Training 50,000+ students from rural and disadvantaged backgrounds to become English-fluent, tech savvy, problem-solving new hires ready to fuel India's new economy.
celebrates the boldness and impact individuals around the globe are bringing to the toughest challenges in their communities and the world-at-large.
A Nigerian newspaper that is revolutionary for reporting the facts, remaining incorruptible and holding elites and governments to account.
The Prize aims to galvanize efforts to address the foremost social, economic and political challenges of our time by recognizing the best of the exceptional leadership projects undertaken by the Fellows of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.
The winner of the John P. McNulty Prize will receive a $100,000 award to further his or her leadership project. The Prize will be paid directly to the project over two years and is contingent upon continued progress. Each of the other finalists will receive a $10,000 award.
In his professional life as in every other aspect of his life John was a force of nature – a person overflowing with vitality, love, conviction and total commitment. Interactions with John were never dull – debating inspired him and gave him limitless opportunities to flex his intellectual muscle. He was unable to engage in anything or with anyone without immersing his total self – mind, body and spirit.
Some described it as intensity – an enthusiasm that John brought to every enterprise. He had great vision and held himself and others to the highest standards in executing that vision. He did everything wholeheartedly. While for competitors it meant almost certain defeat, for clients it meant great advice and flawless execution. For colleagues it meant a committed mentor who brooked no trace of mediocrity, but who gave everything of himself to inspire, cajole and challenge in order to help people advance to and beyond their potential. And for family and friends, it meant steadfast loyalty.
Perhaps it was his Irish heritage. Born in 1952, John was the first of six children of Nora and Charles McNulty, who had newly emigrated from Donegal, Ireland. In a touch of irony given his later career, John’s mother's first job was as a housekeeper for a Wall Street investment banker. His father worked as a landscaper and a truck driver. John grew up in a row house in southwest Philadelphia, where his parents entrusted him to pay the mortgage and to buy meat from the butcher. The lessons he learned – how business worked, but more importantly how to interact with a wide range of people – never left him.
John met Anne Welsh at the first dance of his sophomore year at Cardinal O’Hara high school, and they began a singular, intense, devoted partnership that would last for 37 years. At Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, John turned his energies to student government, and was elected president of the student body. After graduation in 1974, John joined the accounting firm Arthur Andersen, earning his CPA. He and Anne both earned their MBAs from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in December of 1979.
From Wharton he joined Goldman Sachs, working with high-net-worth and institutional clients in Philadelphia. In 1986, he moved to Miami to manage and significantly expand the Goldman Sachs office there. He relished not only the chance (and challenge) to be in charge - something he always welcomed - but also the opportunity to hire and train a group of young associates to grow the business.
John returned to New York in late 1989 to create and manage the firm’s Special Investments Group, raising significant new outside capital for Asset Management and the Merchant Investment Management Division. John became a partner of Goldman Sachs in 1990, and was named co-head of its Asset Management Division in 1994. He was then asked to head the newly created Investment Management Division in 1998, combining Asset Management and Private Wealth Management.
Under John’s leadership, Goldman Sachs built a global investment management business that became a significant and integral part of the firm. Largely through organic growth, at an unprecedented rate, John and his management team increased assets by over 40% per annum, expanding a predominantly US - money market/fixed income business to one that was globally diversified, with a broad range of equity and alternative asset products.
"In the annals of the history of Goldman Sachs, pages will be written about John McNulty and his vision for our business, most notably in the area of asset management. Through the sheer force of his person John was the primary architect and the leading builder of an asset management business, which is now an essential and very successful component of the Goldman Sachs franchise. John’s intellect was awesome; joined with his innate common sense and an uncommon wisdom about people, he was the guy whose judgment you sought. Noone read a person or a situation faster or more accurately than did John McNulty. His understanding of the complexities of people and his emotional maturity made him not only a great raconteur, which he was, but a great assessor of talent. It is not surprising that many of Goldman Sachs’ current leaders were handpicked and mentored by John"
- Hank Paulson
At every step of his career, John delighted in serving as a mentor to younger associates, creating opportunities for them, and marveling at their talents. He inspired them to take risks, and challenged them to tackle problems creatively and enthusiastically. Like a proud parent, he drew intense satisfaction in their accomplishments and attributed his successes to their efforts.
John retired in July of 2001 from active participation as a partner after a 23-year career, including seven years on the management committee for the firm, he and remained a senior director of Goldman Sachs. Along with the desire to spend more time with his children, John wanted to shift his focus from doing well to doing good.
Characteristically, John threw himself full force into his new pursuits. He began by joining the board of the Aspen Institute. He engaged in their seminars, and joined in the planning for the new building on the Aspen campus. Most of all, he wholeheartedly supported the Institute’s commitment to values-based leadership, especially its mission to encourage young leaders around the world to “translate thought into action.”
John recognized his academic roots by serving on the boards of trustees of both the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and on the Board of Saint Joseph’s University. He also served on the board of directors of Carnival Corporation, of Allied World Assurance Holdings, Ltd., and on the board of governors of the Investment Company Institute.
Perhaps no project meant more to John than those to help New York-area children, particularly those of immigrant families like his own, and those children who had been traumatized by the attacks of September 11th, 2001. It was while exploring funding of a counseling program for children affected by 9/11 that John learned about the New York University Child Study Center, of which he became an active board member, committed to the Center’s objective of helping children and families cope with mental health and learning issues.
Together with Anne, John also became patron of a small Catholic School in New York’s Chinatown - St Joseph’s School - which like many downtown schools had been adversely affected by 9/11. John took a direct interest in the activities of the students, especially recent immigrants, and proposed various creative ways to recruit new students, including creating and publicizing merit scholarships.
"John’s energy, his quick mind, and his desire to share what he knew challenged me and everyone at St Joseph’s to excel. But he also allowed us to be who we are as a school community and as individuals."
-Sister Deborah Lopez
Returning to Florida, he and Anne quickly became active in their new community, becoming trustees of the Naples Winter Wine Festival, a private organization which runs the largest charity wine auction in the world, for the benefit of the underprivileged and at-risk children of Collier County, Florida.
John died suddenly in late 2005, leaving an enormous absence. The John P. McNulty prize has been created by his family, friends and colleagues to recognize his contributions in leadership, his creativity, his energy, and the spark he carried to ignite that in others. Through the prize we recognize the same extraordinary spirit in others, and continue his legacy.
The Aspen Institute is based on leadership, leadership that comes from values. And that's what John McNulty was all about. He was a great mentor to people. He loved the idea of leadership, and as we were building this leadership network, it was his enthusiasm that inspired us. Walter Isaacson
The official McNulty Prize video for the 2012 winner, Aspire India, founded by Amit Bhatia: https://vimeo.com/52747274
Amit Bhatia -- Winner 2012 John P. McNulty Prize
vimeo.com
Aspire India
Aspire India
Aspire India
Announcing the 2012 McNulty Prize Winner — Aspire India
vimeo.com
A look at the 2012 McNulty Prize Winner — Aspire India, pioneering employability education for rural and semi-urban India.
Dele Olojede in conversation with Walter Isaacson last night
Dele Olojede: "Our simple - but revolutionary - exercise in Nigeria with was to tell the truth when no one else would tell it."
Deputy Mayor Bob Steel kicks off the Aspen Institute/ McNulty Prize awards ceremony...
Meet Dele Olojede, Founder of NEXT and the 2011 McNulty Prize Winner
www.youtube.com
Dele Olojede, Africa's first Pulitzer Prize-winner and former Foreign Editor of Newsday, left New York to start a new generation of newspapers in Lagos, Nigeria, called NEXT. Operating a 24-hour newsroom on diesel generators, Dele and his team of journalists are bringing honest, unbiased investigati...
Meet Our 2011 Finalists: Libras de Amor
www.youtube.com
In rural El Salvador, 25% of children under five are chronically malnourished. If you are born hungry and poor, the chances of catching up with the rest of society are stacked against you due to mental and physical underdevelopment and a weakened immune system. These irreversible consequences presen...
Meet Our 2011 Finalists: LINC
www.youtube.com
Before moving into the children's sector, Ann Lamont was CEO of the Learning Channel where she combined corporate acumen with a desire to address the highly complex challenges that need to be understood to support human rights and democracy on the Continent. Ann launched the Leadership & Innovation ...
Meet Our 2011 Finalists: B Lab
www.youtube.com
After successful careers in the private sector, Andrew Kassoy and Jay Coen Gilbert co-founded B Lab, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building a new sector of the economy that uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. B Lab drives systemic change through three initi...
Former founder and head of the McKinsey Knowledge Center, Amit Bhatia created Aspire to train students from rural and disadvantaged backgrounds to become English fluent, tech-savvy, problem-solving new hires ready to fuel India’s new economy.
lessTo enable India's youth to participate in the world economy, Aspire provides youth studying in semi-urban and rural educational institutions the knowledge, and behavioral skills to gain employment and succeed in their chosen career. Job seekers need to be fluent in English, able to problem-solve, and work in teams. They need the etiquette and the confidence to be able to interview, win a job and talk to clients.
Eighty-percent of Aspire students are first generation college students. They are children of farmers, fishermen, factory workers, without worldly education or exposure. they are from underdeveloped hard-to-access areas and themselves had no route to decent jobs. With a small transformation in their skills, millions of kids can be made relevant to the new economy. Aspire helps young people advance the last mile between having a degree and having a job.
Prior to founding Aspire, Bhatia served as CEO of WNS Knowledge Services, a division of WNS Inc, listed on the NYSE in 2007, and had successful stints at Freemarkets, American Express, and McKinsey & Co., where he created the McKinsey Knowledge Center. In 2007, Amit decided to leave the private sector and found Aspire, a for-profit social enterprise created to address the critical gap between education and industry.
India, a nation of 1.1 billion, has 320 million youths in schools and colleges. Unfortunately, less than 25 percent are employable due to knowledge, skills, and attitudinal gaps. To date, Aspire has trained over 52,000 students enrolled in 80 institutions across 16 Indian states.
Aspire is the bridge between basic education and the skills need to be employable, between the old and the new, between the big cities and the small towns,between the have's and the have-nots.
Amit Bhatia
Dele Olojede, Africa's only Pulitzer Prize-winner and former Foreign Editor of Newsday left his comfortable exile in New York to start and run a new generation of newspapers in Nigeria, NEXT.
lessLaunched in 2008, NEXT is revolutionizing the Nigerian media. Dele and 55 young people are bringing honest, unbiased investigative reporting to a continent, country and city whose gigantic potential is stymied by corruption, the wealth gap, and an acceptance of the status quo. By its example, NEXT aims to change Africa¹s future by changing expectations, elevating debate, remaining incorruptible and holding elites and governments to account.
Running a 24-hour newsroom on diesel generators, due to a dilapidated electricity grid and attempts at sabotage. Despite efforts to quash their popularity, 234NEXT.com is the most trafficked news site in Nigeria. While Nigeria has one of the highest rates of newspaper consumption in the world, established papers are paid to keep big stories off the front page. The expectation that ads buy silence makes revenue a challenge for NEXT, but they’ve reported stories that have been buried for a generation in the face of constant official resistance.
NEXT revealed that almost the entire government (including three former presidents) had been bribed individually by Halliburton, and separately that the Oil Minister was sitting on foreign oil company boards in a blatant conflict of interest. No prosecutions or resignations occurred. NEXT revealed that despite the country's poverty, Nigeria’s legislators were the highest-paid (and least efficient) on the planet. When NEXT revealed that the nation’s biggest oil tycoon had ‘forgotten’ to pay $600 million in taxes over five years, officials were forced to seal off the tycoon’s residence to recover taxes - unprecedented for the wealthy in Nigeria. That story, although huge, was ignored by all other publications and lost NEXT scores of advertisers.
NEXT’s biggest scoop was that President Yar'Adua was secretly brain dead and not “returning soon from a Saudi hospital” as promised. Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan had not been authorized to step up, paralyzing the government and letting the First Lady take over the patronage machine. The story had immediate impact. Goodluck Jonathan was made acting president by the legislature (despite an attempt to install the comatose President in the executive residence) and State Security Services (SSS) forces stormed NEXT’s offices. The attack on NEXT was held off only by a few local police and the intervention of the SSS’s chief. Today Goodluck Jonathan is the elected President of Nigeria.
NEXT began on Twitter before launching a website and then the print newspaper. The site 234Next.com, receives over 3 million impressions and 600,000 unique visitors a month. As the technological landscape of Africa changes, NEXT is moving to an SMS and mobile-based platform. The economics of news are complicated by outright sabotage (paying newsmen to put NEXT under other papers or dump them), but NEXT has taken the steps to make sure its content remains accessible across Nigeria and Africa.
Ultimately, the goal of NEXT is to unshackle the immense potential of Nigeria by destroy both the elite's web of corrupt patronage and shake the Nigerian people out of their sense of helplessness to change their country.
“In a country where the ruling elite bribe the media to influence coverage, NEXT’s reporters can’t be bought or bullied. We look like revolutionaries for reporting the facts."
Dele Olojede
This year's finalists: B Lab (Andrew Kassoy & Jay Coen), Denver Scholarship Foundation (Tim Marquez), LINC South Africa (Ann Lamont), Libras de Amor (Alejandro Poma), and NEXT (Dele Olojede).
Rocketship Education is pioneering a unique hybrid education model, transforming elementary education by building high-performing, scalable, sustainable schools in high-need neighborhoods.
lessFounded in 2006, Rocketship Education, is building a national network of high-performing urban college preparatory elementary charter schools. Rocketship’s mission is to eliminate the achievement gap in public education, by proliferating its network of K-5 charter schools in high-need neighborhoods throughout the country. Each Rocketship school has a clear and simple goal: that its students achieve grade-level proficiency upon graduation from elementary school. Rocketship's goal rests on evidence that the path toward college must begin much earlier in a child’s life. Research has shown that third grade achievement is highly correlated with college attendance and graduation. Rocketship’s first school, Rocketship Mateo Sheedy Elementary School (RMS), opened in August 2007 in San Jose, CA. Its second school, Rocketship Sí Se Puede Academy, opened in the fall of 2009; a third school, Rocketship Los Sueños Academy, opened in the fall of 2010. Two additional Rocketship schools will open in the fall of 2011; Rocketship will expand its network to 30 schools by 2015.
Rocketship’s success is due to three core values: Individualization, Leadership and Empowerment. Individualization is made possible by the hybrid school model, which combines traditional classroom teaching with individualized instruction using tutors and technology to meet the specific needs of each and every student. The hybrid school model confers significant advantages in three areas: academic achievement, teaching quality/leadership, and financial sustainability.
First, teachers can maximize classroom time for instruction, guided practice and extending critical thinking skills, while scheduling tutors and technology for students’ core skills acquisition, independent practice, assessment and remediation/acceleration. In addition, the hybrid school model creates significant cost savings, which are reinvested in programs and people to drive school quality. Third, by reducing staffing requirements, it is easier to fill all our classrooms with top-quality teachers. Finally, this model enables Rocketship schools to operate solely on traditional public school funding, without the need for philanthropy. By individualizing instruction, developing great classroom and school leaders and empowering parents to transform the political system, Rocketship will continue to drive world-class student achievement.
"The gap in learning between students in low-income neighborhoods and students in middle and high income neighborhoods is real and alarming, despite enormous investments of time, energy, and funds." John Danner
A transformed Africa begins with a new generation of ethical and entrepreneurial leaders. Patrick Awuah founded Ashesi University in 2002 with a bold mission: to create a new kind of university, one that focuses on quality, ethics and personal empowerment. Ashesi University aims to be the spark of a revitalized Africa; a catalyst for new enterprises, new solutions and a model for other universities in Africa.
lessA transformed Africa begins with a new generation of ethical and entrepreneurial leaders. Patrick Awuah founded Ashesi University in 2002 with a bold mission: to create a new kind of university, one that focuses on quality, ethics and personal empowerment. Ashesi University aims to be the spark of a revitalized Africa; a catalyst for new enterprises, new solutions and a model for other universities in Africa.
Ashesi University offers a 4-year undergraduate liberal arts education with a focus on business, technology and leadership. The rigorous liberal arts education promotes critical thinking skills that give students the confidence to tackle complex problems and make positive contributions in any setting. Ashesi students participate in a required four-year leadership seminar series, which challenges them to discuss issues critical to building a better society. Students identify ways they can be of service in selected communities and volunteer their time, knowledge and skills. Examples of Ashesi student projects include: teaching basic business skills to former child soldiers from Liberia, volunteering at orphanages and working with NGO’s to provide women micro-financing to support their businesses.
The university currently enrolls 424 students, 46% are women and close to 40% of the student body receives financial aid. The Ashesi experience is made rich and varied, with curious students from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds from across 14 different African countries.
Ashesi has graduated 173 students to date and nearly 100% of Ashesi alumni have found quality employment within months of graduating. Africa’s top firms value their problem-solving skills, work ethic and ethical behavior. While some are starting their own businesses and others are helping existing businesses to succeed; each is helping to revitalize the local economy.
Ashesi’s goal is to broaden their impact within Africa by growing to 2,000 students while maintaining their selective standards, small class sizes, and world-class academic quality. The university has recently broken ground on a new campus outside of Accra, where students of diverse backgrounds can live and study together.
"Our current and future leaders confront an incredible opportunity to drive a major renaissance in Africa. The way we educate our leaders will make all the difference." Patrick Awuah
A successful NY optometrist, Jordan has devised an innovative way to deliver affordable reading glasses to some of the world's poorest hardest to reach communities. He created franchise partnerships to use a "business in a bag" model containing everything that a rural entrepreneur needs to start a business selling reading glasses, thus creating jobs in underserved communities while providing glasses on a sustainable basis for the poor, for whom loss of income due to deteriorating vision is most devastating. VisionSpring now has over 850 "vision entrepreneurs" who have sold nearly 1 million pairs of glasses in India, Mexico, Latin America, and Africa.
Dr. Jordan Kassalow launched VisionSpring (formerly Scojo Foundation) in 2001 with the goal of meeting the global market failure for reading glasses. While working as an optometrist in the developing world, Jordan noticed that over 40% of his patients were losing their jobs because they could no longer see to work. Without clear vision, weavers could not set their looms, farmers could not sort seeds, and artisans could not see to create intricate designs. The loss of income due to deteriorating vision was devastating to poor communities. A pair of ready-made reading glasses, a basic product available in every drugstore in the US, would restore their vision and productivity, yet reading glasses were not available to those living on less than $4 a day.
To address this market failure, Jordan realized he would need to devise a creative, innovative system for delivering affordable reading glasses to the world’s poorest, hardest-to-reach communities. The answer? A “Business in a Bag” containing everything that a rural entrepreneur needs to start a business selling reading glasses, thus creating jobs in underserved communities while providing glasses on a sustainable basis for the poor.
Jordan first focused VisionSpring on developing replicable systems for training entrepreneurs in Latin America and India. In 2006, as a result of his leadership training as a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute, Jordan began to develop creative strategies for broadening VisionSpring’s impact to reach millions in need and to create the long-term, lasting global impact that first drove his idea for VisionSpring. He recognized an opportunity to license VisionSpring’s Business in a Bag model to existing rural networks, such as microfinance borrowers and community health workers, thus reducing the burden of building costly new infrastructure and vastly speeding up the time it takes to reach scale. VisionSpring “Franchise Partner” organizations would benefit from the addition of an income-generating product along with the transfer of skills and knowledge gleaned from VisionSpring’s rural sales experience.
Scojo estimates that its economic impact to date is more than $70 million in increased earnings in the world’s poorest communities. A pair of VisionSpring reading glasses can yield a more than 17-fold return on investment in increased productivity for the wearer per year. Further, VisionSprings Vision Entrepreneurs, most of who work on a part-time basis, earn more than $400 in additional income per year. VisionSpring believes its long-term, global impact will occur on multiple levels.
Currently, VisionSpring is building one of the first global networks of organizations providing goods and services to the “Base of the Economic Pyramid.” In the long-term, VisionSpring aims to be the catalyst that proves to large optical and healthcare companies that poor communities represent viable markets, thus prompting the global business community to serve the rural poor with affordable, life-improving products and services.
"We create livelihoods for our entrepreneurs and sustain livelihoods for our customers." Jordan Kassalow
Video featuring 2012 Winner Amit Bhatia, founder of Aspire who is building the bridge to prosperity between rural and urban, rich and poor, by giving rural youths the skills to get new economy jobs in India.
Celebrating the boldness and impact individuals around the globe are bringing to the toughest challenges in their communities and the world-at-large.
This year's finalists: FUEL Trust - South Africa (Charles Luyckx & Gary Campbell), CAPTA - Panama (Hildegard Vasquez), Vital Voices - Guatemala (Maria Pacheco) and Aspire - India (Amit Bhatia).
Featuring 2011 Winner Dele Olojede, founder and publisher of NEXT, about the joy of making enemies.
This year's finalists: B Lab (Andrew Kassoy & Jay Coen), Denver Scholarship Foundation (Tim Marquez), LINC South Africa (Ann Lamont), Libras de Amor (Alejandro Poma), and NEXT (Dele Olojede).
Featuring John Danner, and the students, teachers and parents of Rocketship Education, a trailblazing network of charter schools with a unique
curriculum that enables them to enter and turn around failing schools.
John Danner of Rocketship Education accepting the 2010 McNulty Prize.
Featuring Ashesi University and its founder and president, Patrick Awuah who in his commitment to ethics and civics is guaranteeing future generations of leaders for Ghana, Africa and the world.
Patrick Awuah of Ashesi University accepting the 2009 McNulty Prize.
Jordan Kassalow of VisionSpring accepting the 2008 McNulty Prize.
Featuring Rocketship Education (John Danner), High Resolves Initiative (Mehrdad Baghai), Glasswing International (Diego de Sola), Aspire Human Capital Management
(Amit Bhatia), and Acumen Fund Fellows (Jacqueline Novogratz).
Featuring Project Rebirth (Jim Whitaker), Ashesi University (Patrick Awuah), Agora Partnerships (Ricardo Teran), Hope Community Credit Union (William Bynum), and Libras de Amor (Alejandro Poma).
Interview with Jordan Kassalow, VisionSpring founder and winner of the
inaugural $100,000. McNulty Prize.
VisionSpring sells an effective, affordable "business in a backpack" for eyeglasses to third-world entrepeneurs, typically local women. By vastly increasing the penetration of eye-care and lowering costs, VisionSpring boosts productivity and expands the work-life of millions in low-income countries. visionspring.org | mcnultyprize.org
Featuring Ashesi University (Patrick Awuah), High Resolves Initiative (Mehrdad Baghai), Hope Community Credit Union (William Bynum), Switch Magazine (Sylvia Gereda), and VisionSpring (Jordan Kassalow).
Featuring two outstanding projects from Aspen Institute Fellows, Hope Community Credit Union (William Bynum), and Switch Magazine (Sylvia Gereda).
Dele Olojede of NEXT accepting the 2011 McNulty Prize.
Featuring Project Rebirth (Jim Whitaker), Ashesi University (Patrick Awuah), Agora Partnerships (Ricardo Teran), Hope Community Credit Union (William Bynum), and Libras de Amor (Alejandro Poma).
The John P. McNulty Prize recognizes the boldness that Aspen fellows are bringing to bear on the foremost social, economic and political challenges of our time. The winner will receive $100,000 to further his or her project; a $10,000 award will be made to each finalist.
“Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now." -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Submissions are made using an online application portal (closed until March 2013). Review the application guidelines.
Applicants are asked to make a written statement of the project, address its creativity, impact and lasting contribution and present supporting materials. Videos are encouraged but not required. Entries are judged on each of the following criteria:
Creativity
How does the project reflect innovative or unique approaches to addressing issues/solving problems? How is the implementation exceptional?
Impact
Describe the impact of your project on individuals and/or the community. Indicate the criteria used for measuring your project’s achievements. Where possible, include number of people reached, financial impact and organizations helped. Describe the framework by which you are assessing your impact.
Sustainability / Lasting Contribution
Please explain the financial structure of your project, how is it funded and how will it be sustained? What is the potential for and/or evidence of the long term impact of this project? What is your vision for the future? What are the next steps? Is there evidence that your project can serve as a prototype for others?
Type of Project provided by WizeHive
