@kunalsood.in
@xfellows
@we.theplanet
@wethefuture.global

Kunal Sood

Bio

Kunal Sood is a world-renowned impact entrepreneur, leadership strategist, and an award-winning disruptive innovator who is on a mission to make the impossible possible in the era of the Creator Economy. As the founder of #WeThePlanet, NOVUS, X Fellows, and We The Future (WTF) he has made his life’s purpose to transform the world for a better future by positively impacting a billion lives in his lifetime. He does this by architecting and bridging the worlds of power and influence with meaning and purpose to build the next generation of impact-driven leaders and organizations. He has a passion for designing and curating deeply immersive and transformational experiences that shapes culture and inspires people from all around the world to harness the power of collaboration in turning their ideas into real-world action.

From working in the trenches of the slums in Mumbai with Harvard at PUKAR to building global movements with world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Kunal began his social impact journey as a Global Health scientist at UCSF one of the worlds best institutions. Today he is building public-private partnerships with distinguished organizations like the UN, NASA, Facebook, Google, SAP, X Prize and many more. Kunal has hosted iconic leaders, explorers and artists like Prime Minister Modi, Anousheh Ansari, HRH Dr. Nisreen El Hashemite, Steve Forbes, Marc Benioff, Deepak Chopra, and Sunil Bharti Mittal and more to shift the narrative around social innovation and impact in order to develop leaders of the future that can do anything and change everything.

Currently as the founder of We The Planet he is building out global campaigns #OperationHOPE, #FirstWoman #WeHaveADream and We The Future (WTF). At X Fellows he is creating the network of networks, which is a highly curated collective of extraordinary citizens including, artists, musicians, innovators and explorers that support all of the campaigns. #WeHaveADream is a social justice movement using music and storytellers to end all forms of social, racial, and environmental injustice on the Planet and We The Future (WTF) is a new league of NextGen leaders that form an action tank consisting of solution-driven youth and elders coming together globally to unite humanity in action using music, art, innovation, and purpose-driven ventures and initiatives that positively disrupts the human experience.

Over the past decade, Sood has convened over 50 high-level summits with the United Nations, including TEDx, NOVUS and SDG Innovation at the UN General Assembly to galvanize humanity through science, innovation and technology supporting the United Nations to achieve the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Prior the global pandemic Sood partnered with the Office of the UN Secretary General and President of the UN General Assembly to curate and produce the first-ever SDG Youth Dialogue and SDG Moonshots Summit, which was his most recent initiative in partnership with the UAE Permanent Mission to the United Nations to democratize the 17 UN SDGs as humanity’s ultimate moonshot on earth for the next decade.

As a pioneer in his field, Forbes named Sood as one of the world's ‘Icons of Impact’ and honored him as a ‘Global Movement Builder.’ He is a TED Resident and serves as a Global Ambassador for the Non-Violence Project, Singularity University, OpenEXO, and Hands Around The World a music project with Grammy Award-winning artist and producer AR Rahman and Ken Kragen to fight the negative effects of Climate Change.

Sood is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships that include his work for being an impact creator as a force for good working in the field of social innovation, honoring him with their prestigious Metcalfe Prize at the 10th Anniversary at the annual Disruptor Awards (TDIA) Ceremony hosted during the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. He is the recipient of the Media for Social Impact Award at the United Nations, World Innovation Award at SAP NextGen, TiECon Startup Award at TiENYC, and Round Glass Samsara Lifetime Achievement Award at the Legislative Parliament of India.

Currently, Sood is an executive PhD Candidate at ISB in the EFPM program. He has a life-long love for learning having earned five master’s degrees including his M.B.A., from Kellogg-Northwestern, M.A., From CIIS, M.Sc., from UCSF and M.A.P.P./M.Phil., from the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds positions at Columbia University as an Innovation Fellow, Singularity University as a GSP Fellow, and Stanford University as a Guest Lecturer. Sood serves on the advisory boards for Space For Humanity and Lottery.com. He leverages the exponential potential of modern-day technologies to solve the world’s most urgent and pressing problems. Sood started his career in the fashion and wellness industry in New York City 20 years ago after graduating from New School University’s prestigious Parsons School of Design.

From working in the trenches of the slums in Mumbai to building global movements with world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Kunal began his social impact journey as a Global Health scientist with Harvard at PUKAR. Today he is building public-private partnerships with distinguished organizations like the UN, NASA, Facebook, Google, SAP, X Prize and many more. Kunal has hosted iconic leaders, explorers and artists like Prime Minister Modi, Anousheh Ansari, HRH Dr. Nisreen El Hashemite, Steve Forbes, Marc Benioff, Deepak Chopra, and Sunil Bharti Mittal to shift the narrative around social innovation and impact in order to develop exponential leaders that can do anything and change everything. Over the past decade, Sood has convened over 40 high-level summits at the United Nations, including TEDx and NOVUS at the UN General Assembly to unite humanity through science, innovation and technology supporting the United Nations to achieve the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Sood has partnered with the Office of the UN Secretary General and President of the UN General Assembly to curate and produce the first-ever SDG Innovation, SDG Youth Dialogue and SDG Moonshots Summit, which was his most recent initiative in partnership with the UAE Permanent Mission to the United Nations to democratize the 17 UN SDGs as humanity’s ultimate moonshot on earth for the next decade.

Forbes named Sood as one of the world's ‘Icons of Impact’ and has recognized him as a ‘Global Movement Builder.’ Sood is a TED Resident and serves as a Global Ambassador for the Non-Violence Project, Singularity University, OpenEXO, and Hands Around The World a music project with Grammy Award-winning artist and producer AR Rahman and Ken Kragen to fight the negative effects of Climate Change. As a pioneer in his field, he is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships. The Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards (TDIA) recognized Sood’s work as being a force for positive disruption working in the field of social innovation and impact, honoring him with their prestigious Metcalfe Prize for the 10th Anniversary at the annual Disruptor Awards (TDIA) Ceremony hosted during the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. He is the recipient of the Media for Social Impact Award at the United Nations, World Innovation Award at SAP NextGen, TiECon Startup Award at TiENYC, and Round Glass Samsara Lifetime Achievement Award at the Legislative Parliament of India. He is also a Columbia University Innovation Fellow, Singularity University GSP Fellow and Stanford CCARE Fellow. Currently, he serves on the advisory boards for Space For Humanity and Lottery.com. Sood leverages the exponential potential of modern-day technologies to solve the world’s most pressing problems, that range from COVID-19 to Climate Change. He has a life-long love for learning having earned five master’s degrees including his MBA from Kellogg-Northwestern, MA., From CIIS, MSc., from UCSF and MAPP/MPhil., dual degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. He started his career in the fashion and wellness industry in New York City 20 years ago after graduating from Parsons School of Design.