This week, we speak with Rockefeller Foundation managing director, Saadia Madsbjerg. She leads the$4 billion dollars foundation’s work on Innovation.
Madsbjerg joined the Rockefeller Foundation in 2013 from the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC); previously, she worked at McKinsey & Company and at Cisco. She has a Master of Science in Applied Economics and Finance and a Bachelor of Science degree in International Business from Copenhagen Business School.
Madsbjerg’s work with the Rockefeller Foundation is both unexpected and fascinating. How and what they invest in are quite different than what you might have guessed on your own. Consider as an example, the work they do on climate change. The Rockefeller Foundation’s focus is on a region’s “resilience” — its ability to bounce back from disasters relatively quickly. Their outside the box thinking focuses on Oyster Beds to provide a huge, natural surf break from storm surges.
Similarly, the work they do on global food scarcity and starvation focuses on “Harvest Loss and Food Waste.” In the USA, half of all food produced gets thrown away. Finding a way to change that percentage would feed a lot of people at little additional cost.
All of the books she discusses can be found here.
You can hear the full interview, including our podcast extras below, as well as iTunes, Soundcloud, and Bloomberg. All of our earlier podcasts can be found iTunes, Soundcloud, and Bloomberg.
Next week, we speak with Sebastian Mallaby, author of “More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite,” and a new biography of “The Man Who Knew: The Life and Times of Alan Greenspan.”
