Alex Budak is a social entrepreneur, bestselling author, and award-winning faculty member at UC Berkeley who helps people spark change, find fulfillment, and make an impact wherever they go.
Budak holds faculty appointments at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and School of Public Health, where his classes and executive programs have helped thousands of people become changemakers — and have even inspired student tattoos. He is Executive Director of the Berkeley Haas Global Access Program and serves as Faculty Director of the Berkeley Executive Education Changemaker program. His book, “Becoming a Changemaker,” is being translated into over 20 languages and was named by CNBC as a “top 5 non-fiction book everyone should be reading about work.”
Budak’s change journey began when he co-founded StartSomeGood, which has helped people in over 50 countries raise millions of dollars to launch and scale new change initiatives. A graduate of UCLA and Georgetown University, he speaks on leadership, change, and meaning around the world, from Ukraine to Cambodia, and at organizations like Accenture, Intuit, and UNHCR.
Alex loves travel adventures (39 countries and counting), attempting new workouts, and spending time with his two favorite changemakers: his wife, Rebecca, and their toddler son. He also once learned the hard way to never go budget skydiving.
Expertise and Research Interests
- Leadership
- Change
- Impact
- Social Innovation
- ESG
- Happiness and Fulfillment
- Future of Work
