Harry Plant of Aeris, Using IoT (Internet of Things) for Good

Dr. Frank Artress described himself as a, "He who has the most toys wins" guy focused on material accumlation. He and Susan Gustafson had meaningful jobs in medicine and education, but their lives forever changed when Frank faced a high likelihood of death as the duo climbed Kilimanjaro for their respective 50th and 40th birthdays. Their story that led to starting the Foundation for African Medicine and Education (www.fameafrica.org) will make you think about priorities and how to have an impact from wherever you are in life.

Curah CEO Ikram Mansori is on a mission to revolutionize the care industry with a marketplace for on-demand beauty services that are more affordable, convenient and accessible. The hard lessons she learned while deployed through the Army's 82nd Airborne Division prepared her to face life's greatest adversities. She speaks more than 5 languages, worked at Twitter, and oh yes, is working on her Doctorate.

Ron Miller has exited four companies and currently serves as Chair of his fifth, StartEngine. He wants to empower entrepreneurs and investors through his learnings in business and life, including surviving cancer. In his own LinkedIn post, the self described "mistake guy" writes: "They say failure is the path to success and in my 40+ years of CEO’ing start-up companies I can attest that that is definitely true. Some mistakes are inevitable, but others can be prevented if you know what to look out for."

A divorce and financial challenges forced HoneyBee CEO Ennie Lim to move back in with her parents. She rose from adversity to co-found HoneyBee with college friend Benny Yiu to help ensure that the 70% of Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck wouldn’t have to turn to predatory lenders.

Harry Plant has placed himself in the right place at the right time multiple times. From a run at legendary Silicon Valley law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati as the Internet was coming of age, to working as investment banker, he learned about business success from multiple vantage points. After taking some time to help raise his children, Harry joined Stanford Law School classmate and Aeris CEO Marc Jones as VP of Social Impact at Aeris Communications. Harry and Aeris do not view philanthropy as a separate check writing exercise, but an integrated part of the company. Their efforts are helping people in developing world gain access to clean drinking water, preserve vaccines, use tractors to improve farming efficiencies and more.

Stevon Cook talks about the influence of his grandmother when his parents were unable to care for him as a child, connecting bridges out of poverty through coding education, and his sense of call to build things to empower others.

From stevoncook.com:

Stevon Cook is a third generation San Franciscan and graduate of public schools. He attended Williams College in Massachusetts where he majored in American Studies and got involved in various entrepreneurial and social impact ventures. After graduating, he returned to San Francisco where he's worked in education, politics and business.

Currently, Stevon serves as President of the San Francisco Board of Education. He was elected to the Board of Education in November 2016 with over 150,000 votes. In addition, he is the Chief Executive Officer of Mission Bit, an education nonprofit focus on ending generational poverty through coding education.

Michael Gilroy grew up dreaming of becoming a professional athlete, then a hedge fund manager, and finally a venture capitalist. He achieved his goal of becoming a Partner at Canaan, a prominent VC in San Francisco. Michael shares how a couple of traumatic experiences shaped his priorities, what he looks for in the companies he funds, and how he works to stay centered.

Alana Ackerson has spent a significant portion of her life wrestling with questions of financial inclusion, the implications of technology in extending human life span, and building companies including SoFi and currently Figure. 

Skilled climbers typically take 72-plus hours to ascend Yosemite's 2,900 foot El Capitan. Hans Florine has shaved nearly 70 hours from that time and has climbed the monolith well over 150 times. Hans shares wisdom on the spirituality of climbing, "eating the frog," and following passion in life. Less than six months after breaking both legs in a fall while climbing El Cap, Hans is up and back at it again all while sharing his spirit leading Diablo Rock Gym in Concord, CA.