Our Team
Kristin Peterson, Therese von Blixen, and Winthrop Carty, all passionate about collaborative action, met in 2020 at the launch of Catalyst 2030, a global network for social entrepreneurs. Therese saw a need to connect social entrepreneurs worldwide to enhance joint problem-solving, inspiring Kristin and Winthrop to join her in designing a solution. Using co-design methodologies, they collaborated with experts and funders to create Catalyst Co-Labs, which launched later that year. In it’s core, it accelerate problem-solving thorugh giving social entrepreneurs across more open access to high level networks - joining forces to find solutions, faster.
Kristin Peterson
Kristin Peterson is a Nairobi-based advisor and an accomplished social entrepreneur, having co-founded two organizations focused on transforming lives and opportunities for people through better access to technology and the internet. Her early career focused on new product/market development for global communications services. She then used her skills, start-up mentality, and passion for social justice to adapt these technologies for the underserved. She is a Schwab Social Entrepreneur (WEF) and a founding member of Catalyst 2030.
Therese von Blixen
Therese von Blixen is a Swedish foundation leader with a background in tech and social entrepreneurship. Most recently she served as the Managing Director for H.M. Queen Silvia’s Foundation Care About the Children (CATCH). Prior to this, she worked s as a strategic consultant for value-driven companies and NGOs, amongst others as Country Director for the Non-Violence Project Scandinavia and with the IFRC in Geneva. In 2010 she founded Sime Social Impact, the philanthropic arm of Sime, Northern Europe’s biggest tech conference at the time. She is based in Stockholm, Sweden and is a founding member of Catalyst 2030.
Winthrop Carty
Winthrop Carty has over two decades of experience with leading fellowship, philanthropy, and social entrepreneur networks including as CEO of the Melton Foundation, first director of the Harvard Ash Center’s Global Innovators’ Network, founding member of MIT-D-Lab’s Practical Impact Alliance, co-founder of Innovations journal (MIT Press), and advisor to many institutions throughout the world. Currently, in addition to Catalyst Co-Labs, Winthrop hosts the "Collaboration Beyond the Buzzword" video series and co-leads Women Changemakers for Education. He is based in Cambridge, USA, and is a founding member of Catalyst 2030.
Sofía Hurtado del Orbe
Sofia Hurtado is deeply committed to sustainability and positive change. At Catalyst Co-Labs she is focusing on social media, communication strategies, and research to support social entrepreneurs in reaching their sustainable development goals. With a background in sustainable development, Sofia played a key role in initiating the transition to greener public transport in Buenos Aires. While at the OECD, she worked on addressing climate change challenges and redesigning systems for net-zero. She is currently working on empowering smallholders (agriculture & livestock) on their climate, biodiversity, and inclusive finance transition.
Our Story
Kristin Peterson, Therese von Blixen, and Winthrop Carty first met in February, 2020 at the founding of the Catalyst 2030 network at Althorp House in England.
Therese, a Swedish foundation leader with a background in tech and social entrepreneurship, expressed her concern that the vast majority of the world’s amazing problem-solvers did not have access to such global gatherings, and there and then had the idea to connect this untapped talent to the Catalyst 2030 network to solve problems and move forward faster, together.
Inspired by this challenge, Kristin, an engineer and serial social entrepreneur based in Nairobi and Winthrop, an expert in social innovation, co-design, and leadership training, joined forces with Therese.
The three of them began by applying co-design methodologies to the concept and inviting experts in design-thinking, as well as funders and fellow Catalyst members to create a Co-Lab design that would really work. Having gone through a full human-centered design process and several prototypes, the team launched Catalyst Co-Labs in the middle of 2020.
The rest is history!
