Jeff has spent nearly 20 years as a silicon valley entrepreneur working in large organizations and small as engineer, user-interface designer, product designer, architect, president and founder.

5 years ago, he made the transition to the non-profit world, joining Inveneo, a San Francisco based ICT4D NGO as CTO. In that time he has been responsible for software projects including Ubuntu-based Inveneo Desktop Linux. He has participated in field projects in Uganda, Rwanda, Mozambique, and Sierra Leone.

Jeff joined ThoughtWorks as director of social engagement in fall of 2009. During his time at ThoughtWorks he has kicked off internal social impact programs and external projects for UNICEF Uganda and UNICEF Iraq.

Away from his professional life, Jeff flies paragliders competitively and is currently ranked 110th in the world.

Merrick Schaefer is a Technical Project Coordinator in UNICEF's Innovation Team based out of the UN's New York Headquarters. He both develops strategies for innovative uses of technology in UNICEF's work and coordinates the UI design, software development and field implementations of technical projects. His projects cover a wide spectrum of UNICEF's work, ranging from developing Speak Africa, a social network connecting youth in eight African nations to discuss their most pressing issues on the web and with SMS, to using SMS to provide health services to pregnant mothers and infants in Malawi and Zambia.

Merrick started working as a web developer in 1995, having a front row seat to the explosive growth of the World Wide Web. He has worked on enterprise level systems while consulting to Accenture, as well as creating websites for small businesses and non-profits while running a web development consultancy. He graduated from the University of Chicago where he earned a B.A. in Medical Ethics, when not hacking on web projects. Merrick is also an avid rock climber of 17 years, and often can be found dangling off cliffs in far flung corners of the world.