Theodore Gonder's Page

School and Graduation Year

University of Chicago, 2012

Entrepreneur/Business Club

Various

About Me

I'm a 2nd year student and entrepreneur at the University of Chicago. In high school, I started a nonprofit called Project Cooldown that worked for climate change awareness in eight high schools in Southern California. I was contacted by Al Gore's COO of The Climate Project to assist directly with a major launch of green clubs in the San Diego area. We succeeded in launching 26 clubs in total.
In my senior year of high school, I co-founded a shared-profit tutor network called Distinguished Tutoring, raising money to backpack through Europe between high school and college.
In Europe, I ran with the bulls in Pamplona, trekked through the alps, and explored culture and nightlife with three great friends from high school.
In my first year of college, I swam competitively and became involved with Greek life.
In February of 2009, I co-founded the Financial Education Initiative with three other students at UChicago. Within three months, we had chapters at over 10 universities in the country, and in the summer of 2009, we established five chapters in China and three in Korea. Right now, I'm the Director of Partnerships for FEI, and we're focusing our efforts mostly in Chicago to establish a solid foundation before we go for expansion round two. Our goal is to make the need for financial literacy in high schools a thing of the past by supplying college-level mentors to local high schools. We target low-income communities. www.aifeducation.org
My main focus in the summer of 2009 was helping launch Viv, a San Francisco green startup that is revolutionizing green business. See doyouviv.com.
Right now, in addition to my work with FEI, I'm working on a few campus green initiatives, building a social action network of high school students across the country, and studying Geography at the University of Chicago.
I'm open to consider helping with ideas and teams that will change the world. I'm particularly interested in practical environmental solutions that run on market mechanisms.

My Business

Massive Action Solutions

My expertise, what I bring to the table

I have extensive experience in leading massive action initiatives, coordinating and managing teams, sales, business development and partnership negotiations, and social activism. I am not politically affiliated, and I believe NGO's and innovative businesses will be the drivers of real change and improvement int he 21st century.
As a Geography major, I also bring demographic and spatial analysis skills to the table. Because of this, I have an unusual ability to strike at the SOURCE of problems, rather than apply mere bandaids and quick-fixes, which got us into this mess in the first place! Let's DO something!

My Goals

I want to help form the world's largest social action network of leaders looking to solve 21st century problems in innovative ways.

I want to prove to the world that making tons of money and making a hugely positive impact on the world are not mutually exclusive.

I want to go down in history books as the guy who rallied leadership in the private sector to change the face of this planet and solve resource problems through innovative, sustainable, and profitable means.

My Defining Moment

HOBY Los Angeles 2006

Who I'm looking to meet

Anyone enthusiastic about socially responsible entrepreneurship, particularly relating to energy and the environment

Interests

Poker, Chess, Rock-climbing, Running, Fitness, Music (I play the cello), Social Media, Network Effects, Psychology, Human Nature, Classical Literature, Self-Improvement, and turning ideas into MASSIVE ACTION realities!

My Website

http://tedgonder.com

My Blog

http://gonderbrief.com

Facebook

http://facebook.com/tedgonder

LinkedIN

http://linked.com/tedgonder

Twitter

http://twitter.com/tedgonder