Page 79 - Entrepreneur-November 2018

Mary T. Barra
CEO/ General Motors
Bold move/ Racing against
Tesla and Alphabet
eneral Motors may be one of
GAmerica’s oldest carmakers,
but these days it’s been acting like a
moonshot-taking startup. Under the
leadership of Mary T. Barra, the only
female at the helm of a top-10 For-

tune 500 company, GM has a fresh
focus on autonomous driving and car
PHOTOGR A P H BY RYA N F O RBES (A NDRÉS); PHOTOGR A P H C O UR T E S Y OF K A I R O S ( B R A CK EEN ); PHOTOGR A P H C O UR T E S Y OF GENER A L MOTOR S ( B A R R A)
sharing, and talks of an ultimate goal
of decreasing crashes, emissions,
and congestion to “zero.” Earlier this
year, GM’s San Francisco–based
self-driving-car subsidiary, Cruise,
even won a $2.25 billion investment
over the next seven years from
Japan’s SoftBank Vision Fund, which
is Uber’s largest shareholder. It’s a
signal that the industry giant isn’t just
keeping up with Silicon Valley–level
innovation but leading it.

Brian Brackeen
Founder and CEO/ Kairos
Bold move/ Taking his
own technology to task
José Andrés
ver the past year, Brian Brackeen
Chef and founder/ World Central Kitchen
O has been the rare (if not the
Bold move/ Running toward a disaster—and staying
only) facial-ID entrepreneur who,
amid growing concerns surrounding ood has the power to change the world,” says chef José Andrés. It’s a credo he lives by, and one that
digital privacy, openly scrutinizes his caused him to spring to action in the fall of 2017, when Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico. “It was
own technology. He has continued not a difficult decision for me,” recalls Andrés. “I saw that there was a major need, and I knew that
making power plays—acquiring I could get involved and help. I am a cook, and we cooks are people who don’t wait around to be told
EmotionReader, a startup that can what to do. We just act.”
read responses to video, in July, for Armed with $10,000 of his own money and a wallet full of credit cards, Andrés found a kitchen on
example—but also speaks out about the island, purchased supplies, and corralled enough volunteers to serve 1,000 meals on his first day
facial recognition’s poor accuracy in there. Later, with the help of private donations and government funding from FEMA, Andrés and his
analyzing darker skin tones, which is not-for-profit World Central Kitchen (which he founded in response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti)
particularly problematic when used F would scale up to produce 150,000 meals per day from 26 different kitchens across Puerto Rico. His
by law enforcement. He shuttered his team has since prepared 3.7 million meals, outpacing the more seasoned disaster relief organizations like
own Diversity & Ethnicity Recognition the Red Cross and the Salvation Army.
app—which visually identified a While the need for daily meals in Puerto Rico has diminished, a team from Andrés’ World Central
person’s ethnic makeup—because Kitchen remains on the island to focus on long-term recovery, and Andrés recently published a book
he feared it made light of the issue: about his experience, We Fed an Island: The True Story of Rebuilding Puerto Rico, One Meal at a Time.
“These experiences must be delivered “We saw again and again while we were there,” he says, “that a warm plate of food, prepared by and
fairly for all races, ages, and genders.” served to the community, can fill people with hope.”

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