Planet-Centered Design: Public-Planet Partnerships

Leena is a Dalai Lama Fellow, a Fulbright scholarship recipient, a Wall Street Journal “Woman of Note,” and was awarded a Global Impact Innovator by Expo Live | Expo 2020 Dubai. She is Executive Chairperson of 3BL Associates (3BL), a people+planet strategy consultancy working on interconnected sustainable development issues.

Leena has advised Nobel Peace Prize nominees, multinational corporations, international governments, and multilaterals on inclusive and financially sustainable models to advance social and environmental progress. Through 3BL’s think-do-tank, Leena has cofounded award-winning ventures like Public-Planet Partnerships, Diversity On Board, and Nonviolent Resilience.

Leena is also the author of Compassionate Counterterrorism: The Power of Inclusion in Fighting Fundamentalism, and was an impact advisor to the London-based investment firm Future Planet Capital. She has served on numerous boards and as a judge and mentor for entrepreneurship competitions like MIT’s Innovate for Refugees.

Leena holds a BS in Culture and Interpersonal Communications from New York University, an MA in Globalization Studies from Dartmouth College, and is an alumna of Harvard Business School’s Executive Education Program, the THNK School for Creative Leadership in Amsterdam, and Singularity University.

Tariq Al-Olaimy is co-founder and managing director of 3BL Associates, a people + planet strategy consultancy and Think-do-Tank, that was established to accelerate global sustainable and regenerative development through collaboration.

Through 3BL Associates, Tariq has co-founded various impact initiatives, including Diversity on Board, a platform that brings greater parity of gender, youth and other unrepresented groups to advisory board positions in the MENA region; Recipes for Wellbeing, an organization that works to shift the culture of changemakers to include a focus on holistic well-being; DiabetesBh, an online education platform for Diabetes; and Public-Planet Partnerships, a planet-centered design framework that facilitates mutually beneficial collaborations between humans and the rest of nature.

As an educator at heart, Tariq has conducted training across six continents, is a certified Ubuntu Peer Peace Coach through the Desmond Tutu Foundation, and has served a 5-year term as co-chair of UNESCO’s Global Action Program on Education for Sustainable Development Partner Network.

Tariq is recognized as a ‘Climate Trailblazer’ by the Global Climate Action Summit, is an Expo 2020 Global Innovator, and has been acknowledged as part of the “Meaningful Business 100”, a global community of leaders recognized for their work in successfully combining business and purpose to help achieve the UN SDGs. Tariq is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), and is the first person from the MENA region to be recognized by GreenBiz and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, as one of their “30 under 30” leaders for breaking new ground in sustainability innovation.

Tariq holds a BSc. in Investment and Financial Risk Management from Cass Business School London, has graduated from the Singularity University Executive Program, and is among the first 100 people in the world to complete a specialization in the field of Biomimicry. Tariq has also completed a self-directed Alternative Masters in Divinity (Alt*Div) that was centered at the intersection of justice, spiritual ecology, and community building.

Former engineer and neuroscientist, my work led me to reflect on the impact of science and innovation on society. I decided to use innovation&science to answer societal challenges and created SoScience, a start-up specialized in Responsible Innovation and Research. Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is a R&D approach including the social and environmental impacts all along the innovation process and making these impacts its first goal.