Stefan Kappeler
Stefan Kappeler is the Chief Operating Officer of elea Foundation for Ethics in Globalization, which fights poverty through entrepreneurship, investing both capital and know-how in 32 ventures across Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, India, and Southeast Asia. He met Michael Chertok in around 2011 through a colleague in Zurich. A few years later, elea invested in DDD and Stefan joined the board. What makes DDD work, he believes, is 25 years of experience testing what works and what doesn't, a committed and involved founding team, and a willingness from the outset to ask for support and help, not just financially but from their network.
DDD's board, he says, is quite diverse, with members from Asia, Europe, Africa, and North America, representing investor, business, and philanthropy landscapes. "You have knowledgeable people around the table who are willing to contribute time and energy, to open their network, and maybe provide funding,” he says. The biggest challenge has been adapting to rapid changes in the technology landscape—from digitizing content to autonomous driving and machine learning—while maintaining the dual mission of business success and social impact. The question is always finding the sweet spot where market potential is large enough, the network can access customers, and associates can be trained to deliver quality work. His hope for the next 25 years is that customers who already appreciate DDD's work become even more aware of how impact sourcing changes lives, so that price, quality, and impact can come together in contract decisions rather than price alone determining who wins the work.
