2020 Braddock Scholars Announced

We’re excited to announce the selection of the 2020 Braddock Scholars. Please join us in congratulating Fellows from across the Aspen Global Leadership Network who will be joining the Braddock Scholars Program for the upcoming year. These Fellows have a big vision to make a transformational impact on society by bringing their venture to significant scale.

• Rushika Fernandopulle, Co-Founder and CEO, Iora Health (Health Innovators Fellowship) 
• Christopher Gergen, CEO, Forward Cities (Henry Crown Fellowship) 
• Brett Hurt, CEO and Co-Founder, data.world (Henry Crown Fellowship) 
• Sarah Kauss, Founder and Chairwoman, S’well; (Henry Crown Fellowship) 
• Aaron Walker, Founder and CEO, Camelback Ventures (Pahara-Aspen Education Fellowship)

The Braddock Scholars Program is built on the belief that entrepreneurs are great at starting businesses, but the skills needed to effectively scale these innovations are very different. The program serves to bridge the “scaling gap” by channeling the expertise of mentors, all of whom are Aspen Institute Trustees, toward the specific challenge or opportunity the Scholars face.

The program is made possible thanks to the generous efforts of Rick Braddock, Aspen Institute Trustee. He shared the inspiration behind the program's inception:

"In spending quite a few years in the entrepreneurial space after my corporate career, I came to realize that innovation requires two rather distinct steps: ideation and scaling. The latter step is the most important one for value creation, but requires skills not usually encompassed in an entrepreneur’s background. The Aspen Institute allows us to bring together two perspectives to address these opportunities: entrepreneurs whose initiatives are already well beyond the start-up phase and senior members of the Aspen family, usually trustees, bringing wisdom derived from their long, successful careers, to be mentors. We’ve found from the first four years of the program that this is a highly satisfying association for each."

On this year's scholars he said the following:

“We have learned a lot to make the program better as we go. Now, in the program's fifth year, I have personally interviewed all five we have selected as Scholars. I am confident that they are all well on their way to creating solutions that can really make a difference on the national and even international stage and that we can help them get there.”

The program features three key components: 

• High-level mentorship, which includes monthly calls for board level conversations and advice 
• Annual Program gatherings, which feature peer learning and exchange 
• Grant capital, which is used to further their scale goals

You can learn more about the Program and see this list of previous Scholars and Mentors who have participated here. 

Stay tuned throughout the year for updates on the program and insights from our Scholars on their journey to scale.