Seth Cochran is a social entrepreneur with extensive experience developing new business and social cause initiatives in 24 countries across five continents. His private-sector career path has followed a trajectory from developing over $200M in new business within a diverse private equity portfolio to building an 110,000 square foot factory in the Czech Republic. While managing a $160M budget in Berlin, Cochran built up ADC Telecom’s corporate foundation activities in Germany, creating a structure that scaled to Czech, India and Australia. These sustainable organizations have issued more than $1M of grants to local charities since inception.
In March 2008, Cochran made the bold move to leave the corporate world and found OperationOF, an international NGO focused on building healthcare capacity to treat obstetric fistula in the developing world. To develop this concept, Cochran traveled over 5,000 miles by public transport through Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC, analyzing processes at public and faith-based hospitals, community-based organizations, and social businesses across East Africa. OperationOF is a member of the UN’s Campaign to End Fistula and International Obstetric Fistula Working Group as well as the Société Internationale d’Urologie Consultation on VVF.
In 2009, Cochran led a team of consultants that developed a program to extend clubfoot treatment globally for miraclefeet. In 2010, Ashoka and the Maternal Health Task Force named Seth one of 15 Young Champions of Maternal Health from 13 countries. He spent 9 months working with EHAS, a Spanish NGO focused on extending information and communication technologies to improve healthcare in the Peruvian Amazon. In 2011, the Osaka chapter of Junior Chamber International named Cochran one of 5 Outstanding Young People from around the world.
Mr. Cochran has Bachelors and Masters degrees in Operations Research from the College of Engineering at Cornell University. He is an active member of the Cornell Engineering Alumni Association Board of Directors. Cochran also holds a joint degree in Financial Engineering from the S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell.
