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Bill Drayton (born in 1943, New York City, USA), is an social entrepreneur. In the 1990s Drayton created and popularized the term ‘social entrepreneur’, which has the main goal of creating social value throughout the world.

In 1980, Drayton founded the organization Ashoka: Innovators for the public, an organization with the main goal to promote social entrepreneurs globally. Drayton currently serves as the organization's CEO and chair member. Besides Ashoka, Drayton is currently involved as board chair member with Get America Working! and Youth Venture, both organizations focused on public good. In 2005, Drayton was named as one of "America's 25 Best Leaders" by U.S. News & World Report.

Early Life
Bill Drayton was born in 1943 in New York City, USA. There are little sources available about Drayton’s early life, but two popular books discuss it broadly. According to David Borstein, Drayton grew up as only child in a family who were believers of public service and strong values. Alex Nicholls writes that Drayton’s father, William Drayton, was not afraid explore the unknown at a young age. William Drayton is originated from an aristocratic family in England. Bornstein states that Drayton’s mother, Joan Drayton, who passed away in the late 60’s because of cancer, was also not afraid of the unknown and followed her dream at a young age, namely becoming a professional cellist. Joan Drayton was born in Melbourne Australia, and played as a cellist at Melbourne Symphony Orchestra when she was a teenager. As Drayton said “both my parents gave themselves permission to pursue their dreams in life, to do something really excellent that was theirs"

School
According to Alex Nicholls, Drayton already showed interest in entrepreneurship during elementary school. He launched a newspaper called ‘The Sentinel’. The magazine was successful and got distributed to multiple other New York elementary schools.

After elementary school, Drayton attended high school at Philips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. During high school, Drayton again showed more and more evidence of being an entrepreneur. He created and built the Asia Society which became the biggest and most popular student organization at the Philips Academy. Also, he also took over the magazine ‘The Mirror’, which was the school’s literacy magazine and gave it a fresh look. Additionally, Drayton joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), where he was an active member. Independent from high school, Drayton, at the age of fourteen, also organized a boycott against the local Woolworth its discriminatory practices. In addition to these different activities, Drayton began to develop an interest in Asian history, especially South Asia and got influenced by the ideas of Gandhi.

College
After high school, Drayton went to Harvard College. During his time at Harvard, Drayton’s interest in Asia deepened, and especially his interest in the ancient Indian Emperor Ashoka. Because of Ashoka’s influence, Drayton started a weekly gathering named the ‘Ashoka Table’. Drayton invited multiple prominent leaders and students to these gatherings. These prominent figures were involved in government, church, union and business. The students were then able to ask off-the-record questions, and to understand how “things really work”. In 1965, Drayton graduated from Harvard College and gained his bachelors of arts. Thereafter Drayton went to Oxford University where he studied economics, public finance and history, and gained his masters in 1967. Then Drayton went to Yale Law School. At his time at Yale, Drayton founded Yale Legislative Services. This organization consisted of a student group that provided diagnostic, recruiting and other services to legislators. The organization consisted a third of the law school’s body members. Drayton graduated in 1970 from Yale Law School, and gained his jurisprudence degree.

Professional Career
After Yale Law School, Drayton was hired as a consultant at McKinsey & Company’s. He started working there because, as Drayton himself said, “I want to learn how institutions work”. During his time at McKinsey & Company he worked as management consultant and focused on both private and public sectors.

Although Drayton thought working at McKinsey & Company was valuable, he wanted to be directly employed in the public sector and have a broader impact. Hence the opportunity presented itself to serve as chief of policy and administration of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under the administration of Jimmy Carter. Throughout his time as assistant administrator he had prime responsibility and made some innovations and reforms, for example the launching of emission trade. Drayton and Carter made regulations more efficient and effective. However, Drayton’s term at EPA ended abruptly when Ronald Reagan was elected. Reagan made a promise to cut federal spending and decrease ‘excessive’ business regulation, and so Drayton’s regulations disintegrated. Drayton did not agree with disintegrating these regulations and started an association named ‘Save EPA’. Save EPA is an association of professional environmental managers, to bring thoughtfulness to improvements needed in the environmental legislative sector. This association used media to stop the disintegration of Drayton’s regulations. Besides this, Drayton was assistant faculty member at both Stanford and Harvard, and founded and led the organization Environmental Safety, which spreads and implements improved environmental laws. Currently, Drayton is involved as board chair member at two innovative organizations, namely Get America Working!, which focusses itself on creating millions of jobs through structural changes in the U.S Economy, and Youth Venture, which identifies and invests in potential social entrepreneurs. But his 'defining' career moment, started in 1980, when he launched Ashoka: Innovators for the Public. This organization focusses on finding and fostering social entrepreneurship all over the world. Presently Drayton is CEO of Ashoka.

Early involvement of Drayton
Bill Drayton is recognized as the creator of the concept “social entrepreneur”. Initially the concept of “social entrepreneur” was called “public entrepreneur” (Wolk, 2007). The term “social entrepreneur” was popularized in the 1990s, ten years after Drayton launched Ashoka. Drayton is said to have started Ashoka because of his desire to bring about social change. Through his education at multiple universities, his experience at institutions, his knowledge about environmental issues and his network, Drayton was able to launch and lead Ashoka, and influenced social entrepreneurs globally. Nowadays, there are many definitions of the concept ‘social entrepreneur’. Greg Dees states that this concept describes entrepreneurs who work in the social sector instead of the business sector. The difference was the way social entrepreneurs promote patterns of production. Social entrepreneurs promote production regarding socially goods, like health care and education. Dayton himself mentions that “social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry”. He means that he considers social entrepreneurs as people that attack not just a social problem, but also the complete causation of such problems. Thus, social entrepreneurs do not just want to help, they want to change the world. Another description is that social entrepreneurs are labelled as “anyone who starts a non-for-profit” or “business owners who integrate social responsibility into their operations”.

These three are examples of descriptions, but creating an exact definition is not established yet. However, what all these descriptions have in common is that their main goal is creating social value all over the world, rather than personal gain or financial wealth.

Direct and Indirect Influence of Drayton
The first global recognition of the concept social entrepreneur occurred due to the nomination for the Nobel Prize for Peace of Muhammed Yunus, and it is growing fast. In recent years, the concept of social entrepreneurship has influenced economies from all over the world. Social entrepreneurs worldwide are standing up against global societal challenges, and therefore this concept is called the latest fashion in international development.

Ashoka has 3000 fellows placed all around the world trying to make a change in economic development, human rights, civic participation, health, education and environment. Success stories are being used to spread the concept of social entrepreneur and to legitimize their field. The changes social entrepreneurs make are being noticed. Examples of institutions Ashoka supports are the Schwab Foundation and the Skoll foundation, which made an impact on a global level.

Nowadays, the research in this field ranges from business models to performance management, and is presently being expanded. The increasing number of published papers and books about social entrepreneur are being observed and this reflects on the importance of the topic.

Besides Dayton’s indirect involvement, Bill Drayton is currently still CEO of Ashoka, and is involved in direct social entrepreneur activities. Recently, around 2017, Singapore’s Ashoka branch partnered with the Lien Centre for Social Innovation, who introduced Drayton to the Singapore Management University. The Singapore Management University has Asia’s first selected Changemaker Campus. Bill Drayton visited the University as a host to talk about patterns of change and the power of youth engagement and leadership. Herewith, he wants to teach more people to have the ability to develop empathetic capabilities and relevant social skills, so that they can craft resolution and bring about social change. He wants to show all people, from all over the world, that “everyone is a changemaker”.

Ashoka Organization
Ashoka: Innovators for the Public was launched in 1980, and was founded and is still led by Bill Drayton. The main goal of this organization was to promote social entrepreneurship globally. They did this by setting standards and spread successes. As Kayser & Buninich said, “it must be global or it will nog last”. Ashoka looks for social entrepreneurs, Ashoka Fellows, who are obsessed with the idea of making a change, and invest in them when no one ells would. Nowadays, Ashoka had 3000 fellows employed in 86 countries, 250 members of staff, and 30 offices worldwide. In the last 10 years, Ashoka has been evolving the concept that everyone can be a change maker. Ashoka connected 20 colleges and universities around the world, to help them develop skills and a connection to purpose so that they can make contributions to society.

Origin name Ashoka
During Dayton’s time at Harvard, his interest in the ancient Indian Emperor Ashoka deepened. Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya, ruled the Indian Mauryan Empire from 268 to 233 B.C. . Ashoka ruled the empire through an efficient but brutal way. After realizing what harm he had done, he converted himself to Buddhism. He renounced war and started supporting apostle activity and addressed the importance of non-violence. He became both a statesman and a person with the strong believe in making societal change. Today, the ancient leader Ashoka of the Maurya, an Indian leader who strived for social welfare, tolerance and economic development, is acknowledged as one of the greatest Indian rulers of all time. Besides the ancient Indian Emperor Ashoka, the name Ashoka is also based on Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language, where the word Ashoka means “active absence of sorrow”.

Awards and honors

 * MacArthur Fellowship (1984)
 * Yale School of Management Annual Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence (1987)
 * Public Service Achievement Award from Common Cause (1999)
 * Conservation Achievements Award International from the National Wildlife Federation (2004)
 * Named one of "America's 25 Best Leaders" by U.S. News & World Report (2005)
 * Yale Law School Award of Merit (2005)
 * National Public Service Award from the National Academy of Public Administration and American Society for Public Administration
 * Vanguard Award for Contributions and Achievements in Nonprofit Law from the American Bar Association