Moderator: Simona Uvarovaitė is a Project Manager at Enterprise Lithuania, where she works with social enterprise ecosystem development. She finished her Masters degree in Social Entrepreneurship in Denmark and is now working to apply her knowledge to help sustainable and socially responsible businesses grow in Lithuania. Simona has experience working in both private and public sectors – from creating her own sustainable fashion brand to developing a pilot project for the first social impact bond in Lithuania. 

Speaker 1: Viktorija Bražiūnaitė is the CEO of the Lithuanian Social Business Association. Viktorija is actively involved in the Lithuanian social business ecosystem building with a special focus on legal regulation, raising awareness, and international cooperation. Other areas of knowledge and experience – international parliamentary cooperation; NGO leaders’ empowerment; innovations and entrepreneurship development; start-ups mentoring and acceleration; national and EU (Horizon 2020) innovation promotion incentives expertise, public relations, and change management. 

Speaker 2: Pirkko Valge is the CEO of Good Deed Foundation (Heateo Sihtasutus). She was behind setting up the first incubator in Estonia designed for social start-ups and the first venture philanthropy funds that support impactful solutions to most pressing societal problems. Having worked previously in consulting and banking she is keen believer in transferring the best practices from the private sector and bringing people from different backgrounds together to create an inclusive and thriving world.

Speaker 3: Erin Gainer-Grigaliūnė’s career spans roles as a drug developer, chief executive, board member investor and philanthropist. Today she is an independent board director and advisor for public and private life sciences and pharmaceutical companies. Her interest in philanthropy started over twenty years ago with her time as a Peace Corps volunteer and culminated in the creation of the ella fund, a venture philanthropy fund devoted to backing social entrepreneurs working to empower women around the world through education, health and entrepreneurship.