Speaker Profiles
The Social Impact Summit has innovative and creative speakers who are impact leaders who learnt what it takes to turn their ideas into reality to lead change.
Our Social Impact Speakers have been recognised for their dedication to living meaningful lives through social impact. Their journeys inspire and empower many to remain steadfast in their mission to create social change. These social change experts are vivid examples of what it takes to enact real change, challenging and motivating you to unleash your full potential and actively concretise your ideas to impact the world positively.
GET TO KNOW OUR SPEAKERS
Jeff Rotmeyer
Founder
Impact Hong Kong
Jeff Rotmeyer
Founder
Impact Hong Kong
Multiple connections are essential for overcoming difficult times. Giving people in need an opportunity for happiness is Jeff Rotmeyer’s passion.
Jeff transformed his passion into making a positive impact for those in need. He founded two different charities on the same day.
Originally from Vancouver, Canada, he has spent his last 16 years in Hong Kong.
He founded ImpactHK to transform the lives of those experiencing homelessness in Hong Kong.
The charity started with just a few individuals aiming to show kindness to those in need and has now grown into a humanitarian movement involving over ten thousand volunteers who have helped hundreds of individuals off the streets.
His second charity, Love 21 Foundation, supports the down syndrome and autistic community with sports and nutrition programs.
Love 21 Foundation cares for over 100 families with a holistic program that strives to give the neuro-diverse community the best opportunity to reach their full potential.
Jeff is dedicated to living a meaningful life through social impact.
His story will empower you to allow your passion to become your purpose for creating a positive impact in your communities, locally and globally.
Jack Growden
Founder & CEO
LiteHaus International, Australia
Jack Growden
Founder & CEO
LiteHaus International, Australia
Quality education can only be a digital education, and no one should be left behind. “Thank you for not stopping at the red lights” remains the best compliment Jack Growden has ever received.
Jack made the best decision of his young life in September 2017 by founding LiteHaus International. This not-for-profit organisation aims to digitise dreams and bridge the digital divide, primarily across Papua New Guinea and Australia, and further afield Uganda and Pakistan.
He remains steadfast in his mission to provide children in developing countries with the same tools as those living under better circumstances.
A delegate at the 2017 University Scholars Leadership Symposium (USLS), he did not know how a 20-year-old Australian like himself could create a social impact.
He listened to people not much older than him reflect on how they summoned the courage to start their own initiatives. There, he scribbled a name for his initiative in a notebook – “LiteHaus.” Papua New Guinea’s vernacular for lighthouse.
A month after the USLS, he donated his laptop to a school in Papua New Guinea, where he was doing research. This was the start of an incredible mission.
As Program Advisor with Humanitarian Affairs Asia, he has addressed delegates at the 2019 University Scholars Leadership Symposium and continues to provide input in empowering budding social entrepreneurs worldwide.
He was named one of the most inspiring Queenslanders of 2020 and received the Queensland Community Foundation Emerging Philanthropist of the Year Award.
His journey will inspire and empower you to remain steadfast in the mission that you have all the power within you to create social change
Derrick Feldmann
Managing Director
INFLUENCE|SG, United States
Derrick Feldmann
Managing Director
INFLUENCE|SG, United States
How do social issues and movements influence you, and how do you influence others to support them?
Derrick Feldmann leads the research team for Influencing Young America to Act, studying how young adults affect social impact.
He also teaches at the Impact Lab at the Skoll Centre, Saïd Business School, Oxford University.
A sought-after speaker and advisor on how causes and companies can drive public interest in social issues, Derrick is recognised as a leading researcher in cause engagement. His work is regularly cited by outlets such as Forbes and The Wall Street Journal.
He is the Managing Director of INFLUENCE|SG, a social movement design studio working
with leading brands and causes to research, ideate, and test new movement approaches, the Managing Director of Ad Council Edge, the Ad Council’s strategic consulting division, advises during the formative stages of public engagement programs.
Derrick has written three books, The Corporate Social Mind: How CompaniesLead Social Change From the Inside Out; Social Movements for Good: How Companies and Causes Create Viral Change; and Cause for Change: The Why and How of Nonprofit Millennial Engagement.
His expertise will help you invest in your ideas and take the first steps to nurture an idea to transform it to enact social change.
Orly Zeewy
Author, Educator & Brand Architect
United States
Orly Zeewy
Author, Educator & Brand Architect
United States
How do you uncover your brand’s DNA? How do you close the gaps that make your social impact project harder to scale?
Brand clarity in the emerging digital age is lacking. Orly Zeewy’s mission is to address this. This is why she launched her brand consulting practice. To help startups build their brand awareness quickly to scale their impact.
Before launching her practice, Orly ran the award-winning Zeewy Design and Marketing Communications firm and directed comprehensive marketing programs for national clients such as CIGNA and Kraft Foods.
As an educator, Orly has lectured at Wharton and taught emerging entrepreneurs at The Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship at Drexel University.
Her articles have been published in Smart Hustle, The Marketing Journal, SpeakersBase, Small Business Trends, and Comcast Business Community. In June 2021, she was featured on Medium’s global media platform.
Her book, Ready, Launch, Brand: The Lean Marketing Guide for Startups, is a powerful introduction to branding and the magic of getting it right.
With Orly, learn the build-a-brand process that will help you build your brand’s DNA to enact real change.
Sam Cawthorn
Founder & CEO
Speakers Institute, Australia
Sam Cawthorn
Founder & CEO
Speakers Institute, Australia
He defied all odds from a fatal near-death experience and sprung into a newfound love of life.
Travelling at 206 kilometres per hour, a man falls asleep at the wheel when his car collides with a semi-trailer truck. He was pronounced dead at the scene after more than three minutes. Sam Cawthorn’s life flashed before his eyes, then brought back to life, and he was soon presented with new challenges.
What happens when a person’s life flashes before their eyes? In a brief moment of lonely silence, Sam reflected on how he had lived his life up until that world-shattering moment.
He had lost his arm and severely damaged his leg, and he was told that he would never walk again, yet just one year later, Sam took his first steps. Life gave Sam a choice; to remain the victim of a tragic accident or transform impossibilities into possible realities. Sam chose to bounce forward in life.
Sam’s decision led him to become an international best-selling author, an entrepreneur, and one of the world’s most in-demand keynote speakers.
Sam chooses to live each day with meaning and purpose. He is living proof that our decision, not our condition, determines our happiness and success in life. His story will challenge you to think about how you live your own life and the essential everyday decisions you can make to live with a spring in your step.
Makeda Andrews
Leadership & Team Building Coach
United States
Makeda Andrews
Leadership & Team Building Coach
United States
Impacting the world positively requires good management. Yet research shows that 2 out of 3 new managers fail within the first two years.
Makeda Andrews’ mission is to change that.
Makeda is a mentor, guide, manager, and leadership coach who trains new managers to become impactful leaders and create high-performing teams.
With over 15 years of experience, she guides first-time managers through the common challenges and pitfalls that can make or break the critical transition from individual contributor to team leader.
She is an ardent believer that managers are the linchpin of the Organization and have the power to change lives daily through their leadership and example. Yet, many are thrust into the role without guidance or training.
Her impact is to help more new managers and emerging leaders like you infuse their personal values, personality, and vibe into their leadership style to better
lead their teams and produce outstanding results.
With Makeda, learn and implement effective ways to motivate your team, unleash your leadership potential, and actively concretise your ideas to impact the world positively.
Janice Leong
Regional Director
Humanitarian Affairs Asia
Janice Leong
Regional Director
Humanitarian Affairs Asia
Many people want to make a difference but do not want to be different. Many young people want to change the world but lack the courage to step out of their comfort zones.
Giving young people the opportunity to find their voice is at the heart of Janice Leong’s mission.
Janice knows well that working to change the world starts with you.
Serving as the Regional Director of Humanitarian Affairs Asia since 2011, she designs and delivers a social impact global internship program that brings learning to the next level.
Her dedicated mentoring allows young people to work on real, impact projects to expand their personal and professional development.
From discovering your strength to understanding and developing your capacities to creating your mission statement, Janice will teach and guide you to achieve your goals.
Janice believes in developing in young people the transferable and leadership skills of Effective Global Communication, Resilience and Adaptability, and an Avid Learner Mindset so that they stand the most excellent chance to contribute to better humanity.
Michael Baines
President & Co-Founder
The Man That Rescues Dogs
Michael Baines
President & Co-Founder
The Man That Rescues Dogs
Every day, from the beginning, since moving to Thailand, Michael Baines would find many stray dogs on the streets, most of them in very poor conditions.
The Swedish entrepreneur who opened his restaurant in Bangsaen, Chonburi, in 2002 started helping them as much as he could.
Michael drove around the city after work to feed and treat them, also taking injured dogs to the local veterinary clinic.
In a very short time, he started to rescue, rehabilitate and rehome them in his free time away from work. Since then, he has built The Sanctuary up to official Foundation status.
The Man That Rescues Dogs Foundation, now supported by the local government, has its sights set on expanding The Sanctuary to take in more rescues and modernise its “free for all” Clinic to treat and heal more dogs.
Michael is dedicated to creating a controlled stray dog population and an educated local community that, in the long run, sees a harmonious relationship between people and dogs.
His story will fuel your passion for advancing animal rights.
Making money is no fun. Contributing to and changing the world is a lot more fun.
