About James

James Chen is a visionary philanthropist and campaigner who coined the concept of “Moonshot Philanthropy”, a model of audacious leadership calling upon high-net-worth capital holders to deploy finite wealth as early-stage risk capital to unlock world-shifting breakthroughs.

James’s own moonshot journey began over two decades ago when he set out to tackle the world’s largest unaddressed disability: poor vision, affecting 2.2 billion people globally.

Philanthropists are able to privatise their failures by absorbing the risks and socialising their successes for the greater public good.

Taking a maverick approach to global development, he first de-risked a national healthcare model in Rwanda through “Vision for a Nation”, then launched Clearly, the internationally acclaimed campaign that successfully reframed vision correction from a low-priority health issue into a core global economic imperative. His advocacy proved pivotal in securing the first-ever United Nations resolution on vision in 2021, committing all 193 member states to “Vision for Everyone”.

Beyond his work in vision, James’ work also focuses on childhood literacy through The Chen Yet-Sen Family Foundation.

Today, he is focused on empowering a new guard of moonshot philanthropists to meet the fierce urgency of now and deliver 100 new moonshots in the next decade.