The Wharton Impact Podcast The Wharton Social Impact Club

In this episode of Wharton Impact Podcast, we talk to Katie Fitzgerald, the Global President & CEO of Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC). Katie shares her journey in social impact and the community-driven origin story of RMHC. She emphasizes the charity’s global mission and the power of local insights for worldwide innovation. Katie also talks about leadership in a complex, global network, advocating for thoughtful questions and deep relationship-building.

In this episode, Shaurya Malhotra (Co-President, Wharton Social Impact Club) and Genevieve Silva (Wharton Sustainable Business Club) co-host Dr. Elizabeth Baca, a clinician strategist at Deloitte who puts equity and sustainability in the center of all she does around innovation in health care. Together, we discuss the intersection of healthcare, environment and socio-economic development, the role of systems thinking in healthcare and how this space will be influenced by AI in the coming decade.

In this episode of the Wharton Impact Podcast, we engage with Bruce Simpson, a Wharton/Lauder Grad (G ‘86, WG ‘86) and an international leader in business and philanthropy, with a 40 year career delivering shareholder returns through sustainability and ESG. Bruce is now a General Partner at AgeTech Capital, which tackles the growing societal and economic challenges of fast growing aging demographics. He is raising a $250m fund to scale tech solutions that deliver healthier, wealthier and more fulfilling aging across 4 verticals: financial security, aging at home, caregiver support, and health/lifestyle. He is also a mentor to leading startup incubators including the Creative Destruction Lab, and advises distinctive startups delivering business upside through sustainability solutions. Previously, Bruce led McKinsey’s ESG/Purpose practice globally, helping private sector companies match their core skills with major societal needs and develop new strategies, products and services which are truly beneficial to the planet and society, while delivering substantial shareholder returns. Bruce is also global Vice Chair of Human Rights Watch, and engaged in several other NGO’s.

Join us as we speak about everything from stakeholder capitalism in the largest companies to entrepreneurship in the social impact space, and Bruce’s recent focus on longevity tech.

Paul Reville is the former Massachusetts Secretary of Education, a professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), and the founding director of EdRedesign Lab at HGSE. Paul discusses the limitations of the decades-long education reform movement, and why school alone is not enough to level the playing field for students. He highlights the need to address “the Iron Law correlation of socioeconomic status and achievement” with a holistic system of opportunity and support and the crucial role of cross-sector collaboration.

In this episode of the Wharton Impact Podcast, we discuss with Tom Adams, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of 60 Decibels, a leading global impact measurement firm that brings powerful customer insights to the world’s largest impact investors, companies, foundations, corporations, NGOs…you name it. Tom has held various leadership roles across the public, private and charitable sectors. Immediately before founding 60 Decibels, he was the Chief Impact Officer at Acumen. Join us as we talk about everything from social impact measurement to intrapreneurship and building a purpose-driven career.

David Auerbach is the co-founder of The Sanergy Collaborative, an alliance of organizations determined to utilize circular economy approaches to solve the sanitation and food insecurity challenge in emerging markets. Previously, David worked at Endevour to support high impact entrepreneurs, and also worked in the Education sector in China. David holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management and a BA from Yale University.

In this episode, we’re conversing with David about the challenges in providing access to safe sanitation in impoverished communities, how to approach building partnerships with governments and why should we realize value from insects and insect-based animal protein.

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