Rajiv Shah’s (BS ’95) public service career has been peppered with big bets that have paid off. 

From his early work focused on childhood vaccines at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to his response to global crises like the Ebola virus and the earthquake in Haiti as administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Shah told a University of Michigan audience that it’s important to have what he calls a big bets mindset about making impactful change and solving the world’s biggest problems.

“Often we look at climate change or widespread human poverty or these deep inequities that hold so many communities back generation after generation, and we say to ourselves, these challenges are too complex. I’m just one person; what can I do to really make a difference?,” said Shah, who is president of The Rockefeller Foundation, a global institution with a mission to promote the well-being of humanity around the world. 

“And it allows us to fall into what I call the aspiration trap, where slowly over time we just stop trying to solve these problems at scale.” 

Shah said his work at the Gates Foundation helping to roll out a global rotavirus vaccine made him realize that big bets are possible. 

“We should aspire to solve and not just make incremental improvements on a problem,” he said. 

During his talk, which was sponsored by U-M’s School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) and moderated by SEAS Dean Jonathan Overpeck, Shah described how to develop a big bets mindset, which is the focus of his recent book, “Big Bets: How Large-Scale Change Really Happens” (Simon & Schuster, 2023). 

A big bets mindset starts with an “audacious goal, like vaccinating every child,” Shah said, and it includes three components: fresh and innovative solutions, partnerships, and a rigorous measurement of results.

“You don’t have to be wealthy or well connected to place big bets,” added Shah, when asked how students can work on developing their own big bets mindset to solve climate change, poverty, food insecurity or other humanitarian issues.

“Whatever you want to do, this is where you can learn how to become a leader,” Shah said of U-M and the unparalleled opportunities it provides. “And when you have the chance to contribute—when you’re at the table in whatever setting that is—trust yourself and take that opportunity. You belong there.”

Watch the full talk below.