General Session
Jim Ziolkowski
Ignition: How to Create the Spark
Jim Ziolkowski, Founder, President, and CEO, buildOn
Author, Walk in Their Shoes
In 1991, Jim Ziolkowski left a fast-track job in corporate finance with General Electric to become the founder, president and CEO of buildOn, a non-profit organization breaking the cycle of poverty, illiteracy and low expectations through service and education. Over the last 21 years Jim has mobilized the inner-city high school students and rural villagers in developing countries to rise above their circumstances and create change not only for themselves, but for their communities. Through innovative business lessons and personal reflections, he tells a unique story of motivation and determination, rich with parallels to all types of industry and enterprise. Jim explains how creating the spark within can lead to much bigger results.
buildOn empowers inner-city teens to transform their neighborhoods through intensive community service and to change the world by building schools in some of the economically poorest countries in the world. Currently, buildOn is working in urban high schools throughout the U.S., from the South Bronx to Detroit to Oakland, to cities in between. Students in buildOn's programs work with elders, homeless people, younger children, veterans, and individuals with disabilities among others. They have contributed nearly 1 million hours of service, and have helped build nearly 500 schools around the world. Internationally, buildOn is breaking ground on a new school every five days and will construct its 500th school in October 2012. Currently the organization is constructing schools in Haiti, Nicaragua, Nepal, Senegal, Malawi, and Mali. There are 73,000 children, parents, and grandparents attending these schools every day.
