Bill Drayton

Bill Drayton
Bill Drayton as Ashoka celebrates its 25th anniversary (2006)
Born	William Drayton 1943 New York City
Alma mater	Andover, Harvard University, Balliol College, Oxford University Yale Law School
Organization	Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
Title	Chair

William "Bill" Drayton (born in New York City, USA), is a social entrepreneur. Drayton was named by U.S. News & World Report as one of America's 25 Best Leaders in 2005. He is responsible for the rise of the phrase "social entrepreneur", a concept first found in print in 1972.

Drayton is the founder and current chair of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to finding and fostering social entrepreneurs worldwide. Drayton also chairs two other 501(c)(3) organizations, namely Youth Venture and Get America Working!

Drayton's philosophy of social entrepreneurs are individuals with innovative solutions to society's most pressing social problems. To quote Drayton, "Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry."

Drayton's mother emigrated to the United States from Australia. His father was an American who became an explorer. Public service and strong values run through the history of both parents' families, including several of the earliest anti-slavery abolitionist and women's leaders in the U.S. Drayton was born in 1943 in New York City.

Drayton attended high school at Phillips Academy, where he established the Asia Society, which soon became the school's most popular student organization. He attended Harvard where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1965, where he created the Ashoka Table, bringing in prominent government, union, and church leaders for off-the-record dinners at which students could ask "how things really worked". Drayton entered Balliol College, Oxford and received a Master of Arts degree in 1967. He attended to Yale Law School where he received his Juris Doctor in 1970. At Yale Law School, Drayton founded Yale Legislative Services, which, at its peak, involved a third of the law school's student body.