In the height of the 2020 U.S. election cycle, election security has been dominating the headlines. Our public institutions are being put to the test, trust in the voting process has waivered. This begs the question… how do we make elections free and fair, and in the midst of a pandemic, safe? And who are the types of leaders we need guiding our voting system.
In this episode we talk with Central America Leadership Initiative Fellow Jorge Garcia. He is a tech innovator and entrepreneur. He’s co-Founder & CTO of Hello Iconic an app Development & Design studio that works with Fortune 500 companies and startups alike creating apps loved by millions of users across the globe. Now, he’s working on a new venture called Ballotted, a simple, secure, fully auditable, legally defensible e-voting platform that people can trust. And we need that now more than ever.
Today, he shares the story behind creating this app, his thoughts on leadership and how activating his own values has influenced his actions – especially in the face of unique challenges that come with operating in the political space.
More on Jorge Garcia
He started thinking about Ballotted after creating with some of his friends a crowdsourced auditing platform named VotoSocial.org for the contested 2013 Honduras elections for which he won the prestigious MIT Technology Review Innovators under 35 award. Jorge has been featured in Forbes, is member of the Young Entrepreneurs Council and member of the Latino Business Action Network. He holds a B.Eng. in Computer Systems from UNITEC, Honduras and a M.Sc. in Intelligent Systems Design from Chalmers, Sweden. Jorge is a class 2016 CALI Fellow and member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network at the Aspen Institute.
About The Value of Leadership
Here at the Aspen Institute, we believe leadership comes from those whose motivations are grounded in values and whose actions are rooted in purpose. That all sounds nice, but what does a values-driven leader actually look like? How does ‘leading with values’ change their day-to-day decision making? How do they react when they’re tested with a challenge? And how does it make them a better leader than the next person?
We ask our Aspen Global Leadership Network Fellows to look inward, to understand themselves, to challenge their thinking. In the new podcast, “The Value of Leadership,” they’re ready to get vulnerable with you, and share mistakes made, lessons learned, and how the values they’ve honed in on are expressed in their actions when faced with challenges. So, if you’ve ever questioned why you’ve done something that way you did or are trying to dig a little deeper and tap into your own values – tune in and learn from leaders who are doing just that.
The Value of Leadership is a podcast from the Aspen Institute’s Aspen Global Leadership Network (AGLN). AGLN’s mission is to develop authentic, high-integrity leaders. People who are committed to proactively confronting societal challenges, individually and collectively, in order to create a more just, free, and equitable society. And Fellows are putting their values to work all across the globe. To learn more about the network and the work of our Fellows, visit agln.aspeninstitute.org.
