Mobilize.org

Mike Del Ponte

Head of Marketing
BranchOut

Mike is the founder and CEO of Sparkseed, a global nonprofit that accelerates and invests in the most promising student social entrepreneurs. Mike’s leadership earned Sparkseed a Financial Times Social Innovation Award and recognition in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Fast Company, CNN, and other leading media sources. In 2010 Sparkseed hosted Dangerously Ambitious, a unique summit for social innovators that garnered much attention for generating new insight and partnerships through activities ranging from skydiving to high-tech adventure games to strategy session at Stanford.

Mike continues to advise social innovators and serves on the board of the Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship. He is a Frank H. Buck Scholar, a Dean’s Scholar, and a recipient of the Albert Nielson Award for Environmental Values and Ethics. Mike is a member of the Sandbox Network, an exclusive community of young innovators, as well as the Next Generation Leaders, which was created at the White House. Mike has a Bachelor’s degree in Theology from Boston College and a Master’s degree in Social Ethics from Yale University.

Before founding Sparkseed, Mike served as a Christian Peacemaker in the West Bank, an orphanage volunteer in Jamaica, a microfinance consultant in Nepal, and a part of the team that created a child health care program in Kutch, India.

Mike is currently head of marketing at BranchOut, the leading professional networking service on Facebook. Since joining BranchOut, user growth has grown 2,400%. BranchOut was named one of the “top 20 companies in the world to disrupt the market” by Digital Life Design and one of the “top start-ups in San Francisco” by San Francisco Magazine. It was founded by social networking pioneer Rick Marini (who sold Tickle for $100M+) and its recent $6M round of funding was led by Accel Partners (Facebook, Google) and Floodgate Capital (Twitter).

Mike is a prolific speaker. He has presented at Harvard Business School, the Social Enterprise Summit, Social Capital Markets, Yale Law School, and a host of other events. His areas of interest are social innovation, networking, and spirituality.