ROHIT ACHARYA | PHOTO BY LAURA PETRILLA

Rohit Acharya
Managing Partner, Common Good Labs

A fellow with the Brookings Institution, Rohit Acharya works to find ways of reducing poverty without displacing people. The Harvard University graduate and Chartered Financial Analyst once started a company that used cell phone data to predict credit worthiness in developing countries to give people easier access to credit.

Five years ago, he moved to Pittsburgh where he co-founded Common Good Labs, a data science firm that aims to help nonprofits and government entities use existing data and resources to make better decisions. “There’s a lot of people who are doing really good stuff out there but, ‘How do you make it more efficient?’ is kind of where I saw the intersection of my skill set and what was needed,” he says.

As if that weren’t enough, Acharya also serves on the board of New Sun Rising and the Environmental Charter School and has guest lectured at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh to help students learn to use data for good.