Team

Avi Sahi

Avi Sahi works at NIKE a Director in their Sustainable Business & Innovation Lab, where he is focused on making Innovation Investments and forging Strategic Partnerships. Prior to joining NIKE, Avi worked as a Vice President at Perseus, LLC, a $2.5 billion private equity fund based in Washington, DC, where he made growth equity investments in clean energy and environmental technology companies that were based in North America, Europe and India. Prior to joining Perseus, Avi was a Senior Associate and founding member of the Cleantech Investment Banking group at SG Cowen & Co in New York. Prior to becoming an investment banker, Avi was a Vice President with G.E. Capital Corporation and a Business Development Manager with Cisco Systems Capital. In addition, he has worked in the commercial finance departments of J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, and Quest Capital. Avi earned his Bachelor of Science in Finance from Rutgers University and a Master of Business Administration from Georgetown University. He currently serves as an advisor on Georgetown's Alumni Board of Governors and is the founder and leader of the Georgetown University Buy Side Alliance.

Beth Beck

Beth Beck, one of the LAUNCH founders, is NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Public Outreach Manager in Washington, DC. Beth seized the idea of LAUNCH as an opportunity to make this world a better place while demonstrating the relevance between life on Earth and the extreme environment of space. She led creation of Mind Mapr, an interactive note-taking tool designed specifically for LAUNCH forums. Beth, a social media addict, adopted Twitter early in2007 as one of the first NASA users. She coordinated development of NASA’s Facebook account, and was instrumental in planning and supporting NASA’s spaceflight mission Tweetups. She developed Fragile Oasis http://FragileOasis.org with Astronaut Ron Garan to help tell NASA’s story to humanitarian-minded audiences. Beth received NASA’s Exceptional Service Medal for her innovative public outreach programs. Beth, a Phi Beta Kappa, received both graduate and undergraduate degrees from the University of Texas in Austin, and is currently pursuing her PhD research on institutional entrepreneurship. You can learn more about Beth at http://twitter.com/bethbeck and http://bethbeck.wordpress.com.

Chad Badiyan

Chad Badiyan works with organizations to ideate, incubate, and facilitate ideas through a collaborative and transparent process. He has worked with the United Nations and Global 500 organizations, including IBM, 3M, Motorola, Best Buy, and General Electric. Chad has also built learning and knowledge management platforms and courses including IBM’s Online University, Motorola’s first WAP-based training program, the West LegalEdCenter, and Patterson Dental.

David Ferguson

David Ferguson is a member of USAID’s Office of Science and Technology focused on applied research and challenge models for development. Before joining USAID in September, 2009, he worked on international development over the previous 5 years as an independent consultant at the nexus of development, technology, and the private sector. His first career was 27 years at AT&T where he created and ran AT&T’s Professional Services Division, developing it into a US$200M profitable entity. He was based in Hong Kong for seven years and focused on the developing markets of China, India and Indonesia, for telecommunications services investment opportunities. He built seven joint ventures during this period. His technical expertise includes Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for development, economic growth through private sector engagement, and government technology and telecommunications policy and regulation. Mr. Ferguson holds a Master of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts. He is married, has three daughters, and resides in Oakton, VA.

Dennis Bonilla

Dennis Bonilla is a data visualization professional and design manager that has created community-driven federal websites, developed immersive environment software for NASA, and worked on federal documents presented to the U.S. President. As the LAUNCH Community Manager Dennis communicates the LAUNCH initiative and innovator stories across LAUNCH's social media platforms. Dennis is versed in the nuances of online conversation and shares content, shoots photos, captures video, and provides insight about a program whose goals include changing the world. Follow the story at http://twitter.com/launchorg.

Diane Powell

Diane Powell, one of the creators of Launch, works for NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC where she has led initiatives in branding, public outreach, and partnership development. Diane sees Launch as the perfect opportunity to carry on NASA’s spirit of discovery and to collaborate with experienced partners to find solutions to challenges in space and here on earth. She and her husband also own a Bed and Breakfast on Capital Hill in DC.

Elizabeth Walker

Elizabeth Walker works with SecondMuse, a consultancy specializing in the use of collaborative processes to conceive and incubate innovative initiatives. Her focus is in sustainable development, conflict resolution and the science of collaboration. She has worked as a trial attorney for a non-profit agency combating gender-based violence among immigrant populations, for a private law firm serving Fortune 500 companies in complex litigation matters, and she is a trained community mediator. Her education and experience focus on the intersection between human rights and sustainable development. She received her B.A. at Wellesley College and her J.D. at Columbia Law School.

James Thompson

Mr. Thompson serves as Regional Director for Global Partnerships, focusing on food security and water security issues. Mr. Thompson served as the Acting Director of the U.S. Department of State’s Global Partnership Center and is the former Acting Director of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s) Global Development Alliance, which is the Agency’s business model for the replicable use of public-private alliances. He was responsible for overall management and strategy of the activity and managed major corporate partner relationships for the Agency. Jim has over 17 years of Government experience, previously serving at USAID as a Food for Peace Officer and a Program Officer in the Europe and Eurasia bureau. He also was a Contracting Officer at USAID and at the U.S. Department of Energy and has used his acquisition and assistance experience to create new public-private partnership models. Jim has taught management courses throughout Africa, Latin America and Europe for the USAID, and he was also responsible for developing the alliance builder training program delivered by GDA both in Washington and at USAID missions globally. Jim is a frequent speaker on public-private partnerships and practitioner building numerous alliances. Jim was a Rotary Ambassadorial scholar to New Zealand in 1990 and completed his Master of Arts in Political Studies at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Jeff Hamaoui

Jeff Hamaoui is an expert in sustainability and public-private partnerships with 15 years’ experience exploring business models for social entrepreneurship. Jeff co-founded Origo in 1999, and has made a name as a cross-sector broker, facilitator and strategist. Origo was purchased by the Cazneau Group in 2010. Jeff spent several years working alongside the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and its 150 Fortune 500 companies looking at strategies for ‘inclusive’ business in emerging markets. This allowed him to consult across industry sectors, including healthcare (Pfizer), telecommunications (Vodafone, Nokia), oil and gas (BP and Chevron), utilities (Eskom, Suez, GE),and finance (Rabobank, Deutschebank, Wells Fargo, GE Financial). Jeff received his M.A. in Education from London University and B.A. in Philosophy and Literature from Swansea University. He is fluent in Spanish and French.

Jeremy Kamo

Jeremy Kamo is a collaboration and innovation professional, focused on cleantech and the environment. At Cazneau, Jeremy works on Colab-inspired projects for U.S. and foreign government agencies, multinational companies and philanthropic foundations. Jeremy joined Cazneau from the British Consulate General in San Francisco where he focused on energy issues for the Science and Innovation Network, and on the electronics and communications industries at UK Trade and Investment. Jeremy has also worked in Beijing, China, managing projects in Asia and Europe, and with NGOs addressing migration, health care and renewable energy issues. Jeremy received his B.A. from the University of Puget Sound's Business Leadership Program with a Minor in Economics. He completed language studies in Japan and China and serves on the US Board of Directors for Compassion for Migrant Children.

John Safapour

John Safapour works with SecondMuse. He is an international and business development professional with diverse government, business and civil society organization experience. John started his career in medicine and public health and expanded his portfolio of skills and systems interests to international and business development, in particular multi-sectoral collaboratives and public-private partnerships. He received his Medical Doctorate from Wayne State University and Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.

Lena Delchad

Lena Delchad works with SecondMuse. She is an international development professional with nine years of experience in project management and democratic governance. In the past few years she has worked as a contractor for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) on Middle East programs. Lena started her career in urban planning and subsequently defined a national municipal equity agenda and served immigrant communities. She received her Master in Public Policy from the George Washington University and a B.S. in Environmental Development from UC Berkeley.

Rachel Lawley

Rachel Lawley is a healthcare and life sciences business development professional with seven years’ experience supporting bio/pharmaceutical and medtech companies to enter new markets. In her current role as Healthcare Connector, she leads healthcare clients through Cazneau’s Colab process. Rachel worked for many years as Vice Consul for Life Sciences at the British Consulate-General in San Francisco facilitating connections between companies, researchers, funders, regulators, and government agencies in the U.S. and U.K. She started her career with Origo, Inc., and has a deep knowledge of the social enterprise field. Rachel received her B.S. in Psychology from Lancaster University in the United Kingdom.

Robbie Schingler

Robbie Schingler, one of the LAUNCH founders, is Chief of Staff in the Office of the Chief Technologist at NASA Headquarters. Prior to this position, Robbie was NASA’s lead for Open Government at NASA responding to the President’s Open Government Directive. At the Ames Research Center, Robbie was an Engineering Project Manager in the Office of the Center Director where he focused on non-traditional partnerships and new ventures for NASA. Robbie worked in the Small Spacecraft Division helping to bring small spacecraft partners and flight projects into NASA Ames, and most recently was the Capture Lead for the NASA Small Explorer Program (SMEX) proposed mission called the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Robbie is one of the co-founders of the NASA CoLab project in 2006, and is an active participant in creating public participation and open innovation at NASA. You can learn more about Robbie at http://www.schingler.com and http://twitter.com/schingler.

Todd Khozein

Todd Khozein works with SecondMuse, a consultancy specializing in the use of collaborative processes to conceive and incubate innovative initiatives. He personally focuses on studying and applying the emerging science of collaboration. His interests lie in the incubation of collaborative frameworks where the incentive structure, technological platform and human resource development initiatives align to create a culture of innovation. Todd holds a B.A. in Economics and a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of New Mexico.

Victor Friedberg

Victor Friedberg has been working at the intersection of technology, commerce and culture for 20 years as an entrepreneur, creative director and program director. At present, Victor serves as the Executive Director of LAUNCH. From 2002 to 2009, Victor served as the founding Executive Director of WIRED NextFest, the premier global showcase of innovation produced annually by WIRED Magazine. Victor was responsible for the development of NextFest setting the overall vision and execution strategy. In addition to his leadership role in the organization, he served as the curator and creative director for NextFest identifying the innovations, themes, trends, and visionaries to be showcased. As a result he built a global network of designers, inventors, technologists and scientists that are at the forefront of innovation. Prior to NextFest, Victor founded the pioneering wireless network Talking Drum funded by Motorola Ventures and other Bay Area VC’s. Trained as a classical pianist Victor migrated from the ivories to programming synthesizers and computers at Oberlin college under the mentorship of the renowned American composer John Cage.

Will Schmitt

Will Schmitt is an international development professional and is Open Innovation Advisor in USAID’s Office of Science and Technology. Will is USAID’s LAUNCH Program Manager. In this role he focuses both on applying USAID’s technical expertise in LAUNCH and on integrating aspects of LAUNCH’s open innovation experience into USAID’s development practice. His areas of focus in international development practice include information and communication technology for development, economic growth, and democracy and governance, with a special emphasis on promoting innovation and new, non-traditional partnerships. His primary regional focus is on sub-Saharan Africa and he has served USAID on assignments abroad in Nigeria and Southern Sudan, with previous experience in Kenya. He also has significant experience as a Democracy and Governance Officer. Will holds the Master of Science in Foreign Service with Honors from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and a BA in Government and French with Distinction in All Subjects from Cornell University.