Heifer CEO Pierre Ferrari in Winning TEDxChange Lineup

By Donna Stokes

October 3, 2019

Last Updated: February 3, 2011

Heifer CEO Pierre Ferrari is part of a winning lineup for a "Build Your Own TEDxChange" contest organized by GOOD in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, GOOD announced this week.
You can see highlights from the GOOD announcement below or read more on their web site.
The winner is Chandra Wroblewski, whose lineup—Muhammad Yunus, Michelle Rhee, Pierre Ferrari, and Anders Wilhelmson (with musical guest Arcade Fire)—had the most exciting and topical selection of speakers. On top of that, it has an amazing idea audience interaction: social network gaming.
Wroblewski explains her selections in her pitch to GOOD:
I was looking for an interesting mix of people to cover all areas that are important for global development and health. At first, someone might listen to these speakers’ stories and say “What were you thinking?” That, to me, makes it more interesting and shows they are truly thinking outside the box.

* Give money to people who might not pay you back?
* Shake up bureaucracy for student development?
* Create a poop bag? For… people?
* Free cows? Overseas?

My line-up features people of different trades, nationalities, locations, gender, ages, and causes – but they all have one thing in common, which is to believe in the potential of all people in the world. Each speaker’s ideas and approach to change betters the global community – improving education, creating opportunities, finding simple solutions, believing in one another, and lending a helping hand.

Additionally, I particularly like this line-up because all these speakers are smart, educated, very fortunate people that could have simply worked to make money, but made something more. If you listen to their stories you’ll notice they didn’t anticipate being where they are today -- Rhee, expected maybe to be a doctor. Yunus, always surprised about the new venture. Wilhemson, an architect by trade. Ferrari, making plenty of money at Coca-Cola. They all took their time and talents to create unique, sometimes controversial, solutions to help people near and far.

Let us know what you think about this lineup. We'll share more details here as soon as we have them.