JUDGESMike Kubzansky

Chief Executive Officer, Omidyar Network

Mike was appointed chief executive officer of Omidyar Network in March 2018 after successfully leading the firm’s Intellectual Capital practice, a function he established when he joined the firm in 2013.

Mike brings nearly 30 years of emerging-markets experience across both the private and public sectors. His deep expertise includes strategy, innovation, impact investing, and businesses focused on the low- and lower-middle income markets in developing economies. Mike is particularly interested in the broad effects of digital technology on our society, and he has led efforts to explore and understand the continuum of its impact, from the promises of increased access to services via mobile phones and digital identity to the threats of trampling on privacy and bypassing those who are not digitally connected.

In his role as head of Intellectual Capital, Mike served as a member of the investment committee, led strategy development, advised on research, published the firm’s learnings, and led incubation and development of new frontier areas for impact for Omidyar Network investment. Two recent explorations include the firm’s new work in digital identity and the future of work.

Before joining Omidyar Network, Mike was a partner at Monitor Group (now Monitor Deloitte), where he spent more than ten years covering a range of sectors including telecom, satellite, and internet services. In 2007, he co-founded and led the Monitor Inclusive Markets practice and published extensively on the team’s ground-breaking research findings. Mike also led many sector-based research and consulting efforts in financial services, healthcare, tech/BPO, energy, livelihoods, and impact investing for a range of corporate, investor, and donor clients. Mike also worked for the World Bank and IFC, and earlier in his career held a variety of roles for a start-up company in the telecoms sector.

He currently serves as the chair of the Better than Cash Alliance and as the vice-chair of EMPEA’s impact investing council. Mike also taught a class on emerging-market impact investing at Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

Mike earned his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a bachelor's degree Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University.

JUDGESMichael A. McCoy

Photographer

I like to think of myself as a storyteller through photography and my camera lens offers a concrete expression that will transcend time. My passion for photography came in my early years and has allowed me to identify and navigate the subtle nuances that make each person unique. Catching them at just the right moment produces exquisite works of art that will be cherished forever. My photographs have been described as engaging, affectionate, insightful and alluring.

My entire life has been dominated by my passion for photography. From the minute I picked up a camera, I was captivated. I love telling the story about the relationships between individuals; capturing those special moments of joy and contentment. Whether it’s a family portrait, a wedding, or a special event, I like to capture the “in-between” moments that are the most candid and authentic.

JUDGESLynsey Weatherspoon

Photographer

Lynsey Weatherspoon is a portrait and editorial photographer based in both Atlanta and Birmingham. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, NPR, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Time, ESPN and ESPN-owned The Undefeated. The fingerprint of heritage can be found on assignments and personal projects featuring Black Lives Matter, Gullah Geechee culture, unsung players in the Negro Baseball League, and the last of dying breed – a shoe cobbler. Her work has been exhibited at The African American Museum in Philadelphia and Photoville NYC. She is an awardee, The Lit List, 2018. Her affiliations include Diversify Photo, Authority Collective, and Women Photograph.

JUDGESAntonio Zappulla

Chief Executive Officer, Thomson Reuters Foundation

Antonio Zappulla is CEO of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the corporate foundation of the global news and information services company. Through news, media development, free legal assistance and convening initiatives, the Thomson Reuters Foundation combines its unique services to advance media freedom, raise awareness of human rights issues, and foster more inclusive economies.

Antonio is the founder of Openly, the world’s first platform dedicated to fair, accurate and impartial coverage of LGBT+ stories with global distribution through the Reuters wire. In 2018, he ranked first in the OUTstanding list of third sector LGBT+ executives published by the Financial Times. In 2017, he was named a European Young Leader by Friends of Europe and was awarded the Talented Young Italians Award by Italian Chamber of Commerce in 2016.

Antonio is a One Young World Ambassador and a World Economic Forum agenda contributor. He sits on the boards of Open for Business and the International News Safety Institute (INSI) and is a member of the Steering Committee of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford.

Prior to his present role, Antonio was Director of Communications and COO at the Thomson Reuters Foundation, and Executive Producer at Bloomberg Television in charge of news, factual programming and documentaries for Europe, Middle East and Africa, developing award-winning TV series.

PHOTOGRAPHERL. Kasimu Harris

L. Kasimu Harris is a New Orleans-based artist whose practice deposits a number of different strategic and conceptual devices in order to push narratives. He strives to tell stories of underrepresented communities in New Orleans and beyond. Harris has shown in numerous group exhibitions across the US and two international exhibitions and has had five solo photography exhibitions. In 2018, his War on the Benighted series was a part of Changing Course: Reflections on New Orleans Histories, a group exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Harris’s feature for Edible New Orleans was selected for the book Best Food Writing 2016 and earlier this year, his writing and photographs were featured in ” A Shot Before Last Call: Capturing New Orleans’s Vanishing Black Bars” that was published in The New York Times.

Harris’s essay, The Dismantling of Southern Photography was recently published in the Ogden Museum of Southern Art’s catalog, “New Southern Photography.” Harris has images in several publications including Dandy Lion: The Black Dandy and Street Style, by Shantrelle P. Lewis by Aperture. His photography has been featured in many publications including National Geographic, NPR, Esquire, and California Sunday Magazine.

Currently, Harris is among 60 artists selected nationwide for State of the Art 2020 at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and has a solo exhibition, Vanishing Black Bars & Lounges: Photographs by L. Kasimu Harris at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center in Pittsburgh. His work is also in group exhibitions at the Ford Foundation Gallery and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.

Harris earned a BBA in Entrepreneurship from Middle Tennessee State University and an MA in Journalism from the University of Mississippi. He is on the Board of Trustees at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.

Harris was a 2018 Artist-in-Residence at the Center for Photography at Woodstock and is a 2020 Joan Mitchell Center Artist-in-Residence.

JUDGESJohn Smith

Chief Executive Officer, The Company

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