David Witzel
David Witzel is a member of the EdgeLab, a pre-competitive affiliation of global changemakers helping organizations leverage the potential of open systems and ecosystems design to bring about large-scale social change. He is also chief of conspiration at the Green Innovators in Business Network, a project he helped launch while he was at Environmental Defense Fund.
During his three years at EDF he demonstrated new partnership approaches to catalyze rapid and widespread adoption of environmental innovation in business. Focusing on network building and peer-production and using a variety of social networking tools including blogs, Twitter, podcasts, unconferences, and crowdsourcing he engaged "doers" to accelerate information sharing, learning, and innovation. Partnerships included working with GE on Energy Treasure Hunts, Innocentive on the Eco-Challenge Series and many organizations on face-to-face "Solutions Labs" around the country.
Before joining EDF, David helped found and spent 14 years at Forum One Communications, a 70-person Internet development company in Alexandria, VA. At Forum One he worked with leading social organizations including the World Bank, Center for Global Development, and PBS.
He is author of “Designing Open Projects: Lessons From Internet Pioneers” released by IBM Center for the Business of Government and co-wrote “Citizen Voice in a Globalized World” for the Global Citizen Foundation.
David has an MPP from the Kennedy School at Harvard and a BS from Texas A&M University. He lives in Falls Church, VA with his wife Claudia Williams and their two boys, Adam and Zachary.
