Theresa Williamson

The past two weeks have been extremely eventful for Global X.

First, as you may remember, he ran into Esther Dyson in a café, while he was drinking hot cocoa and she was eating chocolate (too spicy, she said).

Then Global X had lunch with a fellow blogger who had just returned from Afghanistan. Over vegetarian curry she offered him three land mines (yes, land mines), which he carefully pushed towards the 19-year old Berkeley student who had joined them for lunch.

Then Global X went to Berkeley where he ran into Mickipedia, the diva from Hollywood who lives the most interesting life. Highlight: while most people drive to Burning Man across the desert in the blistering heat, she flies there in a private plane.

And if that were enough, Global X ran into Theresa Williamson, the social entrepreneur from Brazil who was a finalist at the Tech Museum Awards. Global X wrote about her just a year ago as he knew she would do very well. He also met the Tech Museum's new director, Peter Friess.

Finally, Global X had dinner with Bill Gates, a fairly well known tech entrepreneur who is now trying to become a philanthropist. Nothing to report on this dinner, except that the chocolate was not too spicy. And that no land mines were given away.


Global X also keeps a wireless mobile photo blog.

Theresa Williamson, the social entrepreneur from Rio, was born in England from a British father and a Brazilian mother. She was raised in the U.S., and she describes herself as “a product of globalization.”

One thing she discovered as she was launching Catalytic Communities is how important it is to know oneself. This may be true in any profession, but it is even more so in social entrepreneurship. “Even though I have a Ph. D. in City & Regional Planning, I knew all along that I was an activist, not an academic.”

It is also crucial to be knowledgeable about fundraising. She started when she was 9 years old, raising money for UNICEF. Her father taught her what a matching grant was: “I discovered that if I could raise $2, my dad would actually send a check for $4. That had a huge impact on me.”

Being creative is also a requirement to succeed in social entrepreneurship. Right now, Theresa Williamson is raising money through PledgeBank, a very innovative way to involve the whole community in her efforts. Her pledge: "I will set up a $10 monthly donation to CatComm (or $120 annually) but only if 199 other people will too."

Our global social entrepreneur also knows about direct marketing and the impact of rewards. She is offering a trip for two to Rio. Just in case!

Global X also keeps a wireless mobile photo blog.

Theresa Williamson launched Catalytic Communities in 2000. She had noticed that many communities were very good at innovating at the local level, but they couldn’t share their innovations with other communities. Conversely, they couldn’t learn from other communities’ solutions. “I realized that there was a need for a urban municipal solution database, one that would track all the solutions to the same problem, be it an open sewage system or any other city planning issue.”

Theresa Williamson first searched for a mentor. She approached Jeremy Rifkin, a visionary thinker who is president of the Foundation on Economic Trends. “He told me that my idea was a winner. That helped me a lot.”

Her personal background was also extremely helpful. Both her parents are economists: her mother was with the World Bank, and her father (John Williamson), is with the Institute for International Economics.

One can imagine the dinner conversations in the Williamson household. Considering how quantitative her parents are, Theresa Williamson was a bit worried about her dissertation, which is quite unconventional. The fact that she received an award for best Ph. D. dissertation in International Planning by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning must have helped her come home at night!

In his next post, Global X will tell what this social entrepreneur from Rio, who describes herself as “a product of globalization,” learned as she was launching Catalytic Communities.

Global X also keeps a wireless mobile photo blog.

Not too long ago, Global X met Theresa Williamson, a social entrepreneur who strongly believes in fate. As she was at the University of Pennsylvania completing her Ph. D. dissertation in City Planning, she received a job offer to work in Rio.

This was her lifetime ambition. Born from a British father and a Brazilian mother, she knew, since she was 12, that she wanted to live in Brazil. She even wrote all her papers in high school about that country.

However, as she was packing to move there, she found out that the job description had been changed. She was not interested in the position anymore. But that didn’t stop her.

“That was fate! I decided, right there and then, to start a nonprofit!” she says. She jumped on the opportunity, realizing that she was free, like most 25-year olds are. “I had no children, no mortgage; I was not even in a relationship. If I were not going to jump then, was I ever going to do it? I prefer to regret what I did, rather than regretting what I didn’t do.”

She did it. Theresa Williamson, the social entrepreneur from Rio, launched Catalytic Communities in 2000.


Global X also keeps a wireless mobile photo blog.