Zidell is founder and chairman of Blue Planet Network (BPN). The Network, a combination of people, process, and technology, seeks to provide safe drinking water to 200 million people in rural communities in the developing nations.

Jin has been a successful principal in the steel forging and fabrication sector, real estate, and technology. He has served on the board of numerous nonprofits over the past 35 years, and since 1979 has been affiliated with the Dia Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-Ji Zen Buddhist Monastery.

Jin has invested one-half of his net worth, 10 years of his time, and most of his mind space in Blue Planet Network. Now he is making his biggest investment of all: his body.

Jin has joined a four-person team for the 31st annual Race Across America, the toughest bike race in world. It is one-third longer than the Tour de France in one-half the time - Oceanside, California, to Annapolis, Maryland: 3,000 miles. And it is non-stop. Last year, the fastest four-person team crossed the U.S. in 5 days, 11 hours, 17 minutes.

Since its inception in 2006, BPN has funded 450 projects in 24 countries, and it manages more than $33 million of water and sanitation projects. BPN brings together 92 of the world's top safe-drinking-water NGOs on a groundbreaking peer review process that allows donors - companies, philanthropies, and individuals - to identify and manage the best possible projects at the lowest cost while encouraging a level of collaboration, information sharing, and transparency that is uncommon in the NGO space.

On September 21, 2010, Blue Planet Network/Peer Water Exchange was selected as a 2010 Tech Award laureate (www.techawards.org / www.techawards.org/laureates) from a field of more than 1,000 nominations from 54 countries. The Tech Award is dubbed the "Nobel Prize of tech."

Jin earned his BS from the University of Colorado in 1960.