David C. Korten is an author, economist, and leading advocate for economic transformation who worked for over thirty-five years in preeminent business, academic, and international development institutions before turning away from the establishment to work exclusively with public interest citizen-action groups. After earning MBA and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and serving as a captain in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War, Korten spent five and a half years as faculty at Harvard University Graduate School of Business, teaching in MBA and doctoral programs while serving as Harvard’s adviser to the Central American Management Institute. He subsequently headed a Ford Foundation project at Harvard Institute for International Development before moving to Southeast Asia for nearly fifteen years, serving as Ford Foundation project specialist and Asia regional adviser on development management to USAID, where his work won international recognition for transforming public bureaucracies into community-responsive support systems. Increasingly concerned that economic models embraced by official aid agencies were increasing poverty and environmental destruction, Korten broke with the official aid system and spent his final years in Asia working with NGO leaders to identify root causes of development failure and build civil society capacity for systemic change. Returning to the United States in 1992 to share lessons learned abroad, Korten co-founded and chairs YES! Magazine, founded the People-Centered Development Forum, and serves on boards including Business Alliance for Local Living Economies and Club of Rome. Author of international bestsellers including “When Corporations Rule the World,” “The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community,” and “Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth,” his publications are required reading in university courses worldwide.
Why their voice matters: Korten provides a deeply informed critique of current economic systems based on decades of direct experience with development organizations, demonstrating how corporate-dominated capitalism creates rather than solves poverty and environmental degradation while offering practical frameworks for transitioning to life-serving economies that prioritize wellbeing over wealth concentration.