Biographical profile |
Marc Freedman, President, CEO and Founder of Encore.org, is one of the nation’s leading experts on the longevity revolution.
He is a member of the Wall Street Journal’s “Experts” panel, a frequent commentator in the media, and the author of five books. His newest book, How to Live Forever: The Enduring Power of Connecting the Generations (PublicAffairs/Hachette Book Group, 2018), was featured in the New York Times and named by the Wall Street Journal as one of the year’s best books on aging.
Freedman introduced himself to John Gardner in a hallway at a conference in Washington, DC, in 1992. Gardner pulled a 1988 memo out of his briefcase to share with Freedman, which encapsulated the concept of what was to become Experience Corps in 1996. Freedman and Gardner remained friends for the rest of Gardner’s life, seeing one another frequently and partnering in the launch of Encore.org.
As the originator of the encore career idea linking second acts to the greater good, Freedman co-founded Experience Corps with Dr. Linda Fried to mobilize people over fifty to improve the school performance and prospects of low-income elementary school students in twenty-two US cities. He also spearheaded the creation of the Encore Fellowships program, a one-year fellowship helping individuals translate their midlife skills into second acts focused on social impact, and the Purpose Prize, an annual $100,000 prize for social entrepreneurs in the second half of life. The American Association for Retired Persons now runs both Experience Corps and the Purpose Prize.
Freedman was named Social Entrepreneur of the Year by the World Economic Forum, was recognized as one of the nation’s leading social entrepreneurs by Fast Company magazine three years in a row, and has been honored with the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship and the Eisner Prize for Intergenerational Excellence. He has been a visiting scholar at Stanford University, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and King’s College, University of London.
Freedman is, or has been, on the boards and advisory councils of numerous groups, including The George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, the Stanford University Distinguished Careers Institute, the Milken Institute’s Center for the Future of Aging, and the EnCorps STEM Teachers Program.
Freedman has been a speaker at the Aspen Ideas Festival, United Nations, World Health Organization, World Economic Forum, the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, and many colleges and universities.
A high honors graduate of Swarthmore College, Freedman holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management. He resides in the San Francisco Bay area with his wife, Leslie Gray, and their three children.
To read more on Freedman’s friendship with John Gardner, please see his April 4, 2014, article “Why John Gardner Is My Retirement Model,” published in the Wall Street Journal.
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