Live Talks Los Angeles invites you to:
a morning Business Forum with:

Marc Freedman, CEO and Founder, Civic Ventures
in conversation with John Kobara, COO, California Community Foundation

The Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife

Thursday, December 15, 2011
7:45am  Continental Breakfast
8:15-9:15am  Forum

The City Club on Bunker Hill
333 S. Grand Avenue, 54th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90071

Tickets: $20, $40 includes Marc Freedman's book

Marc Freedman is CEO and founder of Civic Ventures, a think tank on boomers, work and social purpose. He spearheaded the creation of Experience Corps, now one of America’s largest nonprofit national service programs engaging people over 55, and The Purpose Prize, which annually provides five $100,000 prizes to social innovators in the second half of life.

Freedman was described by The New York Times as “the voice of aging baby boomers who are eschewing retirement for … meaningful and sustaining work later in life,” while The Wall Street Journal stated, “In the past decade, Mr. Freedman has emerged as a leading voice in discussions nationwide about the changing face of retirement.”

He is the author of The Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife, which The New York Times called “an imaginative work with the potential to affect our individual lives and our collective future.“  His earlier books include Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life; Prime Time: How Baby Boomers Will Revolutionize Retirement and Transform America ; and The Kindness of Strangers: Adult Mentors, Urban Youth, and the New Voluntarism 

Recognized by Fast Company magazine in 2007, 2008 and 2009 as one of the nation’s leading social entrepreneurs, Freedman is widely published and quoted in the national media and has been honored with numerous awards and fellowships, including an Ashoka Senior Fellowship, the Maxwell A. Pollack Award of the Gerontological Society of America and membership in the Innovators Network of The Japan Society. The NonProfit Times named him one of the 50 most powerful and influential individuals in the nonprofit sector in 2010. Civic Ventures and Freedman received the 2010 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford University in April 2010.

A high honors graduate of Swarthmore College, Freedman has an M.B.A. from Yale University and was a Visiting Research Fellow of Kings College, University of London.

John Kobara is Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer for the California Community Foundation (CCF). He is responsible for all of the development, marketing, administrative, grantmaking, civic engagement, program, and donor relations functions for the 48th largest foundation in the nation. The California Community Foundation is L.A.’s foundation established in 1915. Today, CCF has more than $1 billion in assets. CCF is known one of L.A.’s most innovative investors in permanent and affordable housing; the biggest supporter of individual artists in the region; and the largest scholarship fund manager in L.A. CCF manages more than 1900 foundations and funds to assist high net worth families, individuals, corporations and non-profits pursue their philanthropic visions. Since 2004, CCF has made more than $1 billion in grants as investments in the future of local communities.

For more than thirty five years, John has been leading and managing diverse and complex non-profit and for-profit organizations. John has been engaged in successful three start-ups traversing a broad spectrum of industries during his career. He regards himself as a social entrepreneur who specializes in cause marketing and social advocacy. Prior to his appointment at CCF, John was CEO of the CK12 Foundation, a nonprofit technology startup that provides no-cost textbooks to K-12 market.  He also served as President/CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles , Senior VP of Online Higher Education for Sylvan Learning Systems Inc, President/CEO of OnlineLearning.net, Vice Chancellor of External Affairs at UCLA, Executive Director of the UCLA Alumni Association, and Vice President and General Manager of Falcon Cable TV.

He received the 2007 City of Angels award from Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for his service on behalf of children and families. He was a Coro Fellow in LA and earned degrees from UCLA, USC, and Occidental College.  He blogs on career and life development, pursuit of passion, philanthropy, mentoring and networking. He posts his ideas, thoughts and recommendations about Adopting the Mentoring and Networking Lifestyle.  Here’s a link to his blog.