The Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship was founded on the belief that economic progress and good governance in low-income countries emerge from entrepreneurship and innovations that empower ordinary citizens. Learn more
Root Capital is a non-profit social investment fund that pioneers finance for grassroots businesses in rural areas of developing countries. It provides capital, financial education, and market connections to small and growing businesses that build sustainable ...
Mr. Abrams will speak from his experience at Trickle Up, which provides people living on less than $1 a day with the necessary resources to create microenterprises and improve their quality of life.
Legatum lecturer, Thomas Barry is the founder and CEO of Zephyr Management. A global private equity and marketable securities firm, Zephry Management, L.P. manages specialized investment funds in both the developed and developing markets. Since 1994, Zephyr has ...
The Legatum Center administers a competitive fellowship program for incoming and current MIT graduate students, across all academic and professional disciplines, who demonstrate the potential to create innovative, sustainable, for-profit enterprises that promote prosperity in low-income ...
Team Members: Jukka Valimaki, Blandine Antoine, Rhonda Jordan, Mark Yen, Alla Jezmir, Benjamin Lambert and Emmanuel Cassimatis Geographic Focus: Tanzania Project: This battery swap business will serve low-income Tanzanians who lack access to electricity by allowing them to buy and recharge, ...
Team Members: Jessica Mazonson Geographic Focus: Piura and Lima, Peru Project: By scaling up its operations, this fair trade handicrafts cooperative will raise its profitability, and thus further improve the livelihoods of its exclusively female craftspeople. Developing strategic partnerships ...
Team Members: Saba Gul, Elani Orphanides Geographic Focus: Attcok, Pakistan Project: A customized "life skills" curriculum for Afghan refugees in Pakistan will encourage school attendance and cultivate useful real-world skills, including business skills garnered ...
Project: Development of a new micro-equity model for microfinance. Model aims to increase opportunities for business growth of low-income entrepreneurs in Mexico and align investor-entrepreneur incentives.
Project: Introduction of unique triple-phase biodigester. This innovative technology will provide a more efficient, environmentally-friendly, and affordable fuel solution for rural farmers.
Robin has past business experience using market-based solutions and is currently developing ways to help small producers from lesser-developed countries reach the US markets.
Ravi has worked for both Microsoft and EMC Corporation. He has also started two of his own companies. Now, as a Legatum Fellow, he works to use mobile technology to support small business enterprises in India.
Aryeh Neier spoke to the MIT community about the worldwide work of the Open Society Foundations to secure education, health and justice for marginalized people. Aryeh Neier is president of the Open Society Foundations. Prior to joining the Open Society Institute in 1993, he served for 12 ...
Oladapo is a native citizen of Nigeria, where he studied medicine, but has also studied at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the London School of Economics. He combines his interests in medicine and health into a goal to use mobile technologies to help with health-care in Nigeria.
Niki Gomez hails from Sri Lanka and is currently a Sloan Fellow in Innovation and Global Leadership at the Sloan School of Management. Her focus is on solar energy development Sri Lanka.
Natalia is studying Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and hopes to use them to improve access to markets in her home country of Colombia.
Nada is currently a PhD candidate at the Sloan School of Management Technology Innovation Entrepreneurship Program. While studying biotechnology there she also maintains a focus on developing means of communications for rural hospitals in the Middle East.
Murali worked as an engineer at Ericsson until he enrolled as an MBA candidate in the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program at the Sloan Shcool of Management. Now he wants to use the WiMAX technology to bring internet connectivity to India.
Inventor, LIFESAVER bottle Managing Director, Hydronic Solutions Ltd. Michael W. Pritchard M.W.M.Soc is a British inventor, entrepreneur and public speaker. Michael was born in Epsom, Surrey in 1967. He was educated at Gordonstoun School in Scotland and went to the ...
Project: Engineering modifications to wheelchairs will enable handicapped people in India to operate small, mobile businesses--such as adaptive mobile tea carts--from their wheelchairs; the development of an accompanying microfinance model will allow these handicapped entrepreneurs, who are ...
Contrary to the usual expectation that educaton is a non-profit or government service, self-sustainint for-profit enterprises are emerging in this field.From the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship