lara stein

Activist, Architect, Artist, Atheist, Brainstormer, Business adviser, Business leader, Change Agent, Concerned citizen, Connector, Consultant, Designer, Entrepreneur, Environmentalist, Explorer, Global soul, Idea generator, Inventor, Performer, Potential employer, Startup, Technologist, Web guru, World traveler

Global Leader in Technology, Innovation, Sustainability, and Education Lara Stein is an internationally recognized leader at the intersection of technology, innovation, education, and sustainability. With a distinguished track record of founding and scaling transformative global initiatives, she has built platforms that empower communities, catalyze systemic change, and reshape industries. As the Founder of Regenerative Consulting, Lara advises a wide range of organizations—from financial institutions and family offices (including Bedari and MJF), to cultural institutions like the Qatar Museums Authority, to tech startups and policy-driven organizations such as Stand Together, MIT, Cortico, and Future US. Her work focuses on developing regenerative, sustainable strategies that drive long-term, systemic impact. Previously, she founded and served as the CEO of Boma Global, a worldwide network dedicated to transformational learning, grounded in innovation, ethics, and sustainability. Under her leadership, Boma established local partners across multiple continents, creating high-impact learning experiences. She remains an advisor and board member. As the Founder and Global Director of TEDx, Lara spearheaded the expansion of TED into a global movement, enabling thousands of leaders to share ideas on a massive scale. During her tenure, TEDx grew into a cultural and educational phenomenon, with over 8,000 events held in 1,200 cities across 133 countries, generating more than 50,000 talks and over a billion views on YouTube. She played a pivotal role in launching TEDxWomen, TEDYouth, and TEDxYouth, expanding TED’s reach to diverse and underrepresented voices. She also created TEDx in a Box, which allowed for broader global accessibility, and directed the TED Prize, increasing its award from $100,000 to $1 million while establishing the program’s operational infrastructure. Beyond TEDx and Boma, Lara has been a driving force behind several groundbreaking initiatives. As a founding member of ReGenDAO, she helped conceptualize an innovative funding model and global community for regenerative projects, bringing together leaders from banking, science, entrepreneurship, and futurism. She led the global expansion of Singularity University as Managing Director, establishing its impact in international markets. As Executive Director of Women’s March Global, she built and led the worldwide arm of the Women’s March movement, advancing global advocacy and social change. At MIT ReACT, she designed an educational platform providing high-quality learning opportunities for refugees and displaced populations. Her career also includes leadership roles at Microsoft, Marvel, iXL, and WGBH, where she drove innovation in media, technology, and education. Lara has served on the boards of the Lung Cancer Research Foundation, Lalela, and the We Are Family Foundation. She currently sits on the boards of Equality Now, CorpsAfrica, Fearless and the Braintrust of XPRIZE Visioneering. Her commitment to driving systemic change through education, technology, and sustainability remains unwavering.

I am a curious creature, drawn to the edges of what is possible and the intersections where ideas, people, and systems meet. My work lives in regenerative futures, planetary stewardship, and systems architecture, shaped by a deep commitment to systemic transformation and frontier innovation. I am endlessly fascinated by the power of narrative, the flow of catalytic capital, and the vitality of living ecosystems. At the heart of it all is a belief in transformational leadership, the strength of community, and the possibility of movement design to create lasting change. I am passionate about many things. Talk to me and you will find out.

“A WILD IDEA” talk to me about it

Catalytic Capital, Circularity, Communities, Ecosystem Transformation, Entrepreneurship, Frontier Innovation, Furturism, Global communities, Innovation Hubs, Living Ecosystems, Movement Design, Narrative Power, Planetary Stewardship, Regenerative Futures, Systemic Transformation, Systems Architecture, Transformational Leadership, VC

I carry many stories from my time at TED. I founded TEDx and was there at the very beginning, when TED was still a small team of just fifteen people. But what stays with me most are not my own stories, they are the thousands that emerged from communities around the world. Floating stages on the Amazon. Small villages in India. Shanty towns in Kibera. Monasteries beneath the Great Wall of China. TEDx was never just a program, I built what became a living, breathing global community of people who care deeply about our shared future. It revealed something powerful: that ideas, when placed in the hands of local communities, can travel farther, root deeper, and connect us in ways that transcend borders, culture, and circumstance.

Dancing…