Jeremy Heimans

Background

Heimans went to Sydney Boys High School, where he received a TER of 99.95. He studied at the University of Sydney, and the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government where he earned a Master of Public Policy.

Heimans has been politically active since the age of 8 when, as a child activist in his native Australia, he ran media campaigns and lobbied leaders on issues like children's rights and nuclear non-proliferation. In 2004, Heimans dropped out of Oxford to co-found a campaign group in the U.S. presidential elections that used crowd-funding to help a group of women whose loved ones were in Iraq hire a private jet to follow Vice-President Dick Cheney on his campaign stops, in what became known as the "Chasing Cheney" tour.

Career

Heimans began his career with the strategy consultants McKinsey & Company.

In 2005, Heimans co-founded GetUp, an Australian political organization and one of Australia's largest campaigning communities. In 2007, Heimans was a co-founder of Avaaz.org, a global civic organization that operates in 15 languages and claims over forty million members in 194 countries. The Guardian considers it "the globe's largest and most powerful online activist network". In 2008 he was a research associate at the University of Oxford Global Economics Governance Programme, researching multi-actor global funds.

In 2009, Heimans co-founded Purpose, a social business that seeks to be a "home for building 21st century movements and ventures that use the power of participation to change the world". Since its launch, Purpose has launched several major new organizations including All Out, a 2 million-strong LGBT rights group, and advised institutions like the ACLU and Google.

He lives in New York.

Awards and honors

In 2011, Heimans received the Ford Foundation's 75th Anniversary Visionary Award for his work building "powerful, tech-savvy movements that can transform culture and influence policy." In 2012, Fast Company ranked him 11th on their annual list of the 100 Most Creative People in Business. His work has been profiled in publications like Harvard Business Review, The Economist and The New York Times.

Heimans has been a keynote speaker at venues such as the World Economic Forum at Davos, TED, the United Nations, The Guardian Activate, and the Business Innovation Factory.