Cynthia Rayner is a researcher, writer, and lecturer affiliated with the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business. Her research focuses on how organizations and communities work to shape social systems in collective ways. Cynthia’s work in social change began when, as a recovering management consultant, she joined the LGT Impact Fellowship which brought her to South Africa for more than a decade. She has served in several organizations, including Generation Ubuntu, an afterschool program educating children in Cape Town; mothers2mothers, an African social enterprise employing women to guide other women to good health; and the Starfish Greathearts Foundation, a nonprofit supporting children and families in South Africa. Cynthia holds a BA from Georgetown University and an MBA from INSEAD. She lives in Austin, Texas.
Dr. François Bonnici is a public health physician, professor, social change practitioner and foundation leader. His career is rooted in front-line medical and humanitarian practice and has evolved to advance social change work more broadly. He currently serves as Director of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and Head of Social Innovation at the World Economic Forum. He was previously founding Director of the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation at the University of Cape Town, where he is Adjunct Associate Professor. He has been recognized as an Archbishop Tutu African Leadership Fellow, Rhodes Scholar, and Associate Fellow of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, and recently served as founding board member of the Tshisimani Centre for Activist Education. François attained his medical degree from the University of Cape Town, MBA from the University of Oxford, and MSc from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He divides his time between Cape Town and Geneva.
