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Innovator in Coexistence: Ronald Bruder
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Ronald Bruder is the Founder and CEO of Education For Employment (EFE), a non-profit organization that attacks the problems of global poverty and inequality by creating jobs in the Middle East, North Africa and broader Muslim world. Inspired by 9-11, Bruder started EFE as a way to have an immediate, positive impact on relations between rich countries and those struggling with the social consequences of chronic unemployment. A successful real estate developer and "serial entrepreneur" with relatively little experience in international affairs, Bruder decided to put to work the skills he had used in starting real estate, pharmaceutical, travel and oil companies. He began talking to people who knew more than he did, and reading widely to determine where he could make a difference. What he found was that while jobs exist, educational systems in the Muslim world are not equipping their graduates with the skills needed by local and foreign investors. EFE bridges that gap by securing job commitments from employers, training students in the specific technical, vocational and managerial expertise needed, and then placing its graduates directly into well-paid, career-building work. With the success of its pilot programs, EFE is now expanding into new countries and programs and actively engaging the private sector in educational reform efforts throughout the region.
- The Innovator in Coexistence award will be presented by Beth Cohen, the Senior Director of the Global Philanthropists Circle at the Synergos Institute. Cohen, who holds joint master's degrees in public affairs and Latin American studies from UT Austin, was previously a senior program manager with the Catholic Relief Services' (CRS) Lima, Peru, office. She also worked for three years as a change management consultant for Andersen Consulting. In this position, she designed and developed training for clients such as the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services and the Puerto Rico Treasury Department.
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