John Kao, author of “Innovation Nation,” and UNC public health alumnus Gary White, co-founder and chief executive officer of Water.org will discuss “Changing the World through Innovation” in a free public talk on March 4 at Carolina.
Chancellor Holden Thorp, co-author of “Engines of Innovation,” will moderate the discussion at 5:30 p.m. in the auditorium (G-100) on the lower/ground floor of the Genome Sciences Building on Bell Tower Drive. No tickets or reservations are required. Free parking is available after 5 p.m. in the Bell Tower parking deck.
White and actor Matt Damon co-founded Water.org, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering people in the developing world to gain access to safe water and sanitation. White’s entrepreneurial vision has driven innovations in the way water is delivered and financed, and his approach now serves as a global model.
Kao has been dubbed “a serial innovator” by the Economist magazine. He is chairman of the World Economic Forum’s Global Advisory Council on Innovation and founder and chairman of the Institute for Large Scale Innovation, a group of innovation leaders from around the world. He has degrees in philosophy and medicine from Yale, and business administration from Harvard, where he taught in the business school. He is also a jazz pianist and spent the summer of 1969 playing keyboards for Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.
Published Februrary 27, 2013.