Henry Elkus is Founder and CEO of Helena. He cares immensely about creating systems that can be leveraged to enact global, scalable, and systemic change. Henry dropped out of Yale in his second year to lead Helena full time.
Helena is a problem-solving organization. Its purpose is to identify potential solutions to critical global problems and directly implement them via a global portfolio of projects.
Helena’s “America in One Room” (A1R) project was one of the most significant political experiments in American History. Now expanded into a global footprint, A1R brought the most representative sample of the United States electorate ever assembled to a single location for a four-day deliberation on the most critical issues facing the country. Helena’s “Shield” project catalyzed state and federal action to help protect the North American electrical grid from threats due to solar storms and cyber-attack, including a 2019 Presidential Executive Order. Helena’s other efforts span artificial intelligence solutions for reversing Type 2 diabetes and other chronic diseases, direct-air carbon capture, grid-scale energy storage, biodegradable alternatives for plastics, nuclear fusion and biosecurity.
Helena works alongside a small group of exceptional leaders called Helena Members, which include include Four-Star Generals, artificial intelligence experts, Fortune 100 CEOs, Nobel Peace Prize and Scientific Laureates, Academy Award Winners, former CIA Directors, leading Academics, NGO Leaders, and explorers.
Outside of Helena, Henry served as Social Entrepreneur in Residence at The Boston Consulting Group, Special Advisor to the Berggruen Institute, and was named to the Board of Directors of International Bridges to Justice. He was also named to the 2020 Forbes 30 Under 30 list.
