Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer is committed to making Louisville the most compassionate and caring city in the world, Mayor Greg Fischer is in his third year as mayor. He has pursued three broad goals for his hometown: making Louisville a city of lifelong learning, a much healthier city and an even more compassionate community. In pursuit of that third goal, he has:

•Created the annual Give a Day Week of Service each spring in which more than 100,000 volunteers or acts of compassion were created. Give a Day kicks off the annual two-week Kentucky Derby Festival and was the key reason Louisville was named Most Livable City by the U.S. Conference of Mayor in 2012;

•Created the Compassionate Louisville initiative, which led to the city being named International Model City for Compassion;

•Led Louisville to become the largest city to sign onto the International Charter of Compassion.

Greg is an entrepreneur, businessman and philanthropist and has been closely involved in the growth of Louisville’s unique Festival of Faiths event since its founding. He asked the festival to organize a special mini festival in May 2013 leading up to the Louisville visit of the Dalai Lama.

James R. Doty, M.D. is the founder and director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University of which His Holiness the Dalai Lama is the founding benefactor. He collaborates with scientists from a number of disciplines examining the neural, social and moral bases for compassion and altruism. He is also a professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Stanford University School of Medicine, as well as an inventor, entrepreneur and philanthropist.

As a philanthropist, Dr. Doty supports a number of charitable organizations supporting peace initiatives and providing healthcare throughout the world. He also supports a variety of research initiatives and has provided scholarships and endowed chairs at multiple universities including Stanford University and Tulane University School of Medicine, his Alma Mater. He serves on the Board of Governors of Tulane University School of Medicine. He also serves on the boards of a number of non-profit organizations and is Vice-chair of the Charter for Compassion International and is a member of the Senior Advisory Board of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions. He is a fellow of the Mind and Life Institute. 

Dr. Doty is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discovery the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart, now available in over twenty languages. He is also the editor of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Compassion Science. His work has been cited in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and a variety of publications and media throughout the world.

As a serial entrepreneur and social impact angel investor, I am passionate about exploring the power of business to drive positive change in our world. My current focus is on building, scaling, and funding organizations that pursue the dual goals of achieving profitability while conducting business in a conscientious, holistic, and meaningful way. My background to date includes starting Pioneer Organics, an organic produce and natural grocery home delivery business, which at the time of its sale in 2008 was the largest of its kind in the nation. Most recently, I'm concentrating on the re-launch of Ideal Network, an e-commerce site with a unique angle on connecting product-driven brands and non-profit causes. Apart from my professional pursuits, you'll find me proudly engaged with my greatest masterpiece, my family, which consists of my wife Catherine, my daughter Emerson, and my new baby boy Lennox. Additionally, I'm a diehard hockey player and fan who is not embarrassed to say my favorite team is the chronically-underperforming New York Islanders.