Yobie Benjamin
Social entrepreneur and self-confessed geek Yobie Benjamin will speak to the Green MBA community this Saturday, January 30 to share his experiences and vision for how business can be a force for good. From a challenging childhood in the Philippines, Benjamin has had multiple successes as a management consultant, tech guru and entrepreneur.
His interest in social justice started early: he has past generations of family members involved with the struggle for freedom in his native Philippines. At 17 he was imprisoned and tortured for demonstrating against the regime of Ferdinand Marcos. Upon his release he came to the States and began working in high tech, while his concern for the positive impacts of business never faltered.
In an interview last year with Carbon Offsets Daily, Benjamin describes his approach to business: “I am a business guy and an Internet entrepreneur. I do not believe that simply giving money away is good, nor does it change much. So by creating and helping build capitalist enterprises that serve an altruistic purpose, we can build economically sustainable and innovative businesses.”
In 2005 Benjamin founded Goodstorm, “to provide e-commerce tools to enable political and non-profit groups to raise money and awareness.” Goodstorm was acquired by Zazzle two years later. Benjamin is currently involved in two startups: TrueCarboon.org, which is still in stealth mode but promises to address global warming, and Emicus.com, a web platform that allows for optimal information sharing during disasters.
Yobie Benjamin is a regular blogger for SFGate’s City Brights feature. Most recently he has been writing about efforts to provide a solar-powered water system to help Haiti recover from the devastating earthquake.
Yobie Benjamin speaks to the Green MBA on Saturday, January 30 at 6:45pm in the Creekside Room on the Dominican campus. The event is free of charge and the general public is invited to attend (please RSVP to owen@greenmba.com.) Creekside is located adjacent to Calaruega Dining Hall on the Dominican University of California campus. A campus map can be viewed here.
