CEO of world's largest association of social entrepreneurs to speak at Tulane University

Bill Drayton, founder and chief executive officer of Ashoka, the world"s largest association of social entrepreneurs, will be speaking at Tulane University at 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 2, in the Kendall Cram Auditorium of the Lavin-Bernick Center for University Life.

Drayton"s lecture, which is free and open to the public, is part of Tulane"s New Day Social Entrepreneurship Distinguished Speakers Series, a yearlong effort to bring in leaders from across the field of social entrepreneurship to share their experiences, challenges, insights, thoughts and recommendations to students and the community.

Founded in 1980, Ashoka is a nonprofit organization dedicated to finding and fostering social entrepreneurs worldwide. Drayton, who is also chair of Youth Venture, Community Greens and Get America Working!, was named by US News and World Report as one of America"s 25 Best Leaders in 2005. The American Society of Public Administration and the National Academy of Public Administration jointly awarded him their National Public Service Award, and Common Cause gave him its Public Service Achievement Award. He has also been named a Preiskel-Silverman Fellow for Yale Law School and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The New Day Social Entrepreneurship Distinguished Speakers Series is part of Tulane University"s Social Entrepreneurship Initiatives, which include the New Day Challenge, a social venture competition for Tulane students, and the AshokaU Changemaker Campus Initiative, a student-led partnership with Ashoka to organize events that support social innovation and entrepreneurship on campus.

For more information, visit http://tulane.edu/socialentrepreneurship/index.cfm