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News@Ivey · Communications

Bringing innovation to the classroom

Feb 4, 2019

Eric Beynon

On January 29, Eric Beynon spoke to HBA students enrolled in the Corporations & Society class.

Beynon shared his experience as the former Managing Director of the Carbon XPRIZE, a global competition challenging teams to invent a way to convert carbon dioxide emissions from power plants into valuable products. The competition began in September 2015, and will run until April 2020. There are currently 10 finalists vying for the $20-million prize.

He shared four lessons he learned along the way of putting together the Carbon XPRIZE.

  1. Don’t look for the needle in the haystack. Have the needle come to you. Shift your paradigm.
  2. A big vision is a powerful mobilizer.
  3. Reframe the question to encourage new thinking.
  4. Being bold isn’t easy.

Beynon is currently the Chief Impact Officer of 9 Billion Lives, an organization that identifies innovations to help make the world ready for a nine-billion population, and connects them with opportunities, investors, and funders.