5 Social Entrepreneurs you have to meet

31-year-old Australian Anna Rose is an author, activist, environmentalist and the definition of a Gen Y Social Entrepreneur. In 2006 Rose co-founded the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC) and has been very active in the climate change field since university where she held the position as Environment Officer and allegedly raised $1 million toward renewable energy research. Rose’s passion for the environment is evidenced in coverage by most major national media outlets, and she currently heads Earth Hour in Australia.

While doing her MBA at Stanford University, Jane Chen and a group of graduates were assigned a project that would change many lives forever; to create a low-cost infant incubator that could be used in rural areas. And this is how Embrace came to life. The non-profit social enterprise donates infant warmers to the neediest of areas in the world through NGO partners, in addition to providing educational programs. Chen is a TED speaker and in 2011 was crowned one of Forbes’ Impact 30. Presently, Chen serves as the Chief Business Officer of Embrace Innovations the for-profit branch of Embrace that is piloting the Embrace Warmer in 10 countries.

Like Jane Chen, Daniel Epstein has also received the Forbes 30 honor for his work at the Unreasonable Institute.  Epstein runs a bootcamp for social entrepreneurs out of his “frat house” near the University of Colorado. Epstein’s program brings together social entrepeneures from all around the world to discuss ideas and gain access to mentors and over 100 funders. The website explains “Over the past 4 years, 82 ventures from 37 countries have attended our program…collectively they have raised over $42 million in funding, grown their revenues and teams by over 2.5x within a year after leaving Unreasonable, and have impacted over 2,000,000 lives.”

Growing up Josh Nesbitdreamed he’d one day become a doctor, but a trip to Malawi in southeastern Africa impacted him so greatly that he decided to serve the world, still in a medical capacity, but in a very different way. Seeing patients walk over 50 miles to access medical attention, Nesbit realised that cheap mobile phones would simplify this process. Nesbit’s Medic Mobil has developed tools to allow health care workers to connect with patients, explain patient’s symptoms and transfer medical records all within text messages, providing disadvantaged communities with the “Right tools. Real impact.”

Who are the social entrepreneurs that have changed the way you view or do business? We’d like to hear from you on Twitterand Facebook.