Aspen Institute Mobilizes New Generation of Leaders To Positively Impact Society

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Aspen Institute today announced its 2015 Class of Henry Crown Fellows. The Henry Crown Fellowship mobilizes a new breed of leaders, all under the age of 45, to tackle the world's most intractable problems. All are proven entrepreneurs, mostly from the world of business, who have reached a point in their lives where, having achieved success, they are ready to apply their creative talents to building a better society.

Photos and bios are available at: http://as.pn/crown2015.

Henry Crown Fellows spend four weeks over the course of two years in structured retreat – exploring their leadership, their core values, their vision for a "Good Society" and their desired legacies. But the Fellowship is not just about reflection. It is also about action: Each Fellow launches a new initiative that will stretch them and have a positive impact on their communities, their country, or the world.

"We are delighted with this year's class of Henry Crown Fellows," said Peter Reiling, executive director of the program. "For society, they represent a potent force of talent, ready to focus their energies on some of the greatest challenges of our times. For them, they are embarking on a personal journey—a journey 'from success to significance'—that will change their lives forever. I know. I'm a Henry Crown Fellow too."

The Henry Crown Fellows for 2015 are:

• Marc Allen, President, Boeing International, The Boeing Company, Seattle, WA.
• Christina Andersen, General Manager, Measurement and Sensing, General Electric, Charlestown, MA.
• Kara Medoff Barnett, Managing Director, Lincoln Center Global, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York, NY.
• Marla Blow, CEO, FS Card Inc. and Partner, Fenway Summer, Washington, DC.
• Valerie Casey, Chief Product Officer, Samsung Global Innovation Center, San Francisco, CA.
• Blair Christie, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Cisco, San Jose, CA.
• Alain Chuard, Head of Product, Google My Business, Google, Inc., Mountain View, CA.
• Adriana Cisneros, CEO and Vice Chairman, Cisneros, Coral Gables, FL.
• Jorge Conde, CFO and Chief Product Officer, Syros Pharmaceuticals, Watertown, MA.
• Elizabeth Faraut,  Creative Director and CEO, La LOOP, Santa Monica, CA.
• Cody Friesen, Founder and CEO, Zero Mass Water and Founder, Fluidic Energy, Scottsdale, AZ.
• Julie Gilbert Newrai, Founder and CEO, PreciouStatus and Wolf Means Business, Minneapolis, MN.
• Neil Grimmer, Co-Founder and CEO, Plum Organics, PBC, Emeryville, CA.
• Brett Hurt, Co-Owner, Hurt Family Investments; Founder, Bazaarvoice and Coremetrics, Austin, TX.
• Sami Inkinen, Venture Partner, Obvious Ventures; Co-Founder & Director, Trulia Inc., San Francisco, CA.
• Ashif Mawji, President, Trust Science, and CEO, NPO Zero, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
• Alexis Maybank, Founder, Gilt, New York, NY.
• Annie Oh, Vice President, Global Brand and Product, Hot Beverages, Keurig Green Mountain, Burlington, MA.
• Meghan O'Sullivan, Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, John F.   Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
• Clement Pappas, Entrepreneur and Investor, Philadelphia, PA.
• Bre Pettis, Founder, Bold Machines; Co-Founder, Makerbot Industries, Brooklyn, NY.
• Devon Spurgeon, Executive Vice President, MDC Partners, Chicago, IL.

The Henry Crown Fellowship Program was established in 1997 to honor the life and career of Chicago industrialist Henry Crown (1896-1990) and was initially funded by the Henry and Gladys Crown Charitable Trust Fund. The Fellowship is the flagship program within the Aspen Global Leadership Network (AGLN).

The Aspen Global Leadership Network (AGLN) is a growing, worldwide community of entrepreneurial leaders from business, government and the nonprofit sector — currently, more than 2,000 Fellows from 48 countries — who share a commitment to enlightened leadership and to using their extraordinary creativity, energy and resources to tackle the foremost societal challenges of our times. All share the common experience of participating in the Henry Crown Fellowship or one of the dozen Aspen Institute leadership initiatives it has inspired in the United States, Africa, Central America, India, the Middle East and China.

The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, DC. Its mission is to foster leadership based on enduring values and to provide a nonpartisan venue for dealing with critical issues. The Institute is based in Washington, DC; Aspen, Colorado; and on the Wye River on Maryland's Eastern Shore. It also has offices in New York City and an international network of partners. For more information, visit www.aspeninstitute.org.

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SOURCE The Aspen Institute