Contributor

Adam Braun

Founder, Pencils of Promise

Adam Braun is the Founder & CEO of Pencils of Promise.


Pencils of Promise is a leading nonprofit organization that has broken ground on more than 150 schools across Africa, Asia and Latin America and delivered nearly 10 million educational hours in its first five years. PoP was founded with just $25 using what Braun coined as a "For-Purpose" approach to blending nonprofit idealism with for-profit business principles.

Braun began on the path towards a career in finance, but met a young boy begging on the streets and asked him what he wanted most in the world. The answer- "A pencil." Braun then backpacked through 50+ countries to deeply understand the state of global education and develop a best-practice model to help local communities organize and educate their children.

Braun now speaks often on global education, finding one's passion and purpose, youth empowerment, international development and the intersection of the nonprofit and for-profit spaces. He graduated magna cum laude from Brown University, previously worked at leading consulting firm Bain & Company, was selected as one of the first ten World Economic Forum Global Shapers and has been featured at the United Nations, Clinton Global Initiative, Google Zeitgeist and Wired Magazine’s 2012 Smart List of 50 People Changing the World.