Break through your most challenging conversations.

Jason grew up in Boulder, Colorado, where he lived in awe of snowy mountains and watched his parents build a business that improved people's lives. He moved to Boston and fell in love with his wife, Alaka, and life in a coastal city. Alaka's family in India made him their own and helped him see the world as fundamentally interconnected. He grew to understand how all these places he loves are fragile and committed himself to seeing them flourish for his children, Vikram and Uma, to enjoy with their children.

Today, Jason is a senior lecturer and the director of the Sustainability Initiative at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He teaches courses on strategy and innovation for sustainable business to hundreds of leaders every year. Through his writing, teaching, and community building, he empowers business leaders to help their organizations thrive while tackling the tough social and environmental challenges of our time. Before he began teaching, he ran an Internet start-up, traveled around the world, taught kindergarten, received a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's in education from Harvard University, worked as a consultant with Dialogos International, and earned a doctorate in organization studies from MIT.

Gabriel is the founder of Human Partners, where he helps senior level executives craft cultures of purpose, trust, and engagement. He is also a cofounder of Byron Fellowship Educational Foundation. His consulting, research, and coaching focuses on how people and organizations flourish within the pursuit of societal and planetary flourishing. Gabriel holds a PhD in Leadership and Sustainability from Yale University, an MS in Ecological Systems Engineering and a BS in Physics from Purdue University.

His professional clients represent a diversity of sectors including social entrepreneurship, transportation, energy, information and communication technology, healthcare, commercial and residential development, municipalities, and cultural institutions. In his volunteer time, he has mentored over one hundred social entrepreneurs from around the globe. Gabriel's pedagogy for activating and supporting purpose-driven leaders developed at Yale is also used in universities like MIT, Cornell, and Cambridge. He lives in Seattle with his wife, Sarah, and daughters, Ariana and Madeleine.

Laura Yates serves as Project Manager for the Breaking Through Gridlock initiative, focusing on implementing the BTG methodology in higher education classrooms and community groups. Laura delivers Breaking Through Gridlock workshops, develops curriculum resources to support educators in incorporating the BTG methodology in their classes, and interfaces with faculty partners.

Laura graduated from Indiana University's School of Public and Environmental Affairs with a Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and a Master of Public Affairs, concentrating in Sustainable Development and Policy Analysis. She holds a BS in Economics and a secondary major in Earth, Environment and Global Sustainability from Bentley University.