A “Think & Do” Tank Ahead of Its Time

By Giving List Staff   |   October 29, 2021

In 2007, a group of authors published “Freedom from Mid-East Oil,” a lengthy treatise on energy, national security, and global climate change. The book was strikingly prescient, warning about an impending environmental crisis that would be titanic in scope. Its final chapter predicted that green hydrogen would one day become mainstream form of renewable energy.

The book’s co-authors – Jerry B. Brown and James. A. Cusumano – are Fellows with the World Business Academy, a Santa Barbara nonprofit and think tank that has spent the last three decades proposing solutions to the world’s most complex and pressing social and environmental challenges.

“We have been consistently way ahead of the pack as a think tank,” says the book’s principal author Rinaldo S. Brutoco, who is also the World Business Academy’s founder and CEO. “Fifteen years later, that book is stunningly accurate.”

One of the reasons the World Business Academy is so good at anticipating tectonic shifts in business and social trends is the caliber of its leadership. It starts with Brutoco himself, an accomplished entrepreneur, business executive, author, radio host, and futurist who has carved a reputation as a leading expert on a multitude of issues, including energy policy, renewable energy, and finance.

Brutoco joined forces with other leading global thinkers – the author and alternative medicine advocate Deepak Chopra and billionaire hedge fund manager and conservationist Paul Tudor Jones II – to establish JUST Capital, an organization that advises business executives to make sustainability a priority in their decision making.

JUST Capital is just one of many Brutoco ideas that reinforces his philosophy of tackling big problems: “I launched the think tank with the central belief that unless you get the business community on board, nothing positive is going to happen,” he says. “Most people understand that we live in a world where business is the most powerful institution on the planet.”

Through a wide array of cutting-edge publications, videos, podcasts and events, the World Business Academy strives to shift the consciousness amongst global business leaders, young people, and the public. The end goal is a more just world that puts values above profits.

 

World Business Academy

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Executive Director: Kristy Jansen

Mission

A nonprofit think tank and action incubator that explores the role of business in relation to critical moral, environmental, and social issues of our time.

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As a CEO of a growing nonprofit, a key challenge for most leaders is to find mentors and strategic thought partners to provide guidance during pivotal moments in an organization. I have been very fortunate to work with Rinaldo Brutoco and his team for more than 10 years. His guidance and insight has enabled me to grow as a leader and exponentially grow the organization – impacting over 500,000 men, women, and children with education and life-saving services. Rinaldo is my hero, and his support has been invaluable to me and to the results we’ve been able to create over the last decade.
Cynthia Kersey
Founder & CEO Unstoppable Foundation

Incubating Innovation, Catalyzing Consciousness

The Academy could not continue its work without the ongoing contribution of wisdom, experience, and philanthropic/institutional resources by our longtime donors, colleagues, and Academy Fellows.
Help us continue our mission of incubating initiatives and creating collaborative relationships to build a more equitable, just and livable planet. We are seeking support and partnership in a wide range of unique and vital projects, ranging from a clean energy land stewardship demonstration in Northern California to local partnerships at UCSB & Isla Vista to build a net-zero economy by 2030. By creating comprehensive solutions addressing multiple needs, California, the United States and the world can be shown the path towards a better future.

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