Social Venture Institute

Each year we invite strong examples of successful social entrepreneurs to speak at SVI. We call these  "True Confession" sessions, where we encourage speakers to be open with the audience by telling their intimate and animated behind-the-scenes stories of business challenges and successes.

Have an idea for a great True Confession Speaker? Email us your suggestions for successful social entrepreneurs with a compelling story!

Last year, we were proud to host the following True Confession speakers:

 

Paul Saginaw

Co-Owner & Founding Partner

Zingerman's Community of Businesses

Paul Saginaw and Ari Weinzweig joined forces, to found Zingerman’s Delicatessen, and opened the doors on March 15, 1982. All they wanted at that time was a great corned beef sandwich and an organization with soul.

Zingerman’s started as 1300 square feet of combined restaurant and specialty food retail space, run solely by Paul, Ari and two employees. The Zingerman’s Community of Businesses now has 17 partners, employs over 600 people and generates over $40 million in annual sales from eight separate businesses: Zingerman’s Delicatessen (including Zingerman’s Catering), Zingerman’s Mail Order, Zingerman’s Bakehouse, Zingerman’s Training Inc., Zingerman’s Coffee Company, Zingerman’s Roadhouse, Zingerman’s Creamery and Zingerman’s Candy Manufactory.

Paul believes that he has been successful in spite of the fact that he has limited natural talent and abilities because he has always believed that the only real limits are those of vision. Paul also believes that if in fact he has any talent at all it would be the ability to pick great partners.

 

MaryAnne Howland

Owner & President

Ibis Communications

Founded in 1993, the Ibis Communications client roster ranges from Fortune 500 companies such as Allstate, Comcast, PepsiCo, and Toyota to successful innovative start-ups such as Sungevity and TV One. MaryAnne and her award-winning creative team help build bridges between brands and “rich” niche markets with traditional and non-traditional marketing strategies and solutions. Said more simply, we motivate “unmotivated” consumers to connect with brands; help companies who “get it” get on the radar of diverse talent, suppliers and stakeholders; and help non-profits attract philanthropists.

MaryAnne is also a co-founder and president of Motorsports Institute, a non-profit whose mission is to motivate and inspire academic excellence among students by rewarding them with an experience at the race track. She also serves on the Multicultural Marketing Committee for National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications; on the Community Outreach Committee for Frist Center in Nashville; and is the current chair of Social Venture Network (SVN).

MaryAnne has also been “redefining the mommy track” as a business owner, community leader, and proud single mom of her 17-year-old son, John Robert. She was also an Advertising Working Mother of the Year Award Winner from Working Mother Magazine in 2007.

 

Glynn Lloyd

Founder & Chief Executive Officer

City Fresh Foods

Glynn Lloyd is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of City Fresh Foods, a food service operation that daily provides over 8,000 Latin, Southern, Italian, Russian and Caribbean meals to Elders, School Students, Child Care and other institutional clients.

City Fresh Foods has been honored with various awards as well as having been featured on National Public Radio, CNN and in Entrepreneur and Inc. Magazines. More importantly, City Fresh Foods remains a warm and supportive environment in which local residents help manage and grow the company.

Glynn has been actively involved in the Boston’s urban community for the last two decades. From organizing local million man march initiatives to board chairing innovative non profits such as Sportsmen’s Tennis Club, The Food Project, Red Tomato and Four Corner Main Streets, one of his most recent projects is City Growers- a business focused on creating self sustaining urban farms.