who we are
Co-Founder, Chairman (Founder, Odwalla)
Greg is founder, former CEO, and chair emeritus of Odwalla, Inc, the leading U.S. supplier of fresh juice and nourishing beverages (www.odwalla.com). Since his departure from Odwalla in May 2000, Greg has headed a consultancy group active with assisting enterprises that combine unique strategic social vision with broad market opportunity. Together with founder and former Visa International Chairman, Dee Hock, Greg was a founding Trustee of the Chaordic Commons (www.chaordic.org). The commons is dedicated to developing new forms of purposeful organization compatible with the human spirit and based upon the self-organizing principles of natural systems. Greg has been a board director of Frontier Natural Products Cooperative and an advisory board member of the Social Venture Network, (www.svn.org). Greg graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Studies.
Jon Ramer
Co-founder, Executive Director
Jon is Executive Director of the Interra Project and WiserCommons. He founded SmartChannels, a collaborative web publishing system, and ELF Technologies, a collaborative communication and document management system used by the legal profession. Jon and Greg Steltenpohl co-authored "Weaving our Strategies Together — Turning What we Have into What we Need" and "Member-Centric Networks of Community Alliances". Jon sings beautifully with Tova, his wife of 25 years.
Dee Hock
Co-founder, (Founder and Chairman Emeritus, Visa International)
Dee is founder and CEO emeritus of VISA. In 1968 he developed the concept of a global system for the exchange of value and a unique new concept of organization for that purpose. In 1970 he founded a company that became VISA. He is currently founder and CEO of The Chaordic Alliance, a nonprofit committed to the formation of practical, innovative organizations that blend competition and cooperation to address critical societal issues, and to the development of new organizational concepts that more equitably distribute power and wealth and are more compatible with the human spirit and biosphere.
Brad deGraf
Co-founder
Brad has been an innovator in computer animation in the entertainment industry since 1982, particularly in the areas of realtime characters, ride films, and the Web. In 2000, Wired called Brad "an icon of 3D Animation," and it's been all downhill since then. Besides his role in jumpstarting Media Venture Collective, Brad pays the bills in a variety of consultancy roles focused on next-generation digital media technology, particularly lately in international development work with the World Bank's International Finance Corporation and the US Agency for International Development. Other recent roles include executive director of the Internet Bookmobile project , co-director for Moving Images at the Internet Archive, and senior analyst for Jon Peddie Research. In his copious spare time, Brad also develops web-based social applications, most notably Books We Like and Smartocracy.
Richard Perl
Advisor, (Founder, Social Venture Network)
He is well known as an advisor to many businesses with socially responsible missions. He has been a leader in the Social Venture Network since 1987, when he was one of its initial organizers and Executive Committee members. He was also a co-founder and early major force in the Threshold Foundation, a 21 year old philanthropic network and community launched in 1981.Richard is on the Boards of Dragonfly Media, a multi-city publisher of progressive/green free monthly magazines and of Earthstone International, a producer of recycled abrasive products. Richard was a convener and co-author of The Path to Living Economies, a collaborative visionary document developed with Hazel Henderson, David Korten, Elisabet Sahtouris, Amory Lovins, Bernard Lietaer,Edgar Cahn and others. His business experience also includes co-founding in 1988 and managing Pacific Partners International Investments, IncRichardreceived his Masters in Business Administration, Law Degree, and B.A. from Columbia University in New York City.
