john wilkins

I'm an American ex-pat, living in Torino since 1990. I live just 300 meters from the Olympic Stadium.

I've always had tremendous admiration for world-class athletes: Paavo Nurmi, Jesse Owens, Emile Zatopek, and Wilma Rudolph. My dream as a kid was to compete in the Olympics - - my idol was Jim Thorpe.

From a very young age, one of my three core values has been fair play. Unfortunately, in many parts of the world, the playing field is not exactly level. In Italy's larger cities, a kid in the third grade has little chance of ever going to the Olympics, about 1 in 100,000. And the odds he'll find meaningful work when he grows up aren't much better.
These things bother me. I think something should be done about it.

For the next five years, I'm going to do what I can to make the playing field a little more level. Using my contacts and resources back in the U.S., I'm starting a company in the green energy space. We're going to give young people from the region's poorest neighborhoods the opportunity to work with leading-edge technology. The inspiration comes from Amy Smith's work at D-Lab.
I'm also working to engage a few Angel investors for social entrepreneurs in the Province. According to a leading economist, the situation here will get much worse unless businesses with a strong social bent are given the resources they need to flourish.