honorees
Katherine M. Gehl is the founder of The Institute for Political Innovation (IPI),
a nonpartisan nonprofit founded in 2020 to catalyze modern political
change in America and to see Final Five Voting adopted in states across the
country.
Katherine is the author of The Politics Industry: How Political Innovation Can
Break Partisan Gridlock and Save Our Democracy, which she co-authored
with Harvard Business School professor Michael E. Porter.
A veteran of the public and private sectors, Katherine is the former president and CEO of Gehl Foods, a $250-million high-tech food-manufacturing company based in Wisconsin that she sold in 2015. In the public sector, Katherine served on the Board of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the US government’s development finance institution. She is on several nonprofit boards, including Unite America, and is an active philanthropist. She is also the honorary co-chair of the National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers.
"I feel lucky every single day to get to do this democracy work alongside
extraordinary organizations and people."
Farhad Mohit is a successful technology entrepreneur who is a co-founder of
Bizrate, Shopzilla and Flipagram (which went on to become TikTok).
Farhad serves on the board of Burning Man, and is a TED Patron & TED Catalyst.
He also co-founded and is Vice-Chairman of Farhang Foundation, an Iranian arts
and cultural non-profit.
Farhad is the founder of The Good Party which is working to create an open source
free platform to empower people to be able to elect independent candidates.
Farhad shared that a goal of his work with the Good Party is "...helping the over 100 million Americans who identify as independent politically get the representation they deserve in our democracy."
Gaby Cardenas was born in Mexico and raised in Arizona, the daughter of immigrant entrepreneurs.
Gaby has been an industry leader in marketing and sales for over 20 years. In 2017, she founded the award-winning Colibri Collective, the first Latina-owned digital firm in Phoenix, Arizona.
The firm works across the non-profit, education and political spheres creating award-winning and boundary-breaking marketing and social media campaigns that effectively communicate with diverse audiences to create meaningful connections. The Colibri Collective worked with Independent Voters for Arizona in 2019, developing the social marketing campaign for their video campaign spotlighting the closed Arizona Presidential Preference Elections.
"Independent Voting’s Anti-Corruption Awards acknowledges the work of those who go beyond their local communities to scale for change at a systemic level. Independent voters are the fastest-growing voting bloc in the country, and they should be included in our democratic process at every level. Our democracy is based on the experiment of choice, and it’s an honor to be a voice for such a large voter population. I’m proud of how The Colibri Collective has worked with creativity and innovation to engage voters. Getting involved is part of believing in our democracy. This award is dear to my heart."
