As Co-founder of Convergence Center for Policy Resolution, Aakif Ahmad demonstrates how he tries to get both sides of the aisle to collaborate and listen to one another.

Aakif K. Ahmad is Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Convergence Center for Policy Resolution. Convergence is a national organization that facilitates unlikely alliances for action among influential, diverse and conflicting groups in order to advance innovative and widely supportable solutions to our country's most intractable challenges. Mr. Ahmad's key roles include organizational and program strategy, operations, fund development, human resources and communications. He is also project director for the U.S.-Pakistan Leaders Forum, a multi-year initiative of Convergence to promote greater stability in U.S.-Pakistan relations by facilitating private sector and civil society cooperation between the two countries. From 1996 to 2008, Mr. Ahmad worked at the Corporate Executive Board (CEB), a VA-based for-profit research, consulting and executive education firm with 2,000+ employees. As Managing Director, he led sales & marketing organizations across Europe and North America. Born in Chicago, IL and raised in Syracuse, NY, Mr. Ahmad earned a B.A. from Yale University in Ethics, Politics and Economics, and M.B.A from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)