In our quest to develop the next generation of social impact leaders, CASE’s work doesn’t stop in the classroom. We connect students with practitioners to tackle the real world challenges of social entrepreneurship and translate research in to practice, ensuring that our work helps innovators improve and scale their impact.
To contribute to this important work, we are thrilled to announce the appointment of our first CASE Executive-in-Residence: Sproxil® Co-Founder, CFO and Strategist Alden Zecha.
Zecha comes to CASE with more than 25 years of executive expertise in operations, strategy and finance, and vast experience from work in more than 35 countries, most recently leading Sproxil’s work delivering brand protection and mobile marketing services through their innovative SMS texting service. The service allows consumers to verify if pharmaceuticals and other products they are purchasing are genuine, an important tool in the fight against counterfeit medications that plague patients, regulatory bodies, and the global health care industry. Fake anti-malarial and Tuberculosis drugs alone account for over 700,000 reported deaths annually. Zecha has led Sproxil’s growth, now reaching more than 10 industries, a global footprint, and more than 20 million product verifications to date.
Starting in November 2015, Zecha will serve for one year as the CASE Executive-in-Residence and will be involved in a range of activities, from mentoring student teams in the Fuqua Client Consulting Practicum (FCCP) to providing guidance on CASE initiatives such as Smart Impact Capital and the Social Entrepreneurship Accelerator at Duke (SEAD). In addition, Zecha will be contributing to CASE’s thought leadership work through our CASE Chats, a public talk, and blog posts on our site. View Zecha’s most recent CASE chat, covering topics from scaling, impact investing, and trends in social entrepreneurship, here.
“Our goal with the Executive-in-Residence program is to provide the Fuqua community with the opportunity to benefit from Alden Zecha’s depth of experience working with social ventures both domestically and internationally,” said CASE Executive Director Erin Worsham, “We are excited that Fuqua students and our team will have access to his real-world experience and insights. This is a fantastic resource for our community.”
Said Zecha of his appointment, “Since Sproxil became a member of the SEAD program in 2012, I have been impressed with the work I’ve done with CASE and their expertise in the field. Fuqua students have been equally as impressive as demonstrated by their incredible work with Sproxil through the CASE i3 consulting practicum. I’m looking forward to working with CASE and Fuqua more in depth over the coming year.”
Please join us in welcoming Alden Zecha to the CASE team!