to elucidate the mechanisms by which exercise might slow the growth of aneurysms. Prior to her Ph.D. work, she interned at NASA Ames Vestibular Research Facility, assisted in a geophysical survey of the East African Rift, and taught backpacking, wilderness first aid, and outdoor ethics to teenagers, college students, and adults.

Honors & Awards

2000 Presidential Scholar (under President Clinton)