Two alumni in the ‘Impact 30’

12/2/2011 - Forbes magazine has named Andrew Youn ’06, founder of One Acre Fund, and John Wood ’89, founder of Room to Read, to the “Impact 30,” its inaugural list of those using business most effectively to solve social problems.

“Unlike millions of us who recognize some kind of problem, feel a pang of hopelessness, and move on,” Youn, Wood and others on the list “shifted careers and set about fixing the problems they saw in the world,” the magazine observed.

Photo by Nathan Mandell

Andrew Youn ’06 founded One Acre Fund while still a student at Kellogg. The organization has since helped 54,000 farm families in East Africa.

While still a student at Kellogg, Youn launched Once Acre Fund, which provides low-interest loans and education to farmers in East Africa. By 2011, the organization had served 54,000 farm families and had increased take-home farm income by 100 percent per acre.

Wood’s Room to Read, meanwhile, has created more than 12,000 libraries in nine countries, including Nepal, Vietnam and India. The organization is especially focused on enabling girls to acquire basic education, providing tutors and financial assistance to help them do so.

Kellogg, with its dozens of clubs, courses and programs on social enterprise, has a culture of developing socially responsible leaders. Just recently, the school’s Net Impact Community, comprising more than a dozen groups at the school, was named the 2011 Net Impact Chapter of the Year.

It was the second time in three years that the school had won the award. “This win is a testament to the collaborative culture at Kellogg and the dedication of the Net Impact Community and its leaders,” said club president Jessica Porter ’12, who accepted the award in October at the National Net Impact Conference.

Learn about other alumni who using the tools of impact investing to improve the world in the current issue of Kellogg World, the school’s alumni magazine.