Agenda: 2025 Business Solves Annual Conference

Chris Gardner is an entrepreneur, international best-selling author, and an award-winning film producer. Gardner’s autobiography, "The Pursuit of HappYness" became a New York Times #1 best seller and has been translated into over 40 languages, including six dialects of Chinese and recently into Arabic.

Gardner’s book, The Pursuit of HappYness was the inspiration for the critically acclaimed film in which Will Smith received the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award nominations for his performance. His second book, “Start Where You Are,” also a best seller, was published in 2009. Gardner’s new book “Permission to Dream” was selected as “Book Of The Month” by the Wall Street Journal upon its publication.

Chris recently partnered with Transfr, Inc., the leading provider of virtual reality (VR) career training and exploration, to launch "Permission to Dream 2.0: Pathways to Success," to bring together Gardner’s inspirational programming with Transfr’s immersive career exploration and skills training to create career pathways and generational wealth-creation opportunities for individuals, including those from underserved communities. He will work with institutions in the U.S. to help learners access Transfr’s programs to prepare for meaningful, well-paying careers that don’t require a four-year degree.

Americares is joining Business Solves to help attendees understand the many ways their company can partner with Americares to advance their CSR aims while helping support people’s health in times of disaster and every day.

Americares is a 40+ year-old organization with deep local relationships in the U.S. and around the world. Providing over $1 billion in aid annually, Americares' impact ratio is 1:10 due to the high number of donated products the organization deploys. Americares consistently earns a four-star rating from Charity Navigator.

This nonprofit's key focus area is to support people who fall through the cracks of other systems – for example, traditional emergency aid, formal healthcare systems.

In 2022, Deloitte made a commitment over 10 years to social impact investments to help increase social and economic prosperity in the communities where we live and work. Through the Social Entrepreneurship programs Deloitte has collaborated with both private-sector and nonprofit to unlock innovative solutions in health, education, sustainability, and workforce development. Join this discussion to take a deep dive on workforce collaborations underway in the U.S. Key learnings include understanding different models corporate foundations can consider to drive social entrepreneurship and impact outcomes.