--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: Meet the first ever Dreamer of the Year: Donnel Baird, Founder & CEO of BlocPower. image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Meet the first ever Dreamer of the Year: Donnel Baird, Founder & CEO of BlocPower.  At American Family Insurance, we’re committed to inspiring, protecting and restoring dreams. With this purpose comes the responsibility to ensure that EVERYONE has the ability and access to make their dreams possible. It’s why we are investing $105 million in our Free to Dream initiative — to bridge equity gaps, build healthy, sustainable communities and fight for social justice. We will not stop until we are all free to dream fearlessly. [Find Out More](https://jadserve.postrelease.com/trk?ntv%5Fat=4&ntv%5Fui=535b751f-9d77-44a5-849c-735e9f4e55d4&ntv%5Fa=qg8IAxGdaAZxkRA&ntv%5Ffl=XhRPSr9c-FGlAMLKvJ36mUEyOxlRmjE1R5a-Ev8ZN67mNpjdZ8V8ItPq7j%5FDiepeOWztLWrSwn%5FzrZQNTkjT27t9xt6XP%5FrYr4Tq7qzntEcUxSBGchyWH0Ik5X012S-TZuUaIoeRbsQTNWsFY2x9RAOT8o-H2Kqn0Ni593uisY46yVnFzofBzMBY6CA9-kcNGeQUy%5FRcFxYj1N1rr8N-ZEAxw9XhGrhSmK8S2eUSU%5FCAlyo1otNJghA2fMSq1YWYAaCnbruVfDs-pLxJ6KNCgWbHVS12onQNyOZnGICn6Za5oqE9RVWcFUGovvNQVyE7kRSfVO%5F6aVioyX8HpXITSx2h0EnuFuGH0X%5FtOfETl55enBDPgYP-UsUtHdmONaB4dO-7bmmxkSyq7C38zzV%5FwE9p71zgnIA5uxhIavpXeqXicRlbT4XheEZf935tEW9jzY3jqSN6O4Y2ix0x2dfinuYaJmqfUrR%5Fs-3sML5sjXmvFejKlQPCHJ1a2WXSVt9OCpLLghkDy%5FjsSje7ESqVeEEXxp4AyON7j8T-EZnDojXEwS3uZDhcGUXCfv7Y2mfS&ord=-420542962&ntv%5Fht=pe4HagA) Meet the first ever Dreamer of the Year: Donnel Baird, Founder & CEO of BlocPower. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/american-family-insurance/dreams-reimagine-whats-possible-meet-donnel-baird-dreamer-of-the-year/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/american-family-insurance/dreams-reimagine-whats-possible-meet-donnel-baird-dreamer-of-the-year/"},"headline":"Meet the first ever Dreamer of the Year: Donnel Baird, Founder & CEO of BlocPower.","datePublished":"2026-07-20T09:47:16.375Z","dateModified":"2026-07-20T09:47:09.580Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/branded-content/american-family-insurance/dreams-reimagine-whats-possible-meet-donnel-baird-dreamer-of-the-year/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/american-family-insurance/dreams-reimagine-whats-possible-meet-donnel-baird-dreamer-of-the-year/","name":"Meet the first ever Dreamer of the Year: Donnel Baird, Founder & CEO of BlocPower."}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"156391054AEA464CB0C5093FB55D6495","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/uqlBKhWz/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2026-05-20T10:30:44.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uqlBKhWz.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/branded-content/american-family-insurance/dreams-reimagine-whats-possible-meet-donnel-baird-dreamer-of-the-year/","duration":"PT2M1S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/branded-content/american-family-insurance/dreams-reimagine-whats-possible-meet-donnel-baird-dreamer-of-the-year/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```