Jim Yong kim
Dartmouth
As a physician working to
establish health-care
programs in the developing
world, Jim Yong Kim was
“constantly frustrated at
how poorly we executed.”
Why is it, he wondered,
“that great academic
institutions are not able to
help us figure out how to
take all this money for
global health and turn it into
fantastic programs?” Now
president of Dartmouth, he
has taken up that challenge.
Already the go-to source
for Medicare data, the
college is now bringing
together all of its academic
resources, from medicine
to business to systems
engineering, to launch the
Dartmouth Center for
Health Care Delivery Sci-
ence. Studying the most
successful health systems
and sharing their best
practices, Kim believes,
could improve health-care
quality and help lower costs
as much as 30%.
sam kass The White House
arianna Huffington
Huffington Post Media Group
When Arianna Huffington is
looking for inspiration, she
goes to sleep. “There are
many, many great ideas
locked inside of us,” she
says. “We just need to close
our eyes to see them.” So
there are three nap rooms
in the offices of the Huffing-
ton Post Media Group, the
mashup created after
AOL acquired HuffPo for
$315 million in February.
Huffington is in charge of
everything editorial, includ-
ing nearly 1,300 staffers
who write and report (and
nap) for AOL’s ailing but
resource-rich sites.
One of those resources is,
of course, Huffington
herself—and her network
of A-listers, from Twitter
cofounder Biz Stone, advis-
ing HPMG on “social
impact,” to Newark Mayor
Cory Booker, whose part-
nering with AOL’s local-
news site, Patch, has raised
an eyebrow or two. This
has all the makings of a
good story, and that may be
just the thing for Huffing-
ton, who believes in “the
power of using narrative to
connect with people.”
Here’s wHat Sam Kass enjoys: slipping
on his White House chef’s jacket
(white, of course) and going out to the
garden to pick some peas and mint for
the Obama family’s dinner. He is,
after all, their cook—and he’s inspired
more by seasonal produce than by
recipe books. Here’s the other part of
his job: donning a suit and meeting
with big food companies, not-for-
profits, politicians, and federal agen-
cies to figure out how to get kids to eat
healthier food. “The cooking side is
the easier way to be creative,” says
Kass, who earned a history degree
from the University of Chicago but
has no formal culinary training. “On
the policy side, it’s harder to think of
new approaches to problems.” But he
and the First Lady are enjoying suc-
cess with her “Let’s Move” campaign.
One of their major victories: In Janu-
ary, Walmart announced plans to
lower the price of its fruits and veggies
and reduce the sugar, salt, and fat in
private-label products on its shelves.
