Biography

Prometheus has been associated with the global social business movement under the leadership of Nobel Peace Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus for more than 9 years, in various executive and board roles across Asia and Australia. He is currently on the board of Grameen Australia (working on a pilot Grameen-styled Microfinance Social Business in Australia), Grameen Philippines, and Dana Asia (Singapore, with its portfolio of social businesses in Asia (Philippines and Cambodia). Prior to moving to Sydney in mid-2014, Prometheus was engaged in the management of one of the largest social business funds in Bangladesh chaired by Professor Muhammad Yunus. Prometheus is currently working at Brolton Group, a leading engineering company in Western Sydney, as Commercial Manager. In addition to his extensive industry experience, Prometheus has also been engaged as a sessional academic (lecturer) at his alma mater Victoria University and Asia Pacific International College in Sydney.

Biography

Ian Neil is one of Australia’s leading barristers. He is a passionate advocate in and out of the courtroom, a mentor and leader, and an accomplished speaker, commentator and writer. He acts for, and provides strategic advice to, many of Australia’s largest corporations, and has an active pro bono practice in human rights and social justice. He has supported the Grameen movement in Bangladesh, Nepal and Colombia for 30 years.

Biography

Adam was appointed CEO of Grameen Australia in July 2020 to begin programs all over Australia connecting microentrepreneurs, especially women, to realise livelihoods through small business creation and development.  He has considerable experience in social inclusion, financial services and the community development sector, working in Australia, Cambodia, United Kingdom and New Zealand. Adam was previously inaugural CEO of Good Shepherd Microfinance, Australia’s largest inclusive finance organisation, from 2012 to 2018 reaching over one million people.  Prior to that Adam worked closely with Aboriginal people and organisations on economic development with Reconciliation Australia from 2008 to 2012.  Adam has worked with Concern Worldwide in Cambodia implementing women’s livelihood and microfinance programs and also spent over a decade in the banking sector with ANZ. Adam has microfinance governance experience through Board positions over the last 15 years in PNG, Cambodia, Myanmar and Australia. He has a Master’s in international development, a Masters in Applied Finance and is an Australian CPA.

Biography

Duncan Power, a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Duncan Power has more than 30 years’ experience working in the not-for-profit and social enterprise worlds in both a financial and advisory capacity. Duncan joined British registered bank, Mercury Provident (now known as Triodos Bank) in 1989 as Chief Executive Officer, following a successful career in accountancy in New Zealand. After five years in the role, during which time he oversaw Mercury Provident’s successful merger with Triodos, Duncan was appointed by Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) in London as Manager. He then went on to establish CAF in Australia. In the 10 years that Duncan served as CEO, CAF in Australia facilitated grant-making to not-for-profit organisations throughout Australia and Asia Pacific worth more than AU$120 million. Duncan left CAF to found Dana Asia in 2011. He now dedicates his life to making a dramatic social impact in Asia Pacific using the Muhammad Yunus inspired Social Business model to achieve life-changing, sustainable outcomes.

Biography

Dr. Sanjaya Kuruppu is a Senior Lecturer in Accounting teaching in subjects ranging from Management Accounting, Strategic Financial Analysis, Corporate Social Responsibility and International Business. He has extensive teaching experience working at the University of Canterbury and the University of Adelaide prior to joining the University of South Australia in 2015. Sanjaya has worked in both private sector and not-for-profit settings. This context has been the focus of his research interest into sustainability, corporate social responsibility and the accountability of organisations to a wide range of stakeholder groups. Sanjaya's research has a practical emphasis with a number of consulting reports arising from his research shaping the organisations he has studied. His research has received external and internal university grant funding including from the Accounting Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand (AFAANZ) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). He is also currently the Director of Yunus Social Business Centre at UniSA.

Biography

Alex is the Professor of Practice and Co-Director of the Yunus Centre at Griffith University. The Yunus Centre leads the University’s practice in the field of impact-led innovation. The purpose of the Centre is to accelerate transition to a regenerative economy by growing knowledge and capability. Alex also serves on the Board of B Lab Australia and New Zealand. Previously, he was the CEO of the Ākina Foundation - New Zealand's primary support organisation for impact enterprise. Before that, based in the UK, Alex was Director of Programmes at LEAD - a global network focused on leadership and sustainable development, and also Head of Partnerships at the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN). Alex is a creative and pragmatic person driven by doing things better and fairer

Biography

Highly regarded for his client centric approach in Australasia, Giles has over 25 years’ experience of building and developing teams, businesses and distribution strategies for global enterprises. He has worked with clients in the corporate, government, central bank, social enterprise and not for profit sectors. Giles believes that a structured, systematic and results orientated approach leads to profitable and sustainable change. Giles is a Senior Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australia, Fellow of the School of Social Entrepreneurs, Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management and Member of the Australian Institute of Training and Development. Giles holds numerous Volunteer Not-for-Profit Directorships ranging from Human Rights, Disabilities, Arts and Sports. He is also an Advisory Board Member of the Securities and Investments Institute of Asia Pacific and a Director of the Financial Planning Association (FPA) Foundation. Giles has a unique blend of leadership and business skills gained in the corporate environment married with financial and governance skills gained in the Not for Profit sector.

Biography

 Dr. Gavin Armstrong is a committed and award-winning impact entrepreneur. He is currently serving as the Founder and CEO of Lucky Iron Fish Enterprise® (LIFe), [a social enterprise dedicated to alleviating iron deficiency around the world using simple health innovations.]

A long-term advocate and activist against hunger and malnutrition, Gavin is the first Canadian to receive the William J. Clinton Award for international work against hunger and is the inaugural recipient of the international Michaelle Jean Emergency Hunger Relief Award.

In 2021 Gavin ranked as one of the top fifty Change-makers by the Global & Mail Report on Business.

Biography

James is the General Manager of Nutrigo and Vice President, CSR of Danone Greater China.  Prior to this, James served as General Secretary and Vice President of Danone Greater China. Earlier on, James held various general management, sales and marketing roles at various businesses of Danone in China.

A Malaysian national, James lived and work in China for over 25 years. He obtained his MBA degree from the University of Chicago and Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the National University of Malaysia     

Biography

Caesar Olu Ogunremi is the current Commercial Projects and Trade Marketing Manager for Danone in Nigeria. He has traversed Field sales, Trade marketing, Sales Automation, Route to Market working in senior roles in several multinational FMCG companies across Sub Saharan Africa mainly in the food and beverage industry and market research consulting.

In Danone Nigeria as Commercial Projects & Trade Marketing Manager, he successfully led the execution of the FanPrime project that delivered the affordable fortified yoghurt solution against anemia in women of reproductive age.

Biography

Leah Tronel is Director of Development at Sanku, a fast-growing social enterprise based in East Africa which equips small mills with everything they need to fortify their flour.

Thanks to its award-winning fortification technology and unique business model, Sanku have given approx. 2.4 million East Africans sustainable access to fortified maize flour and is on track to reach 25 million people by 2025.  Before joining Sanku, Leah worked for a UK grant-making foundation for almost a decade. During that time, she discovered Sanku, small-scale fortification and its potential to reduce hidden hunger.

Biography

Mr.Ratan Kumar Nag is currently working as the Managing Director of Grameen Shakti Samajik Byabosha Ltd. Previously he was Managing Director of Grameen Bank and one of the earliest associates of Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus since the project period of Grameen Bank. Mr. Nag also worked with CASHPOR Malaysia on deputation from 1997 until 1999 where he supervised Grameen replication projects in Asia-Pacific region. He participated at various national and international seminars, symposiums, conference. Mr. Nag is a member of the Board of Director of Grameen Shakti & Grameen Krishi Foundation. He completed his Masters in Management from the University of Dhaka.

Biography

Maaza Seyoum is an Ethiopian feminist public health advocate and communicator. As part of her role at the African Alliance, she leads the work of the People’s Vaccine Alliance in Africa. Prior to joining the African Alliance team, Maaza spent 15 years working on HIV prevention, testing, treatment, care, and research in Rwanda, South Africa, and the United States. All of her work has included a focus on the rights of marginalized communities, while also highlighting the importance of sexual and reproductive health and rights. In her current role, Maaza is dedicated to ensuring that priorities and voices from the Global South are meaningfully integrated into strategies that aim to address COVID-19 vaccine apartheid. She is passionate about addressing discrimination and inequality in all spheres of society.

Biography

Mr. Abul Kalam is the CEO of KGMAMF (Kosovo Grameen Mission Arcobaleno Microcredit Fund) since October 2015. He joined KGMAMF in December 2007 as the CFO. Before joining Grameen project in Kosovo, he worked in Grameen Bank in Bangladesh in various Managerial positions since 1986. He also worked for five years as a branch manager to implement Micro Credit Project in Myanmar. The project was directly implemented by Grameen Trust and funded by UNDP/UNOPS. With a 34 year experience in home and abroad as a practitioner of Microfinance as well social business, he has a good understanding of poverty alleviation, livelihood issues and new entrepreneur development program.

Biography

Callum Mackenzie is the Co-founder and Director of Yunus Thailand and a Managing Partner of Grameen Options. He also sits on the Steering Committee for the Yunus Professional Masters in Social Business & Entrepreneurship and teaches on the Yunus Practicum. Callum has a diverse range of experience from working in the social business and international development sector in +10 countries around the world with organizations such as the World Bank, USAID, ActionAid, the European Institute for Cooperation and Development, and the UK Government. Callum holds a Masters Degree in International Development from Sciences Po Paris and a Bachelors with Honours from the Queen's University Belfast in Conflict Studies.

Biography

Ahmed Al-Mahfadi Deputy CEO Grameen Yemen Foundation • BSc in Biomedical Engineering at Multimedia University – Malaysia. • Co-founder of Grameen Yemen Foundation. Played a key role in creating organizational and legislative structures and mechanisms. • MSME financial inclusion expert. • Member of IEEE technical professional organization. • Consultative member, Comprehensive Transformation towards a real economy, Central Bank of Yemen. • Participated in many financial and economic conferences and symposiums in Yemen. • Board member of Quattro Civil Development Foundation. • Board member of Human Touch Relief Organization

Biography

Abdul Hai Khan, a prominent practitioner of microfinance and social business is the Managing Director of Grameen Trust (GT).

Before joining GT, Mr. Khan worked as the Deputy General Manager of Grameen Bank and served as the Head of Training and Special Program Department. He has been working with Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus for more than 40 years.

Mr. Khan has a wide range of experiences on GT’s worldwide replication programs following Grameen Bank Approach (GBA). He has conducted many international training programs on various issues on Microcredit and Social Business in different countries as well as monitoring and evaluation visits to the microcredit projects run, owned and/or managed by GT worldwide. He also conducted ‘Fact Finding Missions’ in Nepal, Bolivia and Yemen.

Mr. Khan serves as the member of a number of Boards in different microfinance organizations and Social Business entities in Bangladesh, India, Kosovo, China, France, Italy, USA, Yemen and others.

Biography

Marcela Villarreal has a PhD in Rural Sociology from Cornell University and a BA/MA in Systems and Computing Engineering from the University of Los Andes in Bogotá.

She is responsible for the implementation of FAO’s innovative strategies on partnerships with civil society, academia and research institutions, and collaboration with UN agencies. She coordinates the initiative on the Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture (CFS-RAI), FAO’s policy on Indigenous Peoples, the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, the Parliamentarian Fronts against Hunger initiative, the Decade of Family Farming and the implementation of International Years, among others.

Biography

Biography

Nabila Islam is working in ToiToie (Exploit Limited) as an Operating Officer since 2018. She has been responsible for the major operation and works maintenance of the company. This company was awarded from the Grameenphone Accelerator batch-6 program. She has successfully done her research paper about ‘On-Demand Multicast Routing Protocol (ODMRP-ONM), Semiconductor Device and circuits – Nanodevice and Nanotechnology. She and her team are dedicated to working with solar panels in recent times.

Biography

Ms, Maiya Suyunchaliyeva is a scientific researcher and a member(marketing specialist) of the project at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. She is the ambassador of One Young World 2019 (UK, London), active citizen of the British Council in Almaty. She is doing her PhD on "Understanding of digital innovations in tourism sphere in Kazakhstan ". She is a participant in the government 1st President program – Nazarbayev foundation, a Young researchers alliance member and a consultancy agent.

Biography

Maxime Leroux is the founder of the mobile app “OneSave/Day”. The app incites people from all over the world to take one eco-action per day with the goal to develop more responsible lifestyles and is now supported by famous climate advocate Jane Goodall.

Biography

Khadija Mohammed Bakar

Khadija is currently a student at Albukhary International University, pursuing a Bachelor of Business Administration Hons Marketing. She is also a Member of cluster Zero Unemployment Under Social Business. She has participated in the Hult prize on campus Competition (2020-2021) and become the First runner Up, Food for Good Project.

Biography

Mr.  Narottam  Aryal  he has  been  working  with  Nepalese  higher  education  especially  in  the field  of  business  and  entrepreneurship.  He  obtained  his  Master  in  Public  Administration from Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal and M. Phil. in Public Policy from University of  Bergen,  Norway  in  1999.  Mr.  Aryal  attended  a  week-long  executive  program  on  Social Entrepreneurship at INSEAD, Singapore, an International Visitor Leadership Program Fellow of  US  Department  of  State.  Mr.  Aryal  is  firm  believer  of  freedom  and  actively  involved  in promoting entrepreneurship and is in the mission of democratizing the wealth creation in Nepalese  society  and  has  served  as  the  convener  of  the  Startup  Ecosystem  Development Committee of Ministry of Industry, Government of Nepal for a period of one year in the year 2017.  He  was  awarded  as  the  Manager  of  the  Year  2013  by  Management  Association  of Nepal.

Biography

Holm Keller serves as Executive Chairman of KENUP Foundation, a global partnership in innovation, promoting research-based innovation for the public and societal benefit.  Previously, for 10 years, Mr. Keller held the elective public office as Chancellor and Executive Vice President for University Development and Innovation at Leuphana University in Germany.

Prior to his public service work, he worked as President Asia for Bertelsmann Inc. in Shanghai, Seoul and Sydney after holding top-management positions with the media-group in Gütersloh, London and New York. Before, Holm Keller served a consultant with McKinsey & Company Inc., where he co-lead the development of the Firm’s global Accelerator Practice. Earlier in his career, he held operative functions with ARD, ZDF and arte television.

Originally trained as a musical composer, Keller holds degrees from Vienna University and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Biography

A leader in the social business movement, Saskia co-founded Yunus Social Business (YSB) together with Nobel Peace Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus. YSB Funds invests in social businesses in developing countries with affordable financing and growth support. Their portfolio of social businesses provides employment, education, healthcare, safe water and clean energy to over 13 million people worldwide. YSB Corporate Innovation partners with established corporations to help them use their core competencies to address social problems.

Saskia is ranked amongst the Top 100 women in Social Enterprise by Euclid Network and has been awarded the Vordenker Award 2020 by BCG and Handelsblatt, the BOLD Woman Award 2020 by Veuve Clicquot and Capital’s Young Elite 2017, 2018. She is a member of the Young Presidents Organisation and an advisory member of Zeit magazine’s Green Council.

Together with the World Economic Forum she co-initiated the COVID Alliance for social entrepreneurs spanning 80 leading impact-first organizations and networks. Saskia was appointed to the EU Commission’s expert group on social business and has advised on Ban Ki-Moon’s UN MDG Advocacy Group as well as Richard Branson’s B-team. She has lectured at several universities and events, including the World Economic Forum and the Clinton Global Initiative. She co-authored a report with the Boston Consulting Group on the experiences of building large-scale social business joint ventures with corporations.

Prior to YSB, Saskia was the Co-CEO of the Grameen Creative Lab and a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group in Munich and New York. She holds an MBA from the European Business School in Germany and an MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences. Saskia holds a German and Canadian citizenship.

Biography

Sumita Ghose is the founder and managing director of Rangsutra, a social enterprise which works for socio economic development in rural India by engaging both: the community and the market. Rangsutra is owned by over two thousand artisans- most of whom are rural women. Rangsutra provides design, marketing, technical and organizational support needed to make crafts and allied rural industries into viable businesses, so that they provide regular village based employment to rural artisans. Prior to setting up Rangsutra in 2006, Sumita lived and worked in different parts of rural India, primarily in Western Rajasthan with the URMUL Trust in Loonkaransar Bikaner, working with rural communities for social change and economic development. 

Biography

Graduated from Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) in 2005, Jean-Christophe COMBE began his career at the French Senate in 2003, as technical advisor. In 2006, he joined the firm Deloitte as an auditor in the public sector department. In 2007, he became the chief of staff of the MP and Mayor of Châlons-en-Champagne, and then, chief of staff of the Mayor of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. In 2011, he became chief of staff of the President of the French Red Cross, Jean-François Mattei. Appointed Director of Involvement and Associative activities in 2012, he is Chief Executive of the French Red Cross since October 2016.

Biography

Senior health advisor with 40 years of experience in health policy and programming with international and national health and development agencies including multilateral agencies, NGOs and governments. I also have in depth experience and knowledge of policy and advocacy on access to medicines and on financing and delivery of healthcare.

Currently senior policy and technical advisor to UNAIDS and the People Vaccine Alliance on access to Covid-19 health technology and Key advisor to the NGO board members of UNITAID.

Have been deeply engaged with most international health organizations including WHO, The Global Fund, UNITAID, Medicine Patent Pool and the World bank as well as with pharmaceutical companies. Have in depth expereince in conducting programmes, advocacy, and research in several countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Since January 2020, I have been providing regular information on COVID-19 in Arabic on Twitter and through podcasts.