What’s the deal with Washington’s new Social Purpose Corporation? How is it different from B Corp certification? Social entrepreneurs: what are your options? Social entrepreneurs and their mission-driven businesses in Washington now have more legal tools to help achieve their goals – join Seattle’s growing social entrepreneur community to discuss what these new developments can (and can’t) do for you.

Join BGI and the Washington Clean Technology Alliance as we welcome Ben Golden, Jon Kroman, and Stephanie Ryan to discuss “Social Purpose Corporations” in Washington State.

Coffee and pastries will be served. See you bright and early:

Presenters

Ben Golden is an associate at Perkins Coie, where he advises private, public, and nonprofit clients in matters related to formation, financing, governance, and mergers and acquisitions. Ben also assists businesses with integrating social impact goals into their corporate structure. Ben’s interest in social entrepreneurship was sparked by his research in Ghana on behalf of a start-up social enterprise. He has also served as the University of Washington’s Student Regent, managed a state legislative campaign, split an apple strudel with Kofi Annan while working at a think tank in Austria, and lectured about Pink Floyd lyrics while teaching English in Taiwan. Ben currently serves on the boards of Graduate Washington PAC and Hillel UW.

Jon Kroman has a law and consulting practice on Bainbridge Island, focused primarily on businesses and nonprofit organizations engaged in clean technology or other aspects of sustainability.  He was formerly a senior partner with the Seattle law firm of Garvey Schubert Barer in Seattle. Jon has nearly 30 years of professional experience, including assistance with organizational design, financing, business development and strategic relationships to support new and growing businesses. He has provided guidance at the board and senior management level and led the planning and execution of transactional projects, among them mergers and acquisitions, private equity placements, tax-exempt and other debt financings, and the launching of new for-profit and nonprofit ventures. Jon is a 1982 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School.

Stephanie Ryan has worked for B Lab since 2007, as a Senior Associate in Community Development.  B Lab is a non-profit that is harnessing the power of business for social and environmental benefit. Her background includes over twenty years of organizational consulting working with Fortune 500 firms, foundations, government and educational institutions. Stephanie worked for Innovation Associates (IA), co-founder Peter Senge and author of The Fifth Discipline. She’s a seasoned presenter, facilitator and consultant. She’s served on the Boards of The Institute for Environmental Health and the Whidbey Institute. She is the co-executive producer of a documentary entitled BeComing: A Different Kind of Conversation.”