Biography

Muhammad Yunus, born in 28th June 1940, is a Bangladeshi economist and father of microcredit and social business.  Born in a family with nine children, became a college teacher, got Fulbright scholarship from the USA, where he got a PhD in Economics. He taught at Middle Tennessee State university. He resigned from his job in 1972, because Bangladesh became independent. He became head of economics department of Chittagong University. Disenchanted by the formal economic theories, he decided to work with the poor, particularly poor women in the neighbouring village to help them  overcome poverty. He started lending money from his pocket, in 1976, which later on grew into a formal bank known as Grameen Bank (1983). His non-collarised lending method became known as microcredit and spread all over the world, including in rich countries.

In 2006, Pr. Yunus was awarded the Peace Nobel Prize for his ‘efforts through microcredit to create economic and social development from below’.  In 2008, Pr. Yunus founded the Yunus Centre, which aims at creating, promoting and developing social businesses. In November 2016, the Yunus Centre  and Paris 2024 co-signed a partnership agreement through which Paris 2024 committed itself to build a bid based on pillars and values of the social business and solidarity economy.

Biography

Mr. Zahirul Alam completed his Master’s with honours in Economics from the University of Chittagong, Bangladesh in 1975. He started his career with Nobel Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus in 1973 while he was student as the founder member-secretary of the Rural Economics Program (REP) of the Department of Economics from where Grameen Bank Model was developed. He left REP in March 1976 to join Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (BARD) as Action Research Fellow for a UNPD/FAO action research project on the development of landless poor and the small farmers through microfinance in 1976. He worked in BARD on building a sustainable Microfinance Institution for the poor for about 8 years and then joined ILO in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in March 1984 as a Specialist in Income Distribution and Basic Needs Related Issues and later as Economist in 1989. Now he is working as Executive Director at Integrated Development Foundation (IDF). He is also author of many reports, papers and participated in many national and international seminars and workshops.

Biography

Dr Arshiya Bose is the founder of Black Baza Coffee Co. a social and conservation enterprise that aims to empower smallholder coffee growers to conserve biodiversity on coffee farms. In its third year, Black Baza Coffee Co. works directly with 391 coffee producers across India. Arshiya completed her PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK in 2014 on market-incentives and certifications for biodiversity conservation in coffee landscapes. Her interests include impact-oriented research and consumer advocacy.

Biography

Described as the ‘Indian art house icon’, by TIME magazine, Rahul Bose won the Best Actor award at the Singapore Film Festival in 2000 for his performance in ‘Split Wide Open’. In 2002, at the Palm Springs Festival, he was awarded the runner-up prize of the John Schlesinger award for Best Debut Director for ‘Everybody Says I’m Fine!’.
 
Formed in 2006, his NGO, ‘The Foundation’, works with children from underserved areas of India, and his second NGO, HEAL works with survivors of child sexual abuse. In 2009 he was voted the Indian Youth Icon of the Year - Social Justice. In 2010, he was awarded the Green Globe award for his work on climate change. In 2012 he was awarded NDTV’s Celebrity Sports Activist of the Year. In the same year, on India’s Independence Day, Rahul was conferred the Lt. Governor’s Commendation Award for Services to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In 2013 he was awarded the Hakim Khan Sur award for his work towards National Integration. In 2014, Rahul was named on the Executive Council of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs' National Foundation for Communal Harmony. In 2015 he was named GQ's Philanthropist of the Year.
 
Last year he produced and directed 'Poorna' a biopic on the youngest girl in history to climb Mt Everest, for which he was felicitated for Excellence in Direction by the Directors Association of India, received the 'Equality in Cinema' award at the Melbourne Film Festival and the Excellence in Cinema award at the Dublin Film Festival. He was GQ’s Man of The Year - Social Change, 2017. A former international rugby player, Rahul represented India for eleven years, retiring from the Indian team in 2009. A prolific speaker, he has lectured on leadership, sport, gender equality and Indian cinema at the World Bank, Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, MIT, Columbia and Cornell University amongst other

Biography

Listed by Forbes as one of Asia's most influential under 30 year olds: Samyak leads X Billion Labs: an ecosystem of impact enterprises (Skills Lab , Action Lab & Tech Lab) that collectively aim to positively transform 100 million lives over the next decade. He is re-imagining activism by building a framework for new age social movements which include transforming human behavior, partnering with key stakeholders (government, businesses & public institutions) for mutual benefit and leveraging new technologies like artificial intelligence, data science & tactical messaging. To create systemic change, he believes one must act in accordance to the present and future context while moving beyond conventional ideologies, restrictive belief systems and an anti establishment approach. Currently is he working on building 'Adopt India' a movement to transform policy, procedures & mindsets to enable a home of India's 2 crore+ abandoned children. His focus areas include population control, resource conservation, human rights, religious extremism & gender issues.

Biography

Kartik leads Asha Impact, an impact investing and policy advocacy organisation operating a multi-family office for Indian business leaders and philanthropists to jointly invest in social enterprises and engage with the government.  He has led investments into and serves on the boards of start-ups across housing, financial services, waste, education and technology. Kartik is a board member of the Impact Investors Council, co-chair of the ANDE India Learning Lab on SME Finance, member of the PM’s ‘Champions of Change’ group of young CEOs and member of Niti Aayog’s working group on ‘Housing for All’ and ‘Swachh Bharat’.

Prior to founding Asha in 2014, Kartik has a decade of experience in venture capital, entrepreneurship, investment banking and international development in India and the US. He helped set up two $60 million impact investment funds, Lok Capital II, focused on financial inclusion in India, and Aavishkaar Frontier Fund, setting up its operations in South Asia, in between founding QNA, India’s first open-data polling platform for citizen engagement on national debates and being a judge on The Real Deal, a reality TV show on social impact investing on NDTV.

Prior to joining the impact investment industry in 2007, Kartik worked for three years with DSP Merrill Lynch in its investment banking and private equity teams in Mumbai and also consulted for the United Nations Development Program and Rockefeller Foundation while studying in New York. Kartik has a Bachelor's degree in Finance from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and a Masters degree in International Affairs from Columbia University (SIPA).

Biography

Cam Donaldson holds the Yunus Chair in Social Business & Health at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU), where he is also Pro Vice Chancellor Research. He has held health economics chairs at the Universities of Newcastle, Calgary and Aberdeen and visiting appointments at McMaster University in Ontario (1997) and University of the Mediterranean, Marseille (2007). Cam has published over 250 refereed journal articles in economics, medical, health policy and health management journals and co-authored or edited seven books. His work has attracted over £25m in research funding, including several competitive personal awards, including senior investigatorships from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the UK’s National Institute for Health Research.

Biography

Emmanuel F began his career as a consultant at Bain & Company before working as an investment banker at Baring Brothers. He moved to Legris Industries, where he was named Chief Executive Officer in 1996. Emmanuel joined Danone in 1997 as Vice-President, Chief Financial Officer, Strategy, and became member of the company’s Executive Committee in 2000. In 2005 he took up the position of Vice-President for the Asia-Pacific region. In 2008, Emmanuel was appointed Deputy General Manager and, in 2011, he became Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors. In October 2014, he became Danone’s Chief Executive Officer. Since December 1, 2017, he is Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer.

Emmanuel FABER is strongly committed to promoting innovative inclusive business models. In 2005, he supervised the first social business experiments conducted in Bangladesh with Grameen Bank and the creation of Danone Communities, in close collaboration with 2006 Nobel Peace Prize-Winner Muhammad Yunus. With Martin Hirsch, Emmanuel is also a founder and co-chair of the Business and Poverty Action Tank, a social-business incubator based at HEC in Paris. In 2013, upon the request of the French Government, Emmanuel co-wrote with Jay Naidoo the report “Innovating by mobilizing stakeholders: 10 proposals for a new approach to Official Development Assistance".

Biography

Sylvain is Co-Chief Investment Officer and part of the Global Management Board at Yunus Social Business. He oversees investments in the 8 countries where YSB operates and develops the investment strategies with each country.

Prior to YSB, Sylvain was based in Argentina and Chile, where he worked for Endeavor, and NGO dedicated to identifying and supporting high-impact entrepreneurs, as a consultant, and then as CEO of one of the Endeavor entrepreneurs, an Argentine fashion design business. Previously, he worked as a consultant for the Boston Consulting Group in their Paris office.

Sylvain holds a M.Sc. in Mathematics form Imperial College in London and an M.Sc. in Management from HEC in Paris.

Biography

Professor Anil K Gupta is a visiting faculty, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, after retiring recently from IITB. He is also the founder of Honey Bee Network. Ph.D. (Management), MSc. Biochemical Genetics, Fellow, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences; Fellow, the World Academy of Art and Science, California 2001. Executive Vice Chair, National Innovation Foundation, Nifindia.org, Coordinator, SRISTI.org and Secty., GIAN.org
 
Mission is to expand the global as well as local space for innovations at grassroots, link ideas in informal and formal sector, ensure recognition, respect and reward for creative communities; creating knowledge networks for augmenting open innovations by individuals, institutions, corporations, and countries through frugal, flexible and friendly empathetic platforms
 
He facilitates Festival of Innovation (FOIN) through NIFindia.org, hosted by the office of President of India at The President's House (March 4-11, 2017); pursues Research on Sustainable natural and institutional resource management, building global value chain to get the grassroots and youthful creativity its due; link technology youth with the problems of MSME, and grassroots innovators (techpedia.sristi.org), unlocking corporate and public/private institutional  creativity through empathetic open reciprocal innovations, support strategic organizations for making breakthroughs innovations; See social innovation facility, sif.sristi.org, SRISTI awards to young tech students gyti.techepdia.in  
 
Lectured on unleashing innovation potential at ORACLE, CISCO, HP, GE Research Centre, Siemens, Volvo, Biocon Bristol-Myers Squibb Research Center, Dr. Reddy’s Lab, Zydus Cadilla, JSW, D E Shaw investment firm, Tata Innovation Awards, ZEF, CGIAR, FAO, IFAD, World Bank, LBSNAA, IISc, ISI, IITs, JNU, Harvard, MIT, etc., apart from numerous top academic and public policy institutions worldwide; he has pursued Shodhyatra, learning walk in every state of India once covering more than 5000 km during 1998-2016 and has started second round from 2017 along with Honey Bee Network volunteers.
 
Positions: Distinguished Visiting Professor, IIT Bombay, 2017-18; Editor, Honey Bee, a quarterly newsletter on grassroots green innovations, 1990 – present; Visiting Professor, Centre for Management in Agriculture, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, retired after teaching for 36 years; Member Advisory Committee, Future Innovation Forum, Seoul, 2016-2018; Member, IIMA Board of Directors, 2015-2017, Member, advisory board, Global Innovation Centre, UNICEF, New York (2015-2016); Member, Board of Directors in EdCIL (India) Limited (edcilindia.co.in) 2013 - 2016; Member, National Innovation Council, Chaired by Adviser to Prime Minister (2010-2013); Director, Dena Bank, 2006-09; Kasturbhai Lalbhai Chair in Entrepreneurship, IIMA (2003-2008); Chairperson, Ravi J Matthai Centre for Educational Innovation, IIMA, 1993-1994; Chairperson, Research and Publications, IIMA, 1990-92; Exec Vice Chair, National Innovation Foundation; Coordinator, SRISTI and GIAN,
Teaching: Courses taught at IIMA include Globalizing and Resurgent India through Innovative Transformation (GRIT) with late Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, former President of India (2008-10) as co-faculty, Shodhyatra  (learning walk in Himalayan region), Creativity, Innovation, Knowledge Network and Entrepreneurship (CINE), Agri-business leadership; Doctoral level courses viz., Institution Building (IB), Technology and Natural Resource Management, etc.  
 
Honours:  Received Best Researcher award at IIMA, 2015, Humanistic Management Lifetime Achievement Award by the Humanistic Management Network, at the 73rd Annual meeting of the Academy of Management, USA, 2013; Ph.D Honoris Causa, San Martin de Porres University, October, Peru 2015; Doctor of Letters from Central University of Orissa, July, 2012; Hermes Award European Institute for Creative Strategies and Innovation, Paris, 2012; Padam Shri, 2004, a national civil award by The President of India;  Adjudged as one of the fifty most influential people in the field of intellectual property rights around the world in 2003, Managing Intellectual Property 2003, Adjudged as one of the Star Personalities of Asia, Business Week, 2001, apart from several other national and international honours.  Member of many governmental and corporate bodies, Prof. Gupta is a widely published author; Also See anilg.sristi.org

Biography

Biography

Karen has extensive expertise and experience in fund structuring, early stage investing, and fundraising. At YSB, Karen is responsible for overseeing the worldwide investment and portfolio management activities as well as building and training the investment team. Prior to YSB, she was the CFO at Affectis AG and an advisor to Swiss Business Angel Network B-to-V. Karen has also served for several years as an Investment Manager at Apax Partners in the life science sector and as a consultant at McKinsey & Co. She holds an MBA from INSEAD, Fontainebleau, and a M.Sc. in Biology from the University of Constance

Biography

Steve Hollingworth’s unflagging commitment through 30 years of work in international development has been to ensure that the delivery of financial services benefits the world’s poorest people and fulfils its promise of alleviating poverty.

Prior to joining The Grameen Foundation, Steve was President of Freedom from Hunger. Beginning in 2011, he focused that organization on the intersection of financial services and ending hunger through the empowerment of women in rural communities. Previously, he served as Chief Operating Officer for CARE, where he was instrumental in developing and implementing the organization-wide strategy and was responsible for direct-line management of global operations and programs. He has also held senior field positions in Asia (India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh), Africa (Lesotho) and Latin America (Bolivia), building collaboration between practitioners, technical assistance providers, donors and government agencies.

Steve has an M.S. in Economics, Development Studies, from Victoria University of Manchester, in Manchester, England.  He enrolled there as a Rotarian Fellow, and his thesis analyzed the field of microcredit and the role of Grameen Bank.  In that sense, Steve’s position as President and CEO of Grameen Foundation brings him full circle. Steve has a B.A. in Economics from Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, not far from his hometown of Elgin, Illinois.

Biography

Christina Jäger is leading the Plastic Lab, an initiative she co-founded with serial entrepreneur Hans Reitz and Ilona Geimer, a former senior executive at BASF SE, to address the issue of marine litter especially plastic waste in our oceans. The Plastic Lab’s purpose is to contribute to the transformation to a more circular economy. Together with its international network the Plastic Lab initiates and sets-up creative pilots to tackle the problem onshore by improving waste collection and recycling systems as well as redesigning packaging and developing alternative materials. Before Christina has worked on various Grameen Creative Lab projects developing a global social business movement: from organizing the annual Global Social Business Summit, lecturing at universities to developing business plans to set-up joint social business projects with GCL’s partner network.

Biography

Karen James is a global purpose expert with a no-nonsense approach to igniting ethical transformation. Fast-talking, funny and pulling no punches, Karen is a Jersey girl turned social entrepreneur, corporate change maker, engineer, author, podcast host, and speaker.

With an engineer's brain, an entrepreneurial mindset, 30 years of engineering and business experience, a knack for community engagement and ethical moral compass – Karen stands out in a business world often filled with suits and straight faces. From innovation to transformation to community building, Karen’s sharp intellect and global career brings something for everyone.

Biography

Dr. David Jordan has served as President of Seven Hills Foundation, a healthcare organization operating in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and in 8 developing nations and employs over 3,900 professional staff with an operating budget of $230 million (USD).

He received his Doctorate in HealthCare Administration (DHA) from the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC (USA). 

In 2007 Clark University named Dr. Jordan its ‘Social Entrepreneur-in-Residence’.  Professor Jordan served as the Founding Director of the first YSBC in the United States - the YSBC@Becker College - until 2017.  He now works as the USA Ambassador for Prof. Yunus in identifying new YSBC's in the United States and founded the YSB Resource & Support Center (yunusrsc.org). 

Biography

Andrea Jung is President and Chief Executive Officer of Grameen America, the leading micro-finance organization in the United States. She was appointed by Professor Muhammad Yunus in 2014  and under her leadership, Grameen America has now served over 100,000 women in poverty in fourteen U.S. cities, providing nearly $1 billion US in loans supporting entrepreneurship since the program’s inception.

Ms. Jung was the longest serving female chief executive officer in the Fortune 500. She served as Chairman and CEO of Avon from 1999 through 2012, focused on expanding economic earnings opportunities to over six million women in over one hundred countries.

Ms. Jung has been lauded globally for her dedication to empowering women.

Throughout her corporate tenure, Ms. Jung ranked consistently among the top leaders on lists including Fortune Magazine’s “Most Powerful Women in Business”, Forbes Magazine’s “Most Powerful Women in the World”, and Financial Times “Top Women in World Business”.

She currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of  Apple Inc., Unilever NV, and Rockefeller Capital Management.

Ms. Jung is a graduate of Princeton University

Biography

Mr. Amitabh Kant is presently CEO of National Institution for Transforming India (NITI). He is a member of the Indian Administrative Service, IAS (Kerala Cadre: 1980 batch). He is the author of Branding India - An Incredible Story. Mr. Kant has been a key driver of the “Make in India”, Startup India, “Incredible India” and God’s Own Country” initiatives that positioned India and Kerala State as leading manufacturing and tourism destinations. These campaigns have won several international awards and embraced a host of activities – infrastructure development, product enhancement, private-public partnership and positioning and branding based on extensive market research.  Mr. Kant also conceptualized the “Atithi Devo Bhavah” – “Guest is God” campaign to train Taxi Drivers, Guides, immigration officials and make them stake holders in the tourism development process. Mr. Amitabh Kant was also the National Project Director of the Rural Tourism Project of UNDP, which made a paradigm shift in spreading tourism to Indian villages, which had core-competency in handicrafts, handloom and culture.

Biography

Sunpower to 1) export used tires and recycle car parts to overseas and 2) provide the international business development consulting service, including the support for overseas companies to set up a business in Japan.

Before joining in Sunpower Corp, as a successor, worked in automotive segment, world #2 auto company.

Working experience in Germany and in the US. Working experience at a large enterprise in the US and reading Professor Yunus’ book, creating a world without poverty, almost 8-10 years ago, during my stay in the US transformed the vision of my work.

Biography

Abdul Hai Khan, practitioner of microfinance and social business, joined Grameen Trust (GT) as the Managing Director on January 1, 2017. He had been working in Grameen Trust as the General Manager since October 2005.

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 had the opportunity to work with Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus in Grameen Bank for more than 25 years.

He started his career in Grameen Bank as the Branch Manager and got number of promotions i.e. Program Officer, Area Manager, Assistant General Manager and Deputy General Manager. He had the opportunity to perform his responsibility also as a Zonal Manager of Grameen Bank where he supervised all Branches and Area Offices and more than 1000 staff of that respective Zone of Grameen Bank.

Mr. Khan has a wide range of experiences on GT’s worldwide replication programs following Grameen Bank Approach (GBA). He was the CEO of Kosovo Grameen Missione Arcobaleno Microcredit Fund (KGMAMF) in Kosovo from 2003-2005 and General Manager of Family Bank in Bahrain from 2009-2011. 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 a ‘Fact Finding Mission’ in Nepal in 2013.

Mr. Khan serves as the member of a number of Boards in different microfinance organizations and Social Business entities in Bangladesh, Kosovo and China.

Biography

Mr. Suresh Krishna is the Co-Founder, CEO & Managing Director of Yunus Social Business Fund Bengaluru and Co-Founder of Yunus Social Business India Initiatives.

Prior to this, he was at the helm of affairs at Grameen Koota, since its inception in 1999 as Managing Director (till July 2015).  He was instrumental in developing Grameen Koota into a large, socially responsible MFI having its outreach in 5 states of India. He has played a very active role in developing the microfinance sector in India, having co-founded microfinance industry associations, namely Microfinance Institutions Network and Association of Karnataka Microfinance Institutions.

He has also co-founded Grameen Affordable Shelters P. Ltd – a company which develops affordable housing for the low income households along with Mrs. Vinatha M. Reddy – Founder of Grameen Koota. He is the Managing Trustee of Navya Disha Trust, an NGO working to improve water, sanitation, financial literacy, and supplementary education for school children.

Suresh is passionate about social businesses in micro housing, financial literacy, education, renewable energy, agriculture and health care.

Biography

Parveen Mahmud, is the Founding Managing Director, Grameen Telecom Trust. In her varied professional career Ms. Mahmud has been working with innovations, entrepreneurship and sustainable development. She was a practicing chartered accountant. Ms. Mahmud is the first woman Council Member and President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB). She was also, the first female board member of the South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA). She is the Chairperson of MIDAS, pioneer in promoting SME and women entrepreneurship. Mrs Mahmud is the Chairperson of Shasha Denims Ltd., and Shasha Foundation. And she was the Chairperson, Acid Survivors’ Foundation.  

Biography

Mr. Rohtash Mal, serves as Chairman and Managing Director of EM3 AgriServices Pvt. Ltd. Mr. Mal served as the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of Escorts Agri Machinery. He served as Chief Executive Officer of Broadband and Telecom Service business of North operations at Bharti Airtel Limited and as Chief General Manager of Marketing and Sales of Maruti Suzuki. He has over 35 years of experience in managing a diverse range of Indian corporates and shares strong relationships with industrialists and government officials. He also has outstanding experience in executing greenfield projects, managing steady growth businesses and delivering turnaround. He is a member of the executive Advisory Committee at Simon Business School, University of Rochester.

Biography

Shaheen grew up in 5 countries around the world, and returned to India when she was 18 to start Akanksha. For 17 years, she worked with teachers and students, building Akanksha to provide 4000 children from low- income communities the kind of education that would maximize their greatest potential. Today, Akanksha serves 6500 children through their School Project and after-school centres in Mumbai and Pune.

In 2008, Shaheen founded Teach For India, with an audacious vision of providing an excellent education to all children across India through building a pipeline of leaders committed to ending educational inequity in India. Today, Teach For India directly impacts approximately 38,000 children across seven regions in India.

Shaheen is a Governing Council Member on the Maharashtra International Education Board (MIEB) and she serves on the boards of Akanksha Foundation and Simple education foundation. Shaheen is the author of the book, Re-drawing India. She has a Bachelor’s Degree from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai and a Master’s Degree from the University of Manchester.

Biography

Mr. Ratan Kumar Nag, Acting Managing Director of Grameen is one of the earliest associates of Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus during the project period of Grameen Bank. He has been appointed as the Acting Managing Director of Grameen Bank from October 29th, 2015.

Mr. Ratan Kumar Nag has been serving Grameen Bank at field level operation as field manager, branch manager, program officer, zonal audit officer and zonal manager. He also served as a faculty member of the training institute, departmental chief of International Program Department, Training and Special Program Department, Services Department, Administration Department and Deputy Managing Director.

Mr. Nag also worked with CASHPOR Malaysia (a microcredit organization) on deputation from 1997 until 1999, where he supervised Grameen replication projects in Asia- Pacific region. Mr. Nag was a member of the Board of Director of Grameen Kalyan and is a member of the management committee of Grameen Caledonian College of Nursing. He completed his masters in Management from the University of Dhaka. He was also a member of the delegation of Professor Muhammad Yunus at Congressional Gold Medal ceremony, USA.

Biography

Yoan is the Head of the Yunus Sports Hub, the global alliance aiming to unleash the power of sport to solve social issues, powered by YC and GCL.

Formerly Procurement Manager for Rio 2016 Olympics, Yoan led the team in charge of tendering over 200 contracts for the Games organization.

Yoan was decisive in the organization of 2017 GSBS in Paris with GCL and in the signature of Paris 2024 agreement for the first ever-inclusive Games. Yoan is 31, grew up in a farm in the south of France, speaks fluently 4 languages and played rugby at professional level.

Biography

Ligia Noronha was appointed Director of the UN Environment (UNEP), Division of Technology, Industry and Economics (DTIE - now known as Economy Division) in April 2014.
Since her appointment, she has guided UN Environment, Economy Division in delivering its mandate of promoting environmental sustainability through technology, industry, and economic policy, and has led the implementation of three of UN Environment seven sub-programmes, namely climate change, chemicals and waste, and resource efficiency.
Prior to joining UN Environment, Ligia Noronha served in The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) as Executive Director of Research Coordination and as Director of the Resources, Regulation and Global Security Division.
From 2005 to 2011 she served as Secretary of the Asian Energy Institute and, from 2005 to 2009, as Coordinator of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnerships (REEEP), South Asia. In 2004 and 2005, she was Team Leader of Ecosystem Approaches to Human Health at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).
Ligia Noronha has served on the National Security Advisory Board of the Government of India, and on several expert committees of the Government of India and Goa, including the Expert Committee on Climate Change, the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel, and the Task Force on Natural Resources of the Commission on Centre State Relations.
In addition, she has been a member of the Planning Board of the Government of Goa and member of the Goa Jubilee Development Council, a member of Shell International’s External Review Committee on Sustainability Reporting, and member of the Global Assurance Group’s project on Minerals, Metal and Sustainable Development.
Ligia Noronha has published internationally on issues relevant to energy and resource security, climate change, India's environmental and coastal policy, responsible mining, and resource federalism. From 2009 to 2011, she was a Visiting Senior Fellow at the University of Sydney based Centre for International Security Studies (CISS).

She holds a Masters in Economics from the University of Bombay, a Masters in Sea Use Law, Economics, and Policy, and a PhD from the London School of Economics.

Biography

Anna Perinic is Managing Director of Grameen Danone Foods Ltd since June 2016. The social business is providing fortified yogurt to 300 000 kids, and impacting lives of 500 farmers, 250 Shokti Ladies and 350 danoners.

Anna has 14 years experience in strategy consultancy in France, working for FMCG companies (Danone, Orange, Heineken) to develop new access to markets and innovative business models. After working on the launch of danone communities fund in 2007, she changes path of her career to get involved in Social Business.

She spent 6 months in 2009 at Laiteries du Berger, in Senegal, a social business funded by danone communities where she contributed to the launch of the brand Dolima. She joined for 2 years as Marketing and Sales Director a Senegaleses FMCG company where she worked to establish a more focused and profitable offer, by leveraging local sourcing and developing nutritional portfolio.

In 2012, Anna was then recruited to launch a social business in Ghana connecting a 5 000 rural women network to shea butter and nuts market. The network reached 25 000 women within 4 years.

Biography

Hans Reitz was born in 1966 and raised in Bavaria. At the age of twenty he embarked on a journey that took him from India to Afghanistan and Iraq. His deep interest for the arts and culture led him to the studies of classical south-Indian music during his time in India.

In Germany he founded the creative agency "circ" and thereafter he continuously expanded the agency’s expertise. As a creative advisor of Nobel Prize winner Prof. Yunus, he has helped to spread the idea of "Social Business" since 2007. Together with Prof. Yunus, he founded the “Grameen Creative Lab”.

Biography

An economic sociologist and public policy specialist, Dr Michael Roy’s main research interests relate to thinking about and evaluating social business as a form of health and well-being ‘intervention’. Michael teaches on a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and is Programme Leader of a Masters in Social Business and Microfinance.

He continues to present his work and contribute to conferences and workshops in many different countries internationally.

A skilled project and programme manager, social entrepreneur and – from over a decade working in the Scottish Government - policy analyst, Michael was also a freelance consultant working with a range of public sector and third sector clients on research projects and on business and policy development.

Biography

Dr. Achyuta Samanta is an educationist, philanthropist, social entrepreneur par excellence and the harbinger of ‘coalition of conscience’ – an innovative sustainable model to be emulated adapting to socio-economic cultural milieu with fruits of liberalization percolating to every strata and ‘diversifying of talent pool’ thereby contributing to nation building. He envisioned- complete education for social development two decades ago has now been vindicated by the global leaders as they emphasize on education as one of the most important objectives under UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

KISS - located in Bhubaneswar, India - is a free of cost, fully-residential school for 37,000 indigenous students; this includes a mammoth body of 27,000 current students and over 10,000 alumni. KISS was founded in 1993 by Dr. Achyuta Samanta, with a vision of a world free of hunger, illiteracy and poverty.

Biography

Satake founded a joint venture company for social business with Professor. Muhammad Yunus . They started “the mung beans project”, which supported local farmers in Bangladesh to use Japanese agriculture technology and to increase farmer‘s income. Since Apr 2015, this project is carried forward with euglena Co., Ltd under the name of “Grameen Euglena” (EGG).

At 2018, over 8,200 farmers were involved in this project and their income increased

20 million BDT compare with 2017.  1,000 ton mung beans will be exported to japan. He has been searching for further opportunities to contribute more for better living standards in Bangladesh.

Biography

M Shahjahan is the advisor to Chairperson Professor Muhammed Yunus. Earlier he was the Managing Director(CEO) of Grameen Bank. He acted as the Managing Director of Grameen Bank from 14 August 2011 to 30 October 2015. Now, he is on retirement. Earlier, he served as the Deputy Managing Director, the General Manager and Head of the Accounts, Finance, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Division, the Chief of the Audit Department, and the Zonal Manager of Grameen Bank. Mr. Shahjahan is a member of the Board of Directors of several companies that work in the fields of health, education, agriculture, welfare, renewable energy and telecommunications. He obtained a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) degree in Accounting from the University of Dhaka in 1976, as well as a Master’s degree in Accounting in 1977 and a Master’s degree in Finance in 1981. He was awarded ICAB Medal (Silver) for passing the ‘C.A. Intermediate’ examination at the earliest eligible chance in 1981.

Biography

Zarina Screwvala is a founder trustee of the Swades Foundation, which operates with the single-minded focus of empowering rural India through holistic and sustainable growth by engaging with and empowering village communities, executing multiple programmes on the ground and working towards an exit strategy.

The Swades foundation has created a unique 360-degree model of development with 350 full time staff, who work in 1900 villages impacting just under half a million people across drinking water & sanitation, nutrition, health, education, progressive farming, animal husbandry, skilling & other livelihoods.

Zarina was also one of the Founder-Directors of UTV (now a part of the Walt Disney Company India) and is an active member of New Acropolis, a school of philosophy.

Biography

Mr. Sanjiv Krishnaji Shelgikar has earned his Bachelor of Commerce in 1974 He has been a Member of Institute of Chartered Accountant of India. He has been in practice as Chartered Accountant since 1978.

He has worked with P.D. Kunte & Co., Chartered Accountants, as apprentice, handling specialized tax planning assignments – September 1978 till September 1981. He has worked with ex-Chief Justice of Supreme Court of India for editing Rammayya’s Companies Act, published by Wadhwa & Co. He has worked for reputed VIDEOCON group for Group Finance, Dept. handling all local IPO’s, International mobilization of debt and equity, domestic and International Structured financial products for the Group’s finances aggregating over Rs.2000 crores. He has experience working for a reputed pharmaceutical company for local I P O and the connected assignments. Worked for agro-products company for local I P O and International equity mobilization. Worked for Global acquisition of Thomson & Electrolux. He developed and implemented successfully structured products for finances through SPV’s and credit enhanced products in Indian Corporates.

Biography

Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty is dedicated to make healthcare affordable to all. He is currently acting as the chairman and executive director of Narayana Hrudayalaya, a leading network of hospitals based in India. His prominence in cardiac surgery began when he performed a heart surgery on a new born baby, the first case in India. Besides his stellar practice, he also runs a sizable cardiac surgical training program.

Dr. Shetty has made significant contribution in conceptualizing micro health insurance as tool for the rural farming population to access affordable surgery. By working with the Government of Karnataka state, Yeshaswini Micro Health Insurance was created. Till date nearly 3.5 million farmers have enrolled in the scheme.  

The Government of India recognized his efforts by awarding him the 'Padma Shri' and 'Padma Bhushan' Award.

Biography

Mr. Shankar Man Shrestha is a microfinance expert with more than 50 years of experience in the rural and microfinance industry. He is the Chairman, and the founder Executive Director of the Centre for Self-help Development (CSD), which is the pioneer microfinance NGO in Nepal. He worked as the CEO (from August 1999 to April 2014) in Rural Microfinance Development Centre Ltd., the first wholesale lending organization for microfinance, which has been instrumental in promoting and developing the sector in Nepal. He has also worked in the Agricultural Development Bank Ltd. under various capacities for 25 years.

He holds an M.A. Degree in Economics from Tribhuvan University, Nepal and was a special student of Agricultural Economics at the Texas A&M University, USA. He has a long and rich experience in the microfinance fraternity both at home and abroad.

Biography

Marie Soubeiran started her career at Danone in 2007 in India, in brand marketing. In 2008 she started to be involved with Grameen Danone in Bangladesh, going on various operational marketing missions to support Shokti ladies program, rural schools program, new product launches and media strategy.

In 2013 she went back to France and worked in the Danone Sensory and Consumer behavior department, supporting innovation projects for Danone Dairy division.

In 2018 she joined Danone Communities again, as a communication and employee engagement manager. Her role is to increase awareness about Danone Communities, the social businesses we support, and their actions. It’s also to engage the Danone employees to put their skills and expertise to good use for the 10 social businesses that Danone Communities supports across 12 countries.

Biography

Professor Sriram is Faculty at the Centre for Public Policy, IIM-B and a Distinguished Fellow of Institute for Development of Research in Banking Technology. He co-teaches a course on Social Entrepreneurship at IIM Ahmedabad and at IIMB he teaches a course “Business Unusual: Understanding Alternate Business Models”. He has co-authored three Books and has written the Inclusive Finance India Report thrice. His latest book “Talking Financial Inclusion in Liberalised India: Conversations with the Governors of RBI” examines the evolution of policy in the liberalized India. He has worked closely with governments and the RBI in the past.

Biography

Abida Sultana is the co-founder of Onnosheba, a diner & a food caterer, which serves nutritious & healthy food at an affordable price to menial workers in urban area of Chittagong, Bangladesh.  She is also a director of Chittagong Social Business Center & looks after the project proposals from new entrepreneurs & their implementations.
On completion of her Post graduation in Marine Sciences she engaged herself in the family run business in Aqua-Culture. She also worked in primary and high School as a Science coordinator and teacher for seven years.

In 2014 she started Onnosheba as a pilot project to serve nutritious packaged food & snacks at an affordable price for some primary schools and low-income working adults in the vision to change the unhealthy traditional street food culture. The project which started with the investment of her personal savings of approximate 900.00 USD and engaged only five menial workers made turnover of about 44500.00 USD in the last half of 2016 and currently engages 24 hands many of which are previously unemployed female. Currently to reach out to bigger customers Onnosheba does not only sell the food products from its own outlet but it also supplies to potential street vendors at strategic locations around the city on short term credit.

Biography

Mr. Md. Imamus Sultan currently holding the responsibility of Managing Director, Grameen Kalyan (Grameen Wellbeing). Among its various activities, Grameen Kalyan (GK) is providing primary healthcare services for the rural community and running 73 communities based primary health centers. It is also providing financial support to Grameen Bank (GB)’s members, employees and their families. Before joining in GK, Mr. Sultan was actively involved in creating social businesses under the guidance of Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus since 2006 and held the responsibility of Managing Director of Grameen Danone Foods Ltd., a joint venture with Groupe DANONE of France during its establishment phase. He was also the founding Managing Director of Grameen Health Care Services Ltd. Both are social business enterprises. He was also actively involved in setting up some other social business companies namely Grameen Intel Social Business Ltd., Grameen Veolia Water Ltd. Grameen BASF Ltd. During 1998-2005, he worked as Micro-credit Consultant in Egypt Project Hope, Cairo, Egypt an affiliated Foundation of Arab Gulf Fund for United Nation Organizations (AGFUND). He joined in Grameen Bank (GB) in 1980 and held different positions during his 20 years’ service in GB until his voluntary retirement as Deputy General Manager in 2000. He performed as a short term ILO consultant in July-August, 1996. Other than his position as Managing Director of Grameen Kalyan, Mr. Sultan is also Member in the Board of Directors of several Grameen Companies. He is married, 62 years old and father of a daughter.

Biography

Ms. Nazneen Sultana has been serving as the Managing Director and the Chief Executive Officer of Grameen Communications since its inception in 1997. At Grameen Communications, she led various projects for reaching ICT to the remote villages, development of world’s first  & complete micro banking software that’s been being used by more than 100 MFIs including Grameen Bank. She was also actively involved in formation of some social business companies i.e. euglena (Formerly, GrameenYukiguniMaitake Ltd).

Having completed BS and MS in Applied Mathematics from University of Chittagong, Bangladesh, she started her career at Grameen Bank and established ICT wing of the Bank. Meanwhile, she achieved a diploma in Management Information Systems from Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. Having experience in IT field for more than 22 years, she’s been serving as Director of different IT companies including Accenture Bangladesh. Moreover, she serves as executive member of NGOs that deal with gender issues, affordable healthcare for poor, women empowerment and ICT for development.

Nowadays, with the guidance of Professor Muhammad Yunus, she has been leading development of software for Social Business Monitoring System and a web portal named ‘Social Business Pedia’-a global web encyclopedia for social business resources. Moreover, she is leading formation of two social business companies that will provide online programming education and e-waste management services in Bangladesh.

Biography

Narayan Sundararajan co-founded and is the CTO of Grameen Intel, a joint venture between Intel and Grameen where he spearheaded development of products such as the maternal wellness bangle, vaccine monitoring solution and a digital soil testing kit for agriculture among others. He is also a Principal Engineer and Director in the New Technology Group at Intel where he conceptualized gesture-based music creation using wearables working with Oscar winning musician AR Rahman and created the cricket bat sensor which debuted at the ICC Champions Trophy 2017. Narayan holds 35+ patents issued with 30+ pending. He also has published 24 peer-reviewed papers and co-authored a book titled “Micro fabrication for Micro fluidics” published by Artech Publishers. He is also co-authoring a book titled “The Rule of One: The Power of Social Entrepreneurship” to be published end of 2018.

Educated at the Indian Institute of Technology (B.Tech) and Cornell (M.S, Ph.D.), Narayan is also a freelance actor, documentary and film-maker having produced, co-directed and acted in 2 full length Indian feature films. He is very passionate about applying cutting edge technologies to address global social issues.  

Biography

Kadambelil Paul Thomas, Founder of ESAF Group of Social Enterprises including the ESAF Small Finance Bank is an Indian social entrepreneur acknowledged for his unique approach to addressing the socio-economic problem through financial inclusion based on cooperative principles. Backed by nearly two decades of experience in the cooperative sector with world’s largest Fertilizer Cooperative (IFFCO – Indian Farmers Fertilizers Cooperative Ltd) and driven by the purpose of creating the social impact that aims to address the partiality in prosperity, Paul founded several Group of Social Enterprises.

Paul holds positions as MFIN (Microfinance Institutions Network), CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) and also, a speaker in various national and international forums such as Harvard Business School, The European Microfinance Platform, Global Microcredit Summit at Spain, International Labour Organization (ILO). Paul has received several national and international honors, recent of this being: “Entrepreneur of the Year Award” by TieCon.

The contributions the ESAF Group of Social Enterprises continue to be recognized in projects with the World Bank, FMO, Water.Org, and Government of India initiatives in various community development projects.

Biography

Christian grew up in French Polynesia. His entrepreneurial apprenticeship started at 15 when he launched an anonymous blog about politics and economics, the first of its kind to give an independent overview of the situation in Tahiti, and especially discussing colonialism.

Sparked by a book by Mohammad Yunus, in 2010 Christian embarked on a trip across Asia to meet social entrepreneurs and to help them solve their challenges. And as Christian curated a blog about his experience; he also saw the potential of a huge community of young people around the world to contribute their creativity to helping social entrepreneurs’ problem-solve. This sparked the idea of MakeSense.

The power of MakeSense also lies in the community’s openness: Christian has created entry points, engagement formats and incentives for anyone who wants to participate in positive social change to easily join the MakeSense community. He started with the young idealists 2.0 who are familiar with new technologies and have fast-paced lives and engagement capacity, before developing strategies to include professors and students in university contexts, and professionals in their work environment.

Christian Vanizette has designed an accessible, yet highly structured approach for social entrepreneurs worldwide to resolve strategic and operational challenges.

Biography

Alex Wang, Founder and Secretary-General of Youthink Center in China, one of the leading Chinese youth-led “Think and Do” tank focusing on global challenges and opportunities. Founded in 2009, Youthink Center had the vision to build an eco-system to support young leader to learn, advocate and take actions on Social Business, SDGs, Climate Change etc. Youthink has won Youth4Asia Award by Asian Development Bank in 2015, UN People’s Voices Award for Best Social Media Campaign in 2015 by United Nations SDG Action Campaign, Haifan Award by People’s Daily in China in 2017.
 
Alex was Initiator of Chinese Youth Delegation to UN Rio+20 and then he led Chinese Youth participation on global development agenda. Prior to Youthink, he worked as Director of International Cooperation and Business Development in China Foundation Center, led GrantCraft Chinese Project, and served as Secretary-General of Chinese Foundation High-level Leaders’ Delegation to Harvard University in 2012.

Biography

Ms. Arti Wing, co-founder and country director at Yunus Social Business India. Aarti has developed and led the India perations of the USB movement since its inception, first as country Director of the Grameen Creative Lab and now as part of Yunus Social Business. She helped create the YSB Fund Mumbai and currently Social businesses. Previously, Arti worked as an investment banker at JP Morgan in Mumbai. Artiholds a Master’s degree in Finance from in London school of Economics.

Biography

After having studied managerial economics I made a degree in social sciences. In 2012, I worked for the Wuppertal Institute of Climate, Environment and Energy and then applied for a job at the UNESCO Chair for Entrepreneurship and Intercultural Management in 2013. During my work at the chair, I was responsible for teaching Social Entrepreneurship and Social Business, organised events like SBAC in 2015 or Sustainable Insights in 2016, jointly with partners, and supported for the local enactus team as a University Advisor.

I completed a cumulative PhD Thesis titled “Social Business Innovations” containing four studies in the field of social business. My contract at the Chair ended in April 2018, the defense of the PhD will take place end of May.

Biography

Before joining Grameen China, GAO Zhan served as a reporter of the National Development and Reform Commission’s internal references “Reform Internal Reference” and “China Reform”, deputy director of the journalism department of the National Development and Reform Commission. He is also a visiting scholar of the US State Department.

Grameen China is dedicated to helping the low-income people especially women who live in poverty, build their small businesses, get out of poverty and live better life,  through replicating the Grameen microcredit model in China.

Grameen China has successfully launched projects in Yunnan Province, Henan Province, Jiangsu Province and Shenzhen City.

Biography

Ms. Nurjahan Begum, currently working as Advisor to Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, has an outstanding career with Grameen since inception of the Grameen Bank in 1976. She was one of the earliest associates of Professor Yunus during the establishment of Grameen Bank. She served as Principal of Grameen Bank Central Training Institute, General Manager, Training & Special Program and Deputy Managing Director of the bank. She became Acting Managing Director of Grameen Bank soon after the bank’s founder Professor Yunus left the bank in 2011.

Ms. Nurjahan worked as Managing Director of Grameen Shakti – the largest off-grid solar energy company in the world. She also worked as Managing Director of Grameen Shikkha from 1997, the year Shikkha was established, to end of December 2016. She is serving as Chairperson of Grameen Distribution Ltd. and director of some Grameen companies like Grameen Trust, Grameen Kalyan, Grameen Agricultural Foundation, Grameen Knitwear Ltd., and Grameen Fisheries & Livestock Foundation. She is serving as director of Grameen Italia Foundation, Italy and Center for Mass Education in Science (CMES), Bangladesh. She also served Grameenphone Ltd., Bangladesh and Grameen Foundation, USA as director.

Ms. Nurjahan was awarded Susan M. Davis Lifetime Achievement Award 2008 by Grameen Foundation, the World Summit Millennium Development Goals Award 2009, and the Vision Award 2009. She received Outstanding Contribution to Education Award at Ed Leadership 7th International Roundtable 2014. She participated in the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit held in Los Angeles in 2007 and was appointed President to the Foundation for Justice Prize giving ceremony held in Valencia, Spain in 2007.

Biography

Nurfarini is co-founder and CEO of myHarapan, established in 2011, dedicated to developing independent and wholesome youth by empowering them with opportunities offered by social entrepreneurship. She was previously the general manager for 1½ years before assuming her role as CEO. She was previously with the Multimedia Development Corporation and headed the Project Management & IT services unit, Technopreneurs Development Department. She has 18 years of start-up experience and also did training and coaching for small enterprises and unemployed graduates. She is also mentor and coach to Malaysian social businesses and is a founding member of the Malaysian Social Business Network.

Biography

Shazeeb M Khairul Islam is the Founder & President of Social Business Youth

Alliance (SBYA), an organisation that connects 13,000+ youth to social business

and harnesses the power of young people, technology and entrepreneurship to

bring social change. Shazeeb is the CEO of YY Goshti, a social business incubator

that supports entrepreneurs with training, mentorship, office space and access to

resources and advises Give2Asia in strengthening communities throughout Asia by

building trusted networks for social investment. He was the founding Country

Director of YGAP Bangladesh and envisions a world where every youth will work

their communities’ way out of poverty.

Biography

Chetna Gala Sinha has worked with people’s movements since the early 1980s. In 1996, she founded the Mann Deshi Foundation in Mhaswad, and in 1997, India’s first bank set up for and by rural women was formed. Today, the organization runs a Women’s Empowerment Programme that includes a dozen Business Schools for rural women and young girls and four Chambers of Commerce for rural women entrepreneurs. It also has a Community Empowerment Programme for Farmers that supports Water Conservation, Fair Trade and Access to Markets. It has a Sports Programme for talented athletes and a women-owned Community Radio which reaches over 100,000 listeners. The Bank regularly creates new financial products to support the needs of women micro-entrepreneurs. To date, Mann Deshi has supported over 400,000 women and plans to reach one million women entrepreneurs by 2022. Before she founded Mann Deshi, Chetna was involved in several Gandhian, farmers and feminist movements, including the Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) movement. Chetna has received numerous awards for her work including the 2005 Jankidevi Bajaj Award for Rural Entrepreneurship, the 2005 Ashoka Changemakers Award, the 2010 EdelGive Social Innovation Honors (Livelihood Category) and the Schwab Foundation’s 2013 Social Entrepreneur of the Year. She was part of the first class of Yale University’s World Fellows Programme in 2002-03. She is on the Board of the Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK), the Women & Child Development flagship national programme to economically empower women. She is also a member of the National Committee for Promotion of Social and Economic Welfare constituted under Section 35AC of Income Tax Act, 1961. In January 2018, she has served as a Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Biography

Nasir Ali Mamun has already crowned the founder of portrait photography in Bangladesh. For more than four decades he is on his odyssey to taste the grit and glamour of iconic portraits in a country like Bangladesh. His subjects happen to be creative figures and celebrities.

Mamun's works achieved much acclaims in 57 solo exhibitions at home and abroad. His camera captured many rare moments of rarer humans in a spirit of discovery. Light and shadow form a marvel of art in his hands, in figures of black and white alone. There are 12 of his books available in print today.

As a personal photographer of Professor Muhammad Yunus since 1978, Mamun accompanied the Nobel Peace Laureate across the globe. The cherished photographer was born in Dhaka on July 1, 1953. He grabs history with camera and his portraits are priceless for the people, history and time.

Biography

Michael Brohm was born in 1966. He studied at Technische Hochschule Darmstadt Political Science, Sociology and Philosophy and achieved the Degree Magister Artium (University).  From 1996 – 2012, he worked at three different agencies in the field of event business, live marketing and brand building for large companies, such as BMW, Audi, Volkswagen, Siemens, Adidas and many more. Since 2012 he is one of the Managing Directors at Grameen Creative Lab and was mainly responsible for the Global Social Business Summits 2012-2017. Michael is also in charge at GCL for the academic network

Biography

Rogério is a social business entrepreneur, co-founder of Yunus Social Business Brazil. He has 15 years’ experience in leading teams in the areas of product development, innovation, sales & marketing, general management and start-ups implementation within companies as BRMALLS, Warner Bros, Johnson & Johnson and Nestle. He is also an specialist on the field of Happiness at Work, and founder of Workganic - a company that provides workshops, lectures and consultancy for business schools and organizations as Walmart, Coca-Cola, Telmex, Johnson&Johnson and others. He is a invited mentor and part of the due diligence team at Singularity University, a program supported by NASA and Google at Silicon Valley for impactful entrepreneurs. Rogério is a columnist at PEGN, the main entrepreneurship magazine in Brazil, and has an academic background in communication. He holds an MBA from HEC Montreal in Canada.

Biography

Bastian is Director of Partnerships and Investor Relations at Yunus Social Business Global (YSB). In his role he is building bridges between exceptional social business entrepreneurs in emerging economies and international philanthropists. He has experience in supporting the social business landscape in East-Africa and Latin America.

Prior to YSB, Bastian helped to shape the pro bono ecosystem in Germany as co-founder of a social business in pro bono economics. He has experience in international development as advisor for SMEs in Sub-Sahara Africa and worked in microfinance in Latin America.

Biography

Biography

Sohel Ahmed is currently working as the Managing Director of Grameen Shakti, looking after the overall activities from policy and operational level to local and international liaison and coordination. Grameen Shakti is the most successful organization participated in the Solar Home System (SHS) program in Bangladesh, installing more than 1.7 M SHS, emphasizing on Environmental protection, Financial Inclusion and Women Empowerment. He has been working in the field of Renewable Energy for over a decade, having experience of modelling and managing solar portfolios that includes Solar Home System, Solar Irrigation System, Solar Drinking Water, Solar Mini-Grid and so on, ensuring value addition to the socio-economic bottom line of the country. Sohel has the experience of working with SDG implementation, assessment and strategy, participating in different local and international panels, including UN sessions.

Biography

SUSMITA MOHANTY is a spaceship designer and serial space entrepreneur. She is the cofounder and CEO of EARTH2ORBIT, India’s first private space start-up. She has cofounded and led two other companies, MOONFRONT in San Francisco [2001-2007] and LIQUIFER in Vienna [2004-ongoing]. Before turning entrepreneur, Susmita worked in business development for the International Space Station program at Boeing in California. She also worked on Shuttle-Mir missions at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Since 1998, Susmita has worked with the Americans, Japanese, Europeans, Russians and Indians in various capacities, as employee, consultant, contractor, entrepreneur and advisor. In 2005, Susmita was honored on Capitol Hill [Washington DC] with the International Achievement Award for promoting international cooperation through entrepreneurial space ventures. In 2012, she was voted into Financial Times’ list of “25 Indians to Watch”. In 2016, she was nominated to the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Future Council for Space Technologies. Educated in India, France, and Sweden, Susmita holds multiple degrees including a PhD.

Biography

Bordin Rassameethes is currently a director of Technology & Innovation for Sustainability Center and Yunus Center at Kasetsart University, a President-Elect and former Vice President of Kasetsart University.  He is a former Dean of Faculty of Business Administration. He received his Ph.D. in Management of Technology from Vanderbilt University in the United States. He holds a MS degree in Management from North Carolina State University, USA and BS in Computer Science from University of Miami, USA.  

He has been working in the field of technology management, which includes electronic commerce, information technology, rural informatics, and supply chains management.  He has served as project managers for numerous research and consulting projects and received more than US$10 million dollars research and consulting grants with in the past ten years. Bordin Rassameethes has published more than thirty articles in refereed journals, five books, and over 100 articles in magazines, serves as a columnist in Thailand Bloomberg BusinessWeek, advisor editor of three international journals namely International Journal of Business and Development Research (IJBDR), International Journal of Accounting Practice and Research (IJAPR) and International Journal of Sustainable Strategy and Research (IJSSR), and editorial board for many international journals.

Biography

Dr. Chien-wen Shen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Business Administration and the Division Director of the University Social Responsibility Office at the National Central University (NCU). He also serves as the Director of the Yunus Social Business Center and the Center for Media and Social Impact at NCU and the Executive Director of the Social Impact Institute of Taiwan. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences from Northwestern University. His research interests include big data analytics, information management, supply chain management, decision science, and social business.

Biography

Kazi I. Huque is the CEO of Grameen Intel Company and Finance Director at Intel’s venture capital and M&A group with worldwide responsibilities. Previously at a high tech startup (acquired by Oxford Molecular) and a technology consultant for EDS.

The Grameen Intel Company is based in Dhaka, Bangladesh and focused on information services to connect the unconnected population. The company currently has software solutions to address low agriculture output and a wearable device for pre-natal care. The company also has collaboration projects with other organizations on research and development for new technologies.

Biography

A visionary, entrepreneur, business leader, orator, former venture capitalist and curator of INK talks, Lakshmi Pratury has impacted much of the change that India is undergoing in its present ‘disruptive’ avatar.

She founded INK in 2010, with a certain urgency to tell India’s untold stories. She firmly believes that a strong community nurtures leaders from diverse disciplines to create a mindset of impact. She has been instrumental in bringing influential organisations like Google, Tata Trusts, Mytrah Energy on board to support the INK Fellows Program and has served twice as director and co-host of the SingularityU India Summit.

Lakshmi was also featured in the Forbes’ list of “Women to Watch in Asia”.

Biography

Prometheus Siddiqui is a development professional who is currently engaged with Grameen Australia as Group Projects Director. As a member of the senior executive and management team of the Grameen Australia group Prometheus heads stakeholder engagement and project management and advises on strategy. His current portfolio includes projects in Asia (Philippines, Cambodia and Bangladesh). He also supports the group exec team and board in leading various Australian initiatives. Prometheus is also member of the board of Directors of Grameen Australia’s Singapore based subsidiary Dana Asia. Prometheus’ previous roles have been with NDB Capital Limited (a Sri Lankan Investment Bank) and UN Capital Development Fund (volunteer consultant) at the regional headquarters of United Nations in Bangkok, Thailand. He has been working with the Grameen family of companies chaired by Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus since 2012. Prometheus is also sessional academic (lecturer) at his alma mater Victoria University in Sydney, Australia.

Biography

She graduated in piano and information science and technology. She improved her composing activity with Master Fabio Vacchi in Post Graduate Master Course “Opera composition”, Opera Academy Verona, and High Composition Master Course with Master Azio Corghi, Royal Philharmonic Academy of Bologna. While testing new forms of composition, she joins the study of sax, violoncello and electronic music and techniques of jazz improvisation. She co-operates with different producers for the production of spots, documentaries and short films. She composed on commission for major centres of contemporary art galleries and music organizations.

Biography

Giles is the CEO of Global Impact Initiative (GII) and has over 20 years’ experience in building and developing businesses for global enterprises. Global Impact Initiative works with organisations to create Impact Investments that map the UN Sustainable Development goals.

In 2017 Giles received an Outstanding Alumnus award from Oxford for creating an innovative, sustainable business that generates positive social impact.

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. He also holds numerous Volunteer Not-for-Profit Directorships ranging from Human Rights, Disabilities, Arts and Sports.

Giles has formal academic qualifications from Melbourne University, Monash University, Financial Services Institute of Australia and Oxford University.

Biography

Graduated in Laws, in Religious Sciences and in Psychological Sciences and Techniques. Ph.D. in Commercial law. Master in Management of live entertainment. Professor of Commercial Law and of Law of Trade and Financial Markets at the Faculties of Economics and Laws of the University of Urbino. Scientific director of the project "Business and Culture. Culture as a driver for economic and social development " , with the artistic director M. ° Felicia Bongiovanni. Author of several books and articles. She hasbeen a member of the Ethics Committee of  Coop Adriatica, one of the Italian biggestcooperatives, and she is currently a member of the board of directors of the Italian listedcompanies Unipolsai Assicurazioni and Biesse Group.

Biography

At Tata Trusts, Manoj is responsible for creating sustainable ventures that serve critical social needs. Manoj leads the university partnerships and innovation portfolio for the Trusts and founded the social enterprise incubator to enable lab to market transition of social innovation ideas and prototypes. He is also the architect of Social Alpha, an ecosystem stack that aims to provide full lifecycle support to social innovators and entrepreneurs including validating the product strategy, business incubation, go to market and seed capital. Manoj is currently raising a venture capital fund to provide early stage risk capital to high impact technology start-ups in the social sector.

Prior to his association with Tata Trusts, Manoj co-founded Malgharia, a boutique consulting firm that helps companies identify and address their most critical challenges and turnaround business performance. He has been an entrepreneur as well as investor with about 15 start-ups in his personal portfolio. He has also worked for over two decades in investment banking and financial technology firms, playing global leadership roles, mostly in the areas of Sales & Trading, Product Management, Corporate Strategy, M&A, Business Development, Innovation and R&D Management. Manoj serves on the advisory and governing boards of a number of companies, including a few non-profits and research institutions.

Manoj is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and lives in Bangalore, India.

Biography

Md. Ashraful Hassan has been working with Grameen Group since 1984. He currently serves as Managing Director of Grameen Telecom and in engaged in promoting and providing easy access to GSM cellular services in rural Bangladesh. He also serves as Managing Director of Grameen Distribution Ltd. and Grameen Shamogree. Out of those Grameen Grameen Distribution Ltd. is a large Social Business Company. He has a profound knowledge in sales and channels and product sourcing. He keeps his own signature tune in Grameen Distribution with a broad experience in the concept of business development and supply chain management. He gained extensive and diversified knowledge in various industrial sectors especially in the field of textile focusing on resource efficient and energy saving production having wide exposures in the industrial management, export market, labor management and so on. Mr. Ashraf also acquired wide range of experience for different kinds of project development and industrial setup especially in social business. He has extensive knowledge in the field of construction engineering and he extended notable contribution to the infrastructural development of Grameen Group. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of several enterprises that play commendable role in the fields of renewable energy, healthcare, food and nutrition, information and communication, technology, employment generation and so forth. He holds Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Khulna University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh

Biography

Lamiya Morshed has been the Executive Director of Yunus Centre, the global hub for social business founded by Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, since its inception in 2008. Previously she served for 12 years as Director, Development of Grameen Trust which sets up microcredit programs around the world. She serves as the Managing Director of Grameen Healthcare Trust and is a board member of Grameen Healthcare Services, Grameen Creative Lab, Yunus Social Business, Grameen Intel, Grameen Trust, Grameen Euglena Ltd. and Grameen Caledonian College of Nursing. She has been a speaker at numerous high level international conferences and summits around the world on the subject of microcredit and social business, and regularly serves as a judge for global social business competitions.

Biography

Kishwar Imdad brings more than 20 years of corporate experience both local and international market environment including 8 years in Hospital operations and management. He obtained Master in Business Administration (MBA) from Institute of Business Administration (IBA) in 1995, with Major in Marketing. He also attained Masters in Management from Dhaka University and post graduate certification in Business Marketing Analysis from George Brown College, Toronto, Canada.

His career track includes operations and business development, customer relationship management (CRM), sales administration, market research and project management. Kishwar worked for multinational companies like Nestle, Itochu Corporation, Apollo Hospitals etc. At present, he is working as Chief Executive Officer of Samajik Health Science Institute and Research Center as well as performing responsibility as Managing Director (acting) of Grameen Health Care Services Ltd. Kishwar Imdad is a business professional, management consultant and corporate trainer. Besides his professional life, he is a columnist and writer.

Biography

Born is 1945, Professor Muhammad Ibrahim had his education in Dhaka University, Bangladesh and a Ph.D. in Physics from Southampton University, UK (1972). He retired as Professor of Physics from Dhaka University, and is now teaching in a private university.

He is a writer and popularize of science, started a popular science monthly which is in its sixth decade of publication under his editorship. He founded  in 1978 a unique NGO named Centre for Mass Education in Science (CMES) of which he is the Chairman now. He is still busy in authoring books, science writing, public lectures as he was in the  previous decades along with TV anchoring in science. His research specialization includes solar energy, appropriate technology,and youth development.

Biography

Biography

Gerd Hoefner has been MD and President at Siemens Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. since 2016, and oversees operations that span sales and service for South Asia, manufacturing and R&D in India. He is also responsible for the Development Center of Siemens Healthineers, a global R&D organization that drives excellence in product lifecycle management with teams in India and Slovakia.

Gerd Hoefner serves as the Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering, the Chairman of the NASSCOM Germany Council, an ambassador of the German Indian Startup Exchange Program, and as member of the CII CEO Forum.

Biography

Justine Lerche’s passion for Social Business started in her early high school years after reading “A world without Poverty” by Professor Muhammad Yunus. After majoring in Social Entrepreneurship at the ESSEC Business School in Paris, she started her career in the retail industry, then in social entrepreneurship in the Philippines. This confirmed Justine’s willingness to serve models combining positive social and environmental impact with economic sustainability. In 2015, she became Project Manager of Grameen Veolia Water Ltd, a Social Business providing safe drinking water to rural areas of Bangladesh. In 2017, she joined Veolia India as Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, deploying the CSR strategy of Veolia group which promotes Circular Economy and innovative models for safe water access for all.

Biography

Rahul is the Programme Director at Yunus Social Business India. In his role, Rahul works with leading companies of India and helps them to venture-build social businesses, as defined by Prof Muhammad Yunus. Before joining him, Rahul was the founder of a health-tech startup that developed mobile apps on patient engagement on care and fitness. Prior to that Rahul was the founding employee of a clean energy firm and an investment professional in a Singapore-based PE firm, investing in Education and Financial Services companies.

Rahul is currently leading social business pilots that span sectors such as Agriculture, Rural Employment and Entrepreneurship and Waste Management.

Biography

Sourav leads the corporate social responsibility efforts of Tata Steel which is among the oldest, largest and most diverse community engagement efforts in India Inc. He joined the Tata Administrative Services in 2007, and his experience within the Tata group spans sustainability and corporate finance / M&A across a range of sectors like metals & mining, power, logistics, infrastructure and hospitality. In his last engagement, Sourav anchored the sustainability strategy work of the Tata Sustainability Group (TSG) and worked with Tata companies to integrate social and environmental aspects within their approaches to business. He has also worked on setting up disaster response frameworks for the Tata group while managing post disaster relief and long term rehabilitation programmes in Uttarakhand, Assam, Jammu & Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Nepal and other regions within and outside India. He has also worked with the Grameen Bank (Bangladesh) and other organizations in the Indian development sector before joining the Tata group and retains a keen interest in development finance. Sourav holds a graduate degree in Economics from Delhi University in 2004 with Postgraduate Diploma in Management from IIM Ahmedabad in 2007 and M.A. in Business Law from National Law School (Bangalore) in 2015.

Biography

Mr. Amir Humayun Mahmud Chowdhury is the Managing Director of Chittagong Social Business Center limited.

An eminent businessperson involved in Ready Made Garments, Packaging, Shipping, Insurance, Leasing, Real Estate, and Social Business.

He served as president of Chittagong Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Director, Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers & Exporters Association (BGMEA), Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FBCCI) and Chittagong Stock Exchange. He represented business and trade delegations of Bangladesh in USA, India, Thailand, and other countries, and played leading role in establishing World Trade Center in Chittagong.

He serves as Senate Member, Chittagong University, Trustee and Syndicate Member, Chittagong Independent University, Member of Independent University Bangladesh, Education, Science, Technology, Cultural & Development Trust (ESTCDT), Member, Governing Council, Institute of Forestry, Chittagong University. He serves also as Honorary Consul of Thailand in Chittagong.

Amir Humayun Mahmud Chowdhury was born in 1952. He is happily married to Mrs. Rahima Chowdhury and has two spectacularly talented daughters, Zabina and Ruhbayna.

Biography

Enzo Cursio is an Italian journalist, conflict negotiator and human rights activist. He currently serves as Coordinator of UN - FAO Nobel Alliance for Food Security and Peace established in 2016 by the FAO Director General José Graziano DaSilva. He has collaborated with world leaders such as President Mikhail Gorbachev and served the Italian Government and the Italian Parliament in different positions. He is currently CEO of the CIty of Peace for Children Foundation founded by Nobel Peace Prize Betty Williams and board member of several institutions, such Robert Francis Kennedy Foundation for Europe, Kwame Nkrumah Pan-african Centre, the International School of Sustainability, SocialbusinessItalia.

Biography

Dominique V. Dauster, born 1976 in Wiesbaden, Germany, is a Social Entrepreneur,

Managing Director of the Yunus + You Foundation and Special Advisor for International Relations to the Grameen Creative Lab.

He lived and studied in the USA and Germany and holds a diploma in Business Administration. Dominique is Co-founder of perfect day, a gastronomy café chain in Germany which partners with Natural Shakti, a farming company cultivating forest coffee in India. Dominique advocated the social business movement in European and Asian countries and in Colombia.

He serves as Prof. Yunus´ Sherpa at United Nation´s Sustainable Development Goals Advocacy Group.

Biography

Kat Dunn is the CEO Australia of Grameen Australia. She started her career as a lawyer at Clayton Utz and left her senior leadership role at an Australian fund manager to pursue purpose over profit. Kat most recently served as COO of tech media company, Ideapod. She is the creator of F-OFF: Fear of Failure Forum, and publically advocates the need to overcome our national fear of failure in order to innovate. She is on the expert panel of new media disruptor Cockatoo Co.Lab and is passionate about empowering humans rich or poor to grow their potential.

Biography

Dr Suraj Kumar, Advisor, Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) and Chief Mentor, Neeti Foundation has strong competencies and over 25 years of experience in communications and media, policy analysis and evaluation techniques. He has an extensive network of researchers, media leaders (journalists and film-makers) and policy interlocutors across India.

Dr Kumar is a thought leader in the area of communications for development, subnational

governance reform and SDGs. Over a career of twenty-five years, he has developed strong working relationships with opinion makers and influencers in national media, civil society, private sector and international partners across India.

He has prepared the Sustainable Development Vision & Action Plan for Government of

Chhattisgarh and the SDG Global Vision for Digital India for India’s national Ministry of

Electronics & Information Technology, linking the SDGs and targets with ICT for development initiatives. He is currently working on Localising SDGS for South Asia and on state level SDG documents, building upon his extensive work on subnational Human Development Reports with 23 state governments across India.

Prior, Dr Kumar has worked in the development sector since 1993 at progressively senior

levels (nearly 17 years with the UN) in design and implementation of programmes on

sustainable urban governance and poverty, human development, women’s empowerment

and UN coordination to meet MDGs. As Head of Governance for South Asia at UN Women, he led the programme management and policy advisory role for a large Programme on Gender Responsive Governance for five countries in South Asia.

Dr Kumar is an alumnus of St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University and completed graduate studies (MA & PhD program) at the State University of New York at Binghamton. He has lectured at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, University of Texas at Austin, Jindal Global University and at research & training institutions such as IGIDR, LBSNAA, NIRD, RBICAB and others. He has contributed to national HDRs for Bhutan and Cambodia as also conducted peer reviews for Egypt NHDR and South Asia HDRs.

Biography

Professor H. I. Latifee currently works as the Adviser to Grameen Shikkha. He served the University of Chittagong as a Professor of Economics before he joined Grameen Trust (GT) as its Managing Director in January, 1994. He was the Chairman of the Department of Economics at the University of Chittagong from 1991-1994 and Proctor of the University from 1988-1991.
Professor Latifee as the Managing Director of Grameen Trust (January 1994 to December, 2016) provided leadership in the establishment and implementation of more than 151 Grameen replication programs in 41 countries. He also guided the New Entrepreneur Program of Grameen Trust which demonstrated a tremendous success for solving the problem of youth unemployment and promoting young entrepreneurs since its inception in 2013.
Professor Latifee is the winner of Business Week’s Stars of Asia Award, 2001. He has been a longtime associate of Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, father of Microcredit, founder of Grameen Bank and the father of Social Business.
Professor Latifee serves as Member of a number of Boards of different microfinance organizations and social business entities in Bangladesh and other countries including Grameen America Inc.

Biography

Susan has a wealth of experience in Access to Finance, SME Business Development Services and Portfolio Management. Prior to joining Yunus social business Uganda, Susan worked as a Financial Business Advisor on a USAID/ Uganda Private Health Support Program offering BDS and access to finance support to private health care businesses across the country. Susan has also worked as a Program Manager at Innovations Systems and Cluster Program – Makerere University where she offered BDS to various clusters along the agricultural value chain across Uganda and as a credit officer at Finance Trust Bank Limited.

Susan has worked with various SMEs on a range of BDS services including business planning, market research, feasibility studies, financial management, investment appraisals; structuring financing options; business skills training and market linkages.

Susan holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration and Bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science and several certificates in Project planning, management and in M&E.

Biography

Priyank Narayan is the Founding Director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship at Ashoka University, a leading liberal Arts University based in Delhi NCR, India. As an educator, researcher, eco-system builder and an entrepreneur, he has contributed significantly in building a culture of entrepreneurship in India.

Priyank started his career with IBM. Prior to joining Ashoka University, Priyank was an entrepreneur and continues to mentor a number of startups. As an educator, he has held a teaching position at the IIT Delhi and been a guest faculty in a number of management institutes in the country on social innovation and design thinking. Priyank has been instrumental on bridging global entrepreneurship eco-systems with India. In the last few years he has represented India in a number of global forums on social entrepreneurship and education.

An alumnus of AIM, Manila and IIM, Ahmedabad, Priyank is an avid golfer and a licensed scuba diver. He is also trained in Indian classical music.

Biography

I have been working with Naandi as Manager-Projects for the past two years. A certified Project Management Professional with a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering (Construction Management) from Oklahoma State University and with an overall experience of 8 years, I bring in the expertise of project controls to handle the various stages of setting up the water centres. The dynamic nature of constraints and challenges in social business has made me alive to different dimension of project management and gave me an opportunity to enhance my repertoire. Give back and do it with joy – This is what I cherish the most about social business.

Biography

Andrew Riis is a Canadian-born serial social entrepreneur, leader and culture shaper. At 20, Andrew has already been a longstanding ambassador of youth entrepreneurship and the progression of society. He currently leads Future You, a social enterprise which empowers high school students to create a future that enlivens and fulfils them.

Biography

She has a doctorate in social psychology from Nanjing University. She is a Chinese psychologist best known for her participation as a guest on the acclaimed television dating show If You are the One.

Her topics of research include gender-based discrimination, reproductive and child-rearing trends, urban-rural sociology, and management psychology.

In December 2014, Professor Muhammad Yunus met Huang Han and awarded her as Grameen China Goodwill Ambassador, in the launching ceremony of Grameen China, in Lukou village, Jiangsu Province. In 2015, Huang Han also visit Grameen Bank with the China delegation and attended Social Business Day.

Biography

Shridhar serves as CEO of The Akshaya Patra Foundation. He has over 25 years of work experience with leading multinationals like Philips, ABB, Webex Communications (CISCO), etc. He is an Eisenhower Fellow .

Prior to joining Akshaya Patra he was Vice President – Sales, Webex Communications (CISCO). He is with Akshaya Patra for the past 12 years.

Shridhar holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Marketing Management, NMIMS Mumbai. He is a graduate of the Advanced Management Programme from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

His search for ‘Existential Purpose’ in life made him quit a corporate career and join the Akshaya Patra Foundation, a not-for-profit organization with a vision that ‘No Child in India shall be deprived of Education because of Hunger’. Akshaya Patra is the World’s largest school meal program run by an NGO feeding over 1.6 million children every day in 37 locations and 12 states in India.

Akshaya Patra’s mission is to feed ‘5 million children daily by 2020 ‘. It has been rated as one of the top 100 NGOs in the world (ranking 23) by the Global Journal of Geneva.

Akshaya Patra has received ‘Gold Shield ‘ for 5th time in a row from the prestigious Institute of Chartered Accountants ( ICAI ) of India for excellence in financial reporting.  It’s in the hall of fame of ICAI. Harvard Business School has done a case study on Akshayapatra. MIT has featured it in its technology review. Akshaya Patra has been covered by Forbes Magazine, National Geographic, Discovery channel, CNN, BBC, etc.  Akshaya Patra has also received the Nikkei Asia Prize 2016 for Economic and Business Innovation category.

Biography

Biography

Dr B N Kulkarni is one of the Promotor Directors of Micro Credit Initiative of Grameen (MIG) Mumbai, India, MIG a section 08 company, operating on Social Business Principles is replicating Grameen Bank micro credit model for poverty alleviation. For a few years Dr Kulkarni worked as a Country Director of Grameen Trust Bangladesh for providing technical support on GB Model to Indian MFIs. Prior to this he had a long work experience with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development as General Manager. During this tenure he was associated with a number of Committees related to rural credit appointed by Government of Maharashtra, Government of India and Reserve Bank of India.

Biography

Prof. ABM Shahidul Islam obtained his PhD in “Exchange Relationships in Business-to-Business Marketing” in 2005 from University of Dhaka, Bangladesh and M.Phil in “Relationship Marketing between Advertising Agencies and Their Clients” in 2002 from University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK. Prof. Islam is experienced with a lot of administrative jobs throughout his career. He was the Syndicate Member of Dhaka University in between 1989-1991. Prof. Islam served as Vice-Chancellor of Leading University, Sylhet, Bangladesh in between 2006-2009 having the appointment by the Chancellor and President of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. Prof. Islam currently is the Executive Editor of International Journal of Social Business (IJSB) and CEO of Centre for Promoting Global Education (CPGE). He was the Editor of DU Journal of Marketing in between 2003-2005. He obtained Commonwealth Scholarship in 1991 for higher study in the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, UK.

Biography

After graduating from Ecole Polytechnique, he joined Veolia in 1993 in the field of waste management. He had various positions within the group, particularly Deputy Director of Veolia’s R&D. As CEO if INNOVE and 2EI, he is in charge of developing pilot projects and incubating innovative urban sustainability services for local authorities in various countries of the world, whether of a technical, social, economic or contractual nature. INNOVE acts as an incubator to test the viability of these innovative mechanisms and partnerships. 2EI, as a consultancy team, helps disseminate them to markets.  

Biography

Anil is the Executive Officer for School of Public Health & Community Medicine at University of New South Wales in Sydney Australia. She manages all aspects of the school’s operations and is keenly involved in a number of development based projects including Social Business Health Hub since its inception. Anil hails from the beautiful Fiji Islands and holds a Bachelor of Science from University of Auckland in New Zealand and a Masters in Development Studies from Deakin University in Australia. Anil has extensive experience working  on numerous grassroots community and aid funded development projects in the South Pacific Region.

Biography

Biography

Nishith Desai is the founder of the research-based strategy driven international law firm, Nishith Desai Associates with offices in Mumbai, Silicon Valley, Bangalore, Singapore, Mumbai – BKC, New Delhi, Munich and New York.

Nishith himself is a renowned international tax, corporate, IP lawyer researcher, published author and lecturer in leading academic institutions around the world. He specializes in Financial Services sector and assisted Government of Mauritius and Government of India in establishment of their offshore financial centers. Soon after India opened up its economy to the outside world in 1991, he established the first five India Focused funds and pioneered the roots of asset management industry and the firm has now worked for over 900 funds across all classes of asset.

The Firm recently won an award for being the Most Innovative Law firm by the Financial Times (London). We are consistently ranked amongst the world's Most Innovative Law Firms. This year’s win also marks 4 times in a row (2014-2017) for the firm as the Most Innovative Indian Law Firm.

Biography

Biography

Prabhat Pani has joined Tata Trusts in 2016, and currently is the Head - Partnerships and Technology. The Partnerships role seeks to identify, forge and nurture synergies with like-minded entities, and co-create programs for the benefit of the communities served by Tata Trusts. The Technology arm leverages use of cutting-edge technology for innovative solutions that magnify the impact of various programs undertaken by Tata Trusts, including analysis of data collected on ground towards more effective design and implementation of programs.

In his earlier role at Tata Trusts, Prabhat has managed the Tata Water Mission (which aims to create a healthy future for underserved communities through access to safe drinking water, and improved sanitation and hygiene), and Digital interventions (which focuses upon promoting digital literacy in rural India, and on improving governance by using the power of data in micro-planning).

Earlier, Prabhat has worked in the for-profit space. His last assignments were as Executive Director in TajSATS Air Catering, and CEO of Ginger Hotels. He has wide experience across India in large companies engaged in the FMCG, Telecom and Hospitality spaces, with a large part of this experience in various for-profit entities in the Tata Group.

Prabhat holds a degree in Engineering from BITS, Pilani, and Post-Graduate Diploma in Management from IIM, Ahmedabad. He has been associated over many years with the CII, and associated with academics, as a visiting faculty with prominent Indian Business schools.

Biography

Liftana’s mission is to make equality of opportunity a basic human right. We seek to harness the power of emerging technology to lift the poor in ways that are environmentally sustainable and socially scalable.

Biography

Graduated from a French business school, Mr. Laurent DUPONT started his career in 1999 in the automotive industry and then joined Havas Sports & Entertainment in 2002 in order to develop media and influence with the largest international sports announcers.

After 11 years as Director of the Amplification pole of the Group, he joined the Peace and Sport team based in Monaco in June 2013 to develop partnerships and to coordinate the international communication of this Organization placed under the High Patronage of His Serene Highness Prince Albert II and chaired by Joël Bouzou.

He became Managing Director of the Organization on February 1, 2014.

Biography

Mr. Chandran is the former Chairman and Managing Director of BASF India Limited.

He was bestowed the Bundesverdienstkreuz- "The Order of Merit " - the highest civilian Award by the Federal Republic of Germany, for his outstanding contribution to Indo-German relations.

Mr. Chandran is the Founder Chairman of SEEGOS – a Social Enterprise with primary focus on promoting good governance, nation building and fight against corruption.

He is currently an Independent Director on the boards of Bosch Limited, Coromandel International Limited, HDFC Life, a Trustee with Public Concern for Governance Trust (PCGT) and an advisory board member of IMA, Global Compact Network India(GCNI) and Chairman of Berlin based Alliance for Integrity (AfIn).  Also the Chairman of the Ethics Committee of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and industry (BCCI).

Mr. Chandran is actively involved with Yunus Social  Business (YSB) in India. He is an advisory board member of the India Corporation Action Tank (joint  initiative of Tata Trust and YSB).

Biography

YSBC at Kasetsart University is currently focusing on both implementing social business idea into practices and influencing decision makers in the national level to apply the concept in relevant policies.  With her role as YSBC at Kasetsart University secretary and undergraduate background in social related activities, Yodmanee passionately and actively involving in social business initiatives by integrating the concept into her teaching and community services.  Her view of social business is any business that solves social problems by improving living condition and enhancing the quality of life. Yodmanee received her Ph.D. from Virginia Tech in Hospitality and Tourism Management and MS from Arizona State University in Recreation Management and Tourism.

Biography

Nagaraja Prakasam is a versatile and passionate leader with 2+ decades of global experience. As a full time angel investor, he invested in 21 start-ups and seen 4 exits. He spearheaded Impact thinking in Indian Angel Network and co-founded IAN Impact.  His personal mantra is “Start-ups should focus on India’s strength – people, problems, Tech (PPT)”

He believes in hands on approach and travels extensively in rural areas. He is sought after as a thought leader in Impact space and inspired many students as a motivational speaker. Also featured by Forbes magazine as Social investor engineering social change. He spoke at the launch of Bank of Innovations and Ideas (BII) by Ministry of Rural Development along with Dr. Abdul Kalam. He was also awarded “Successful Person 2015/Vetri Tamilar” by Sangam4, Chennai.

Served as President of Atlanta and San Diego Chapters for the Association for India’s Development (AID).

Naga holds a B.E. from Thiagarajar College of Engineering, India and an MBA from the San Diego/Kennesaw State University, United States.

Biography

Prof Balakrishnan is an alumnus of Loyola Madras; IIMA; ISB Hyderabad; IESE Business School Barcelona and SCSVMV Chennai. He has 22 years’ business experience across various sectors, technologies and functions followed by 17 years in higher education. He is active in teaching, consulting and research and serves/d on the boards of many companies.

Dr Balakrishnan has many publications to his credit and teaches abroad regularly in Barcelona, London, Boston, Kansas, Warsaw, Sydney & Budapest. He has won many academic & research awards including one as the Best Director. Teaching & research interests span strategic management, entrepreneurship, CSR and social business.

Biography

Ravi Kailas is the founder and Chairman of the London-based Mytrah Group, that has 2,000 MW of operational and under construction power capacity spread across nearly 40 wind and solar farms. An entrepreneur with 25 years of experience, he has built successful companies across diverse sectors.

Beyond building businesses, Mr. Kailas is passionate about developing a culture of social advocacy among entrepreneurs. He is currently working on a book project that encourages entrepreneurs to think about their role as advocators, capable of tackling issues ranging from climate change to income inequality in a rapidly changing world.

Biography

Dr. Elisabet Garriga is a Associate professor at EADA Business School (Barcelona) Spain since 2008. She holds a Phd in Management by IESE Business School ( University of Navarra).

She is director of Sustainability Impact Center where she develops new models of measuring impact for social business, business and Ngos and foundations. She has published in top-ranked journals at the field of business and society where has the second most cited paper in 30 years of the Journal of Business Ethics.  She has published several business cases at the Case Center and other international peer reviewed journals

In EADA Professor Garriga teaches Strategy, Models of Social innovation and Total Impact Courses at Master and Executive levels.

Her research interest at the field of Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability, Social Businesses cases

Biography

Manvendra’s love lies in hotels, culture conservation, design, agriculture, and social entrepreneurship.

His work is a representation of a unique way of life, carefully preserving traditions of the past yet framing them in a modern idiom. His hotels, Suryagarh, Jaisalmer and Narendra Bhawan, Bikaner, take the path less travelled and his NGO “I Love Jaisalmer”, was responsible for launching Jaisalmer’s largest cleanliness and conservation drive.

Manvendra aspires to marry heritage, human potential, diversity, and technology to create regenerative ecosystems. Among other things, he is currently working on reviving a UNESCO World heritage site and conceptualising a 500 acre neighbourhood- a biome that explores the possibilities in the realm of best living development practises.

Biography

Yuka previously worked in brand strategy and business strategy at Shiseido and Sony. She was employed at Yoshimoto Kogyo head office before becoming CEO of Yunus Yoshimoto Social Action (yySA), founded in February 2018.