Sally R. Osberg

Sally R. Osberg is President and CEO of the Skoll Foundation, where she partners with founder and chairman, Jeffrey Skoll.^[1] She was founding executive director of Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose, guiding that institution to international recognition for its cutting-edge work in the museum field.^[2]

Osberg joined the Skoll Foundation in February 2001. Since that time, the Foundation has invested in more than 100 ventures led by social entrepreneurs worldwide.^[3] Osberg also established the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at the Saïd Business School of the University of Oxford; and created the annual Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship.^[4]

Publications and Speeches

Osberg is the co-author of the book, Getting Beyond Better: How Social Entrepreneurship Works, with Roger L. Martin.^[5] The book describes how social entrepreneurs target systems that exist in a stable but unjust equilibrium and transform them into entirely new, superior, and sustainable equilibria. All of these leaders develop, build, and scale their solutions in ways that bring about the truly revolutionary change that makes the world a fairer and better place.^[6]

Osberg and Martin’s 2007 article in Stanford Social Innovation Review, “Social Entrepreneurship: The Case for Definition”,^[7] argued for the need for a more rigorous definition and laid the guardrails for identifying what is considered “social entrepreneurship” in this rapidly growing field.

Osberg has also written about social entrepreneurship for Harvard Business Review,^[8] Rotman magazine,^[9] Financial Times^[10] and CNN.com,^[11] and others. She has been interviewed in Forbes.com,^[12] The Huffington Post,^[13] Bloomberg Television,^[14] and more. She has given keynote addresses and lectures at Santa Clara University,^[15] Stanford University,^[16] Global Social Benefit Incubator,^[17] USC Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy,^[18] and more.

Organizations

• Skoll Foundation board of directors^[19]
• Skoll Global Threats Fund, board of directors^[20]
• Oracle Education Foundation, board of directors^[21]
• The Elders, Advisor^[22]
• Social Progress Imperative, Founding Board Member^[23]
• Partners for Sustainable Development, board of directors^[24]

Awards

• 2015 NonProfit Times Top 50 Power and Influence awardees^[25]
• John W. Gardner Leadership Award from the American Leadership Forum^[26]
• Magis Global Changemaker Award from Santa Clara University^[27]

References