The Board of Directors, Fellows and staff of Ashoka deeply mourn the loss of Greg Dees, founding faculty Director of the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship Education (CASE) at Duke University Fuqua School of Business.  

Professor Dees was internationally recognized for developing social entrepreneurship as an academic field.  In the true spirit of Ashoka, he was a groundbreaker, an innovator, a leader who made his mark through the establishment of social entrepreneurship as an academic discipline.  In 2007 the Aspen Institute and Ashoka recognized his pioneering work with their first Lifetime Achievement Award in Social Entrepreneurship Education. 

"We will greatly miss Greg and will always be grateful for his monumental efforts to bring academic rigor and legitimacy to social entrepreneurship teaching and research over the last two decades. We will remember him not just for the seeds of academic  excellence and innovation that he planted during his early days at Harvard, Stanford and Duke, but the generations of educators, researchers and students that are now following in his footsteps globally” said Bill Drayton, CEO and Founder of Ashoka.

“We value Greg and his legacy beyond measure -- for the catalyzing impact his pioneering work did to propel the field and the profession. But I am so struck that that in the face of his passing, my enduring memories of this intellectually courageous giant have gone to the humility, unfailing kindness and humor he brought to everything he did” said Diana Wells, President of Ashoka.

Through the establishment of "Social Entrepreneurship Education" he provided a model to replicated in universities around the world that will inspire students to create change and make a difference for generations. Ashoka is deeply indebted to him and we will truly miss his guidance, his wisdom, his humility, his friendship.

Our deepest sympathy is extended to his colleagues at CASE and to his family.  For the official obituary from Duke University, click here: http://today.duke.edu/2013/12/gregdees

About Ashoka
Ashoka is the world’s largest organization of social entrepreneurs and changemakers. Founded in 1980 with the belief that the most powerful force in the world is a big idea in the hands of an entrepreneur, Ashoka has funded nearly 3,000 social entrepreneurs in 70 countries, providing these extraordinary individuals with funding, collaborations, and pro bono assistance to launch and scale their ideas and to create a network of peers and partners. With the increasing pace of change, Ashoka works to advance an Everyone a Changemaker world, where every child masters empathy and every citizen knows how to effectively engage positive social change.

Ashoka: Innovators for the Public

Ashoka: Innovators for the Public

Ashoka is the global association of the world's leading social entrepreneurs - men and women with system changing solutions for the world's most urgent social problems. Since 1981, Ashoka has elected over 3000 leading social entrepreneurs as Ashoka Fellows, providing them with living stipends, professional support, and access to a global network of peers in more than 70 countries. Working with these social entrepreneurs, Ashoka builds communities of innovators who work collectively to transform society and design new ways for the citizen sector to become more productive, entrepreneurial and globally integrated. For more information, please visit www.ashoka.org.

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