Degrees : BA

Experience: Kristine Pearson is the founding CEO of the award-winning Lifeline Energy (formerly Freeplay Foundation), a position she has held since January 1999. An international humanitarian organization based in London and Johannesburg, it addresses energy poverty through access to clean technologies for women and girls. Extensive fieldwork with women, orphaned children, and refugees led Pearson to develop the self-powered Lifeline radio, the first radio ever created for the humanitarian sector and is benefiting more than ten million listeners across sub-Saharan Africa. Pearson recently launched the Lifeplayer, a revolutionary MP3-enabled power-independent radio capable of holding 64GB of content and delivering education anytime, anywhere. She is spearheading a lighting initiative "Women Lighting-up Africa" to create employment and reduce women's dependency on fossil fuels. Previously, Pearson was an executive with a South African banking group and a consultant specializing in the development of women in business. Pearson is a Schwab Fellow of the World Economic Forum and served on the Forum's Council for Disaster Mitigation. She is a lifetime fellow of the World Technology Network, and received the 2005 James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award. In 2007 TIME magazine named her a Hero of the Environment and she is a spouse member of the Young President's Organization. A graduate of the University of California, Pearson is married and lives in Cape Town, Johannesburg, and London. She has travelled to more than 90 countries, 25 in Africa.