social fusion

Is microfinance delivering on its promises? Or do we need fresh innovation to scale impact, and ensure long-term market solutions to poverty? Join us for an active debate with entrepreneurs and investors defining the new edge in unleashing the positive power of small capital in a big way. Whether you are a business leader seeking to make a high impact difference in the world, or an investor seeking new frontiers – this forum provides knowledge and concrete opportunities to take the next step.

Speakers:

Brian Lehnen, Executive Director & Co-Founder, Village Enterprise Fund: As a leader and innovator in grant based microenterprise development, Brian Lehnen, has demonstrated the importance of this tool in the fight against poverty. Brian’s career in economic development has focused on innovation in grassroots poverty alleviation. Developing a model of microenterprise development that is both simple and elegant, the model he developed has shown proven results in providing sustained income for the poor and lasting benefits. The VEF model is a true grassroots model that is meeting an important unmet need among the rural poor. The program of small business grants that Lehnen developed provides critical leverage by providing grassroots capital and training. With focused effect on rural East Africa, Village Enterprise Fund, has demonstrated leadership in effectively combating abject poverty in the rural African context. Brian truly believes in the ability of the poor to fight poverty through their own intellect and hard work. “The poor are the ones who best know how to improve their lives, our job is to give them the tools that can empower them.”
Paul Rice, President & CEO, TransFair USA: Paul Rice is the President & CEO of TransFair USA, the only third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in the United States. Previously, Paul worked for 11 years as a development specialist in rural Nicaragua, where he founded a successful coffee cooperative and worked side-by-side with coffee farmers. Inspired by the crisis of plummeting coffee prices, Paul returned to the United States and in 1998 he opened TransFair's first "national headquarters” in a one-room office in a converted warehouse in downtown Oakland. In 2000 Paul received the prestigious international Ashoka Fellowship for his pioneering work as a social entrepreneur. He was also honored by the Klaus Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship as one of the world's top 40 Social Entrepreneurs in 2002. More recently, Paul spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January 2004 and 2005. Paul holds an Economics and Political Science degree from Yale University and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. Since the launch of the Fair Trade Certified™ label eight years ago, TransFair has established Fair Trade as the fastest growing segment of the US specialty coffee industry. To date, TransFair has developed business partnerships with over 500 US companies (including such industry leaders as Starbucks, P&G, Dunkin' Donuts and Sam’s Club), certified over 118 million pounds of fair trade coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar, rice and fresh fruit, and generated over $75 million in additional income for small farmers around the world. Fair Trade certification has helped open the US market to millions of small farmers around the world who are now getting a fair price for their harvests and making dramatic gains in their living standards.

Premal Shah, President, Kiva: Kiva has been haled as the “Innovation of the Week: an eBay for Microfinance” by BusinessWeek and the BBC declared Kiva is “Revolutionizing the way donors and lenders in the U.S. are connecting with small entrepreneurs in the developing world”. As President of Kiva.org, Premal leads Kiva's efforts to scale its partnerships and member base. Prior to Kiva, Premal was a Principal Product Manager at PayPal, an eBay company. During his 6 year career at PayPal, Premal drove a number of key initiatives including a year long project defining eBay's role in economically empowering the global working poor. A number of corporate initiatives have come out of this effort, including PayPal's support of Kiva. Prior to PayPal, Premal was a strategy consultant at Mercer Management Consulting in New York. Premal has had a long standing interest in microfinance. In 1997, he was awarded a grant from Stanford University to research microfinance in Gujarat, India. More recently Premal co-founded the Silicon Valley Microfinance Network and spent 2 months in India working to refine / validate Kiva's model. Premal graduated with a B.A. in Economics from Stanford University.
Wim van der Beek, Founding Partner, Goodwell Investments: Wim van der Beek launched two funds in 2006. One, a global microfinance private equity fund (Goodwell) and an India focused sub-fund (Aavishkaar Goodwell). Both funds are expected to close at $10 million each this fall, with a second closing in 2007 of $30 million. Wim is a financial architect and engineer with two decades of experience in international financial structuring. He is the founding partner of Goodwell Investments, an investment firm that develops innovative high return high impact investment solutions. In partnership with the leading micro-VC firm and microfinance consultancy in India, Goodwell’s groundbreaking microfinance private equity fund aims to leapfrog the growth of commercial microfinance in India. Before launching Goodwell, Wim co-founded and managed an institutional fund structuring company serving leading Dutch pension funds.
Moderated by Amber Nystrom, Social Fusion: Amber Nystrom is Founding & Executive Director of Social Fusion. Amber brings to Social Fusion 14 years experience growing business and development in the U.S. and internationally. She has worked in Silicon Valley, Latin America, Africa and Europe, as an entrepreneur and specialist in sustainable development and public-private engagement. As a part of Social Fusion’s Advisory Services on catalyzing innovative flow to social enterprise, Amber has consulted to the World Bank, Ashoka and others, and is currently leading a special capital project and case study review for Actis, a UK based PE fund with over 3.2B under management investing only in the world’s poorest countries.