Philanthropy Innovation Summit 2025 | Salon Sessions

Dr. Cecilia Conrad is the founder and chief executive officer of Lever for Change and a senior advisor at the MacArthur Foundation. Lever for Change connects donors with problem solvers to find and fund bold, effective solutions to accelerate social change. Her team has influenced over $2.2 billion in grants and supported more than 175 organizations. Before founding Lever for Change, Conrad led the MacArthur Fellows program. The Nonprofit Times named her to its Top 50 Power & Influence List in 2023 and 2024, and Inside Philanthropy named her one of the 50 most powerful women in philanthropy in 2023. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Conrad is an emerita professor of economics with Pomona College, joining the faculty in 1995 and retiring in 2013. At Pomona, she also served as vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college, and later as acting president. In recognition of her academic research and advocacy around racial and gender equity, Conrad received the National Economic Association’s Samuel V. Westerfield Award and the National Urban League’s Women of Power Award. 

She earned a B.A. from Wellesley College where she also received the 2023 Alumnae Achievement Award and a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University.

Haven Ley is the Sr. Vice President of Program Strategy,  Investments and Communications and the Chief  Strategy Officer of Pivotal Ventures. Pivotal Ventures is  an investment and incubation company founded by  Melinda French Gates dedicated to advancing social  progress in the US. In this capacity, Haven leads the  strategic programmatic direction of the company. Prior  to the opening of Pivotal Ventures, she was Senior  Advisor to the Co-Chair in the Executive Office of the  Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  

She joined the Gates Foundation in 2008 as a Senior  Program Officer with Agricultural Development,  developing and managing the team’s gender strategy  and portfolio of gender-responsive grants. Prior to  joining the foundation, she was a Program Officer for  Social Impact Assessment with the Millennium  Challenge Fund and a program manager on several  USAID-funded programs in East Africa, Mongolia, India  and Albania.  

She has a BA with Honors in East Asian Studies from  Cornell University and received her MSc in Economic  Development from the London School of Economics.  She lives in Seattle with her family.

Johanna Mair is Professor of Organization, Strategy and Leadership at the Hertie School of Governance, the Codirector of the Global Innovation for Impact Lab at the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, and the Academic Editor of the Stanford Social Innovation Review. From 2016 to 2018 she helped building and served as the Academic Codirector for the Social Innovation + Change Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School. From 2001 to 2011 she served on the Strategic Management faculty at IESE Business School. She has held a visiting position at the Harvard Business School and teaches regularly at the Harvard Kennedy School and INSEAD. Before earning her PhD in Management from INSEAD (France), she was directly involved in executive decision-making in international banking. In 2008 she was recognized as a “Faculty Pioneer” for Social Entrepreneurship Education by the Aspen Institute. Her research focuses on how novel organizational and institutional arrangements generate economic and social development and the role of innovation in this process. She has the co-editor of three books and has published in leading academic journal. Alongside her academic responsibilities, she carries out advisory work for or serves on board of multinational companies, the United Nations, governments, foundations and social enterprises.