Astrid Scholz Shapes Platform to Spur Progress on Sustainable Development Goals
Dr. Astrid Scholz is managing partner and CEO (“chief everything officer”) of Sphaera, a system design and technology firm dedicated to co-creating global, distributed, democratic infrastructure for mobilizing data, innovations, and capital to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Scholz previously was president of Ecotrust, a conservation-based development organization with $150 million in assets under management where Sphaera was incubated.
Scholz is a founding director of the XXcelerate Fund, a revolving loan fund and mentorship program created for and by women entrepreneurs that is piloting in her home state of Oregon. She is also a founding director of Zebras Unite, a growing global community of founders, investors, and allies creating a more ethical, inclusive, collaborative, and sustainable approach to building businesses. She holds degrees from the University of St. Andrews, the University of Bristol, and the University of California, Berkeley.
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Here are some highlights from the interview with Scholz:
- The progression of her various roles at Ecotrust, a pioneering bioregionally focused organization, that led to incubating Sphaera, a company to help share and scale solutions and innovations across bioregions and other areas.
- The past, present, and possible future of Sphaera, which developed a platform to help organizations find, share, and adapt existing solutions to new contexts and geographies.
- How people can join a more ethical and inclusive global movement of companies to counter existing startup and venture capital culture through the Zebras Unite community. It was formed to offer a financial alternative to unicorns, which are privately held startups valued at more than $1 billion.
LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm with a mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.
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Sharing, Adapting and Scaling Solutions as ‘Zebras Unite’ was originally published in B the Change on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
