Biography

Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus is the father of both social business and microcredit, the founder of Grameen Bank, and of more than 50 other companies in Bangladesh. For his constant innovation and enterprise, the Fortune Magazine named Professor Yunus “one of the greatest entrepreneurs of our time” in March 2012.

In 2006, Professor Yunus and Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He has received 63 honorary degrees from universities across 24 countries, and has received 136 awards from 33 countries, including state honours from 10 countries. He is one of only seven individuals to have received the Nobel Peace Prize, the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom and the United States Congressional Gold Medal.

Biography

Aarti is co-founder and CEO of Yunus Social Business India. Under her leadership, YSB set up its two Indian funds - in Mumbai and Bengaluru as well as the Indian Corporate Action Tank- India’s first incubator for large corporates to create in-house social businesses, YSB's joint initiative with the Tata Trusts.  Aarti is recognised as a leader in the social business space- she is a Kamalnayan Bajaj Fellow of the Aspen Global Leadership Initiative and was voted to the Asia 21 fellowship for young leaders making a difference in the Asia Pacific region in 2014. Previously, Aarti worked as an investment banker at JP Morgan in Mumbai. She holds a Master’s degree in Finance from the London School of Economics.

Biography

Alejandro Mungaray-Lagarda is Coordinator of the UABC Yunus Centre for Social Business and Wellbeing. He has PhD in Economics granted by UNAM and postdoctoral studies in Latin American Economic History at UCLA. He is a member of the Mexican National System of Researchers and the Mexican Academy of Sciences. He was Academic Secretary of the Mexican Association of Universities; President of UABC; Deputy Director of Public Research Centers of the National Council of Science and Technology; and Secretary of Economic Development of Baja California, Mexico. He has authored a vast literature in social businesses and higher education.

Biography

Dr. Ahmed aims to produce technologies to achieve social goals. Towards this goal, he established Global Communication Center (GCC) inside Grameen, and developed a research team at Kyushu University. The team produced numerous projects e.g. GramHealth(a $300 portable clinic) and GramCar, GramAgri and GramClean. He introduces Japanese organizations to establish Social Businesses. He organizes an International Conference on “Healthcare, SDGs and Social Business” since 2017. After receiving Ph.D. from Tohoku University in 1999, he worked with Avaya Labs (former Bell Labs), and NTT Communications, Japan. He loves cooking, writing books on non-fiction stories and performing an MC for cultural shows.

Biography

Prof. Dr. Aziz Akgül is the Founder and Chairman of the Turkish Grameen Microfinance Program (TGMP), which began its operations at the Diyarbakir Province in 2003 under the leadership of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus. He is also a Former Parliamentarian and he provided assistance in passing vitally important law articles related to microfinance.

He pioneered and introduced "Food and Dress Banking" concepts in Turkey, overall aiming to eradicate poverty and achieve "Zero Waste" level in all aspects of national expenditures. Lastly, he also believes Blockchain Technology and Cryptocurrency are of immense importance in terms of ensuring transparency and productivity in the microfinance Sector.

Biography

In 2011, Christian organized small communities of citizens committed to supporting social entrepreneurs through skilled volunteerism and rapid innovation workshops. This organic community organizing was the beginning of Makesense, which is now a community of 100,000 citizens who support 8,000 social businesses in 250 cities and 45 countries. Christian was awarded an Ashoka Fellowship in 2013 (the youngest fellow in France) and was recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2016. In 2017, he was selected by the American Embassy in France for the German Marshall Fund as a young transatlantic innovation leader. He is currently a member of the French Government Digital Council and advises, on a volunteer basis, the President of French Polynesia. He sits on the board of the EDF Foundation and leverages his knowledge to increase the impact of social businesses around the world.

Biography

Graduated in Laws, in Religious Sciences and in Clinic Psychology. 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 Schools of Economics and Laws of the University of Urbino. Director of the newly established Yunus Social Business Centre (YSBC) Urbino. Scientific director of the project "Business and Culture. Culture as a driver for economic and social development " , with the Artistic Director Soprano Felicia Bongiovanni, protagonist of the world premiere of the "27 dollars" opera. Author of several books and articles.

Biography

Emmanuel Faber is Chief Executive Officer of Danone since 2014 and, since December 2017, also Chairman of the Board. Since joining Danone in 1997, he was VP for the Asia Pacific region, Deputy General Manager and, in 2011, became Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors. Emmanuel is strongly committed to promoting innovative inclusive business models, and is Vice Co-Chair of the Consumer Goods Forum and founder of the Business and Poverty Action Tank.

Biography

Eric Campos is Managing Director of the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation since October 2016 and Corporate Social Responsibility Director of Crédit Agricole S.A. since June 2018. He joined the Crédit Agricole Group in 2001, where he held various responsibilities as Head of Financial Markets Division of Crédit Agricole S.A., then Deputy General Manager of Crédit Agricole Mutuel of Reunion Island, Head of development of Credit Agricole International Retail Bank and Deputy Managing Director of Crédit Agricole Sud Rhône-Alpes. He also worked as Deputy Managing Director at the Financial company for development of Reunion Island and at the French Development Agency Head of Development projects in the African, Caribbean and Pacific regions.

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 fulfills its promise of alleviating poverty. Grameen Foundation follows the legacy of the Grameen Bank and Prof. Muhammad Yunus providing financial services to the poorest in the world. Grameen focuses on financial services for women, agricultural development and health. Mobile money platforms and digital data are used to optimize decision making and to expand financial inclusion.

Steve has an M.S. in Economics, Development Studies, from Victoria University of Manchester, England and a B.A. in Economics from Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois.

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 a 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

Biography

Suresh Krishna is the Co-Founder & CEO of YSB Fund Bengaluru. Prior to this, he was leading Grameen Koota, since its inception in 1999 till Jul’15 as Managing Director and Non-Executive Director till Jul’17. He has played an active role in building the microfinance sector in India, and co-founded MFI associations. He is also the Managing Trustee of Navya Disha Trust, an NGO working in the area of WASH and financial literacy. He currently serves as an independent director in companies like Mifos.org, BinaArtha, Grameen Foundation for Social Initiatives, Centrum Microfinance, SMILE Microfinance, Waste Ventures P. Ltd. He is passionate about social businesses, micro housing, financial literacy and livelihoods for the poor among others.

Biography

Izumo is a founder and CEO of euglena Co. Ltd., the world’s first biotechnology company that succeeded in the outdoor mass cultivation of microalgae Euglena for food use.

In 1998 when Izumo was a university student, Izumo participated in an internship program at Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and met Professor Muhammad Yunus. This experience motivated him to solve world-wide malnutrition problems, and to build company in 2005 offering nutrient-rich microalgae, Euglena. Following successful business growth, Company launched “euglena GENKI program” in 2014 which distributed Euglena-contained biscuits to Bangladesh children.

Biography

Satake founded a joint venture company with Professor. Muhammad Yunus who was awarded Nobel Peace Prize. They started “the mung beans project”, which supported local farmers in Bangladesh to learn method of Japanese agriculture and to increase farmer’s income. Harvested mung beans are exported to Japan.
 
Since 2015, this project is carried forward with Euglena Co., Ltd under the brand name of “Grameen Euglena” (EGG), and over 8,200 farmers are working together in 2018. With the World Food Programme, WFP, they have also begun supporting Rohingya refugee since 2019.

He has been searching for further opportunities to contribute more for better living standards in Bangladesh.

Biography

Corinne Bazina is General Manager of Danone Communities since April 2014. Danone Communities is a Venture Capital fund investing in Social Businesses, empowering innovative social entrepreneurs to achieve sustainable social impact on safe water access and nutrition. They invest in social businesses as minority shareholders, providing capital, technical expertise thanks to Danoner employees, and networking.

Corinne joined Danone in 1995, after a postgraduate degree of economic demography. She held marketing and sales positions in various divisions of Danone. Prior to Danone Communities, Corinne was based in Bangladesh, and spent 4 years as General Manager of Grameen Danone Foods Ltd., Danone Communities’ founding social business.

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 the lives of 500 farmers, 250 Shokti Ladies and 350 danoners. Anna has 14 years experience in strategy consultancy in France, and worked on the launch of danone.communities fund in 2007. She launched Dolima for Laiteries du Berger (danone.communties), then worked for Chocosen in Senegal. In 2012, Anna was recruited to launch StarShea a social business in Ghana funded by SAP and Positive PLaNet connecting a 5 000 rural women to shea butter and nuts market.

Biography

Biography

K-von is the most famous half Persian, half Scottish comedian in the world! Millions have seen his appearances on NETFLIX with Russell Peters, NBC's ‘Last Comic Standing’, and his popular TED Talk. 

He travels the globe delivering hilarious comedy shows and signing his new book “Once You Go Persian...” (which is full of funny stories & great unsolicited cultural advice!) K-von’s style is versatile yet relatable with the perfect balance of humor & high-energy performances about a variety of mainstream topics.

Check out on K-vonComedy.com or his popular youtube.com/KvonComedy then prepare to meet him at our panel titled, "Art & Culture to Bring Change Through Social Business", brought to you by the Yunus Centre.

Biography

Shankar Man Shrestha is a microfinance campaigner and expert with more than 52 years’ experience in the rural and microfinance industry. He is the Chairman and Founder Executive Director of the Centre for Self-help Development (CSD), the pioneer microfinance NGO in Nepal. He worked as CEO in the Rural Microfinance Development Centre Ltd., the first wholesale lending organization for microfinance in Nepal.

Mr. Shrestha 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. Mr. Shrestha has participated in numerous national and international conferences as a speaker and participant.

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 one of the most successful organization dedicated to create “Access to Energy”, installing more than 1.7 Million Solar Home System, 1 million Improved Cook Stove and 35,000 Bio-gas plant, operating as per the norm of Social Business, 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 modeling and managing solar portfolios that includes Solar Home System, Solar Irrigation System, Solar Drinking Water, Solar Roof Top, Solar Mini-Grid and so on.

Sohel has the experience of working at the field of Carbon Emission Management, leading the CPDS (Carbon Project Development Service), serving to the local industry for CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) project consultancy. He also engaged in Impact Assessment study focusing the local large solar projects delivering energy to the poor and pro-poor.
In recent years, Sohel has been intricately involved with SDG implementation, winner of the project “Powering the future we want” of UN DESA in 2017. He is also participating in different local and global forums/workshop/seminar as a panel speaker for sometimes, that includes sessions organized by Asian Development Bank, World Bank and United Nations.  

Few of the recent events where Sohel has participated as a Speaker/Key discussant are in “Global SDG7 Conference: Implementation of SDG7 and its inter-linkages with other SDGs: Lessons Learnt from UN DESA Energy Grant Finalist” held in Escape Hall, Bangkok from February 21 - 25, 2018 organized by UN DESA and in“Roundtable on SDG 7 on Affordable and Clean Energy” organized by UN ESCAP, UN Environment, UNDP and ADB during Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development 2018 from March 27-30, 2018. Mr. Sohel has participated as key note speaker in“Entrepreneurship Week”jointly organized by University of Michigan and Shanghai Jiao Tong University from September 4-7, 2018. Moreover, he was panelist in “SDG &Renewable Energy” during Global Social Business Summit 2018 in Germany from November 6-9, 2018. He also participated as a Speakerin “Global Conference on Strengthening Synergies between the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda” held from 1-3 April, 2019, in Copenhagen, Denmark, organized by UN DESA, UNFCCC and Danish Govt.

Biography

Sanjiv K Shelgikar is a Chartered Accountant and started as an apprentice handling specialized tax planning assignments. He worked with former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for edition of the Companies Act. He is working as an advisor from initial days to different corporate on Tax, Finance and legal and domestic and foreign IPOs, Foreign Currency bonds, Debentures, FCCB’s, GDR’s in India. Advised on global Mergers and Acquisitions to Indian Corporate.

Over the years he has supported and advised various Indian Conglomerates implementing structured financial products and finances through SPV’s and credit enhanced products. He has also helped formation of MHFC, pioneer of Micro Credit for housing to the unbanked. He started his own Philanthropy firm, Yunus Foundation India in 2012.

Biography

Parveen Mahmud, is the former Founding Managing Director, Grameen Telecom Trust. In her varied professional career Ms. Mahmud has been working with innovations, entrepreneurship and sustainable development. 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, Women in Leadership Committee, ICAB and Vice Chair, Women Leadership Committee, SAFA. She is the Chairperson of Underprivileged Children Education Program (UCEP) Bangladesh, Shasha Foundation, Her Story Foundation and was Chairperson of MIDAS, Shasha Denims Ltd., and Acid Survivors’ Foundation.

Biography

Nico Rose is a professor for organizational psychology at International School of Management (ISM) in Dortmund, Germany. From 2010-18, he worked for Bertelsmann, Europe's premier media corporation, most recently serving as VP of Talent Acquisition.

Nico has studied general psychology at WWU Muenster (Germany) and obtained a doctorate in business sciences from EBS University (Wiesbaden, Germany). Additionally, he has completed the Master of Applied Positive Psychology program at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), learning directly with Martin Seligman, the founder of Positive Psychology. He has published more than 70 articles in professional magazines or book chapters.

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

Nazneen Sultana is Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Grameen Communications. She has led projects spanning from the development of the world’s first micro-banking software, to the formation of social businesses. She also serves as an executive member of NGOs that deal with gender issues, affordable healthcare, and ICT for development.

Having completed a BS and MS in Applied Mathematics from the University of Chittagong, she started her career at Grameen Bank, achieving a diploma in Management Information Systems from AIT. Currently, guided by Professor Muhammad Yunus, she is leading software development for Social Business Monitoring Systems and the Social Business Pedia.

Biography

Mr. Md. Imamus Sultan is currently the Managing Director, Grameen Kalyan. Since 2006, Mr. Sultan has been actively involved in creating and operating social business enterprises under the guidance of Prof. Muhammad Yunus.

Mr. Sultan worked in Grameen Bank (GB) for about 20 years and performed responsibilities in various positions. Immediately before leaving GB he was the Secretary of the Bank. He worked as Consultant of Arab Gulf Fund for United Nation Organizations (AGFUND) in Egypt for about 7 years and performed as a short-term Consultant of International Labor Organization (ILO). He is on the Board of several Grameen Companies.

Biography

Hans Reitz was born in 1966 and raised in Bad Abbach (Bavaria). Today he lives with his family in Wiesbaden. Since 10 years now he is Head of the Global Social Business Summit as well as the managing director of The Grameen Creative Lab, which he founded together with the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prof. Yunus. With the Grameen Creative Lab he incubates Social Businesses all over the world. As a purpose contributor, visionary and an entrepreneur, Hans is creating the change he longs to see –  campaigning for social inclusion, against poverty, pollution and the useless waste of resources. Both as an inspirational speaker and as a social business practitioner. Since 2007 he is the Creative Advisor of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prof. Yunus.

Biography

Shazeeb has 6 years of experience of mobilising communities for social change and building social businesses on ground. Currently, as the Founder & Managing Director of YY Goshti, Shazeeb helps early stage social entrepreneurs grow in Bangladesh and Central African Republic with world class training, tailored mentorship, community and resources.

Previously, he was the Founding CEO of YGAP in Bangladesh he backed 40 impact entrepreneurs with solutions to local problems by running yearlong accelerators. While at University Shazeeb started Social Business Youth Alliance (SBYA), a global initiative that harnesses the power of young people, entrepreneurship and technology to bring change by building social businesses.

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

Ms. Nurjahan Begum was one of the earliest associates of Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus during the establishment of Grameen Bank. She is on the Boards of several Grameen organizations as Chairperson or Director. She is currently serving as director of Grameen Italia Foundation, Italy and Center for Mass Education in Science (CMES), Bangladesh.

Ms. Nurjahan was awarded the Susan M. Davis Lifetime Achievement Award 2008 by Grameen Foundation, the World Summit Millennium Development Goals Award 2009, and the Vision Award 2009. 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

Socio-Economic Development & Policy Support Group, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Thailand
Aziz Elbehri is a senior economist at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) since 2008. Currently, he leads the socio-economic development and policy group at the FAO Asia-Pacific Regional office. Aziz specializes in climate and food systems interactions, gender and agricultural development, trade policies, agricultural markets and value chains, and food systems resilience under water scarcity. Before FAO, Aziz was a trade economist with the USDA Economic Research Service for nine years. Aziz has a Ph.D. from Purdue University, a master’s degree from the University of Minnesota in agricultural economics and a master degree in agronomy from the Institute Agronomique Hassan II, Morocco.

Biography

Dr. Chien-wen Shen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Business Administration at National Central University (NCU). He also serves as the Director of the Yunus Social Business Center and Division Director of the University Social Responsibility Office at NCU. He received his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences from Northwestern University. His research interests include business analytics, information management, decision science, and social business. He has published over 100 papers and has been participated with more than 30 funded research projects. He is also the Executive Director of the Social Impact Institute of Taiwan.

Biography

Farid Uddin Ahmed is the Executive Director of Arannayk Foundation. It is a not-for-profit organization established through joint initiative of Governments of Bangladesh and the United States for promotion of forests and biodiversity conservation. He has been working in this organization since February 2007. Prior to that he was the Member Director (NRM) ofBangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) – an apex body of National Agricultural Research System in Bangladesh. He worked in different positions in BARC for 20 years. He also worked in Bangladesh Forest Research Institute for 10 years as Senior Research Officer and conducted research on silviculture of trees and bamboo species. He also worked withIntercooperation – a Swiss Agency for Development and International Cooperation in Bangladesh and headed a project named ‘Village and Farm Forestry Project’ for five years (2000-2005). Altogether he has more than 40 years of professional experience in the field of natural resource management. He is specialized in agroforestry, community-based forest management and biodiversity conservation.He has three master’s degrees in Botany from Dhaka University, Forestry from Peshawar University, Pakistan and Environmental Forestry from University of Wales, Bangor, UK. He also received diploma in forestry research from the University of Oxford, UK and training on agroforestry from ICRAF, Kenya. He has many scientific publications in his credit and he is author of four books related to forest management and biodiversity conservation which are used as reference books in university and diploma curricula in Bangladesh.

Biography

Luciano Gurgel is bachelor in Economics by University of São Paulo. Has worked for more than 15 years in Debt Capital Markets in several Brazilian financial institutions such as Banco Santander, HSBC and Banco Safra. Throughout his career Luciano has been specialized in structuring loans and Credit Funds.

Luciano has jointed YSB Brazil in 2015, and since then has played important role in structuring and raising funds for the first Investment Fund dedicated exclusively to finance social businesses in Brazil. The main purpose of the Fund is to provide a patient capital to social businesses, aiming their growth and financial sustainability throughout time.

Biography

Biography

Monica Yunus is the Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Sing for Hope. Ms. Yunus has performed with the world’s leading opera companies, including The Metropolitan Opera, Washington National Opera, The Zouk Festival, and in recitals in Spain, Guatemala, and her native Bangladesh. She has been named a 2016 Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, honored with a 21st Century Leaders Award, as “New Yorker of the Week” by NY1, and named one of the “Top 50 Americans in Philanthropy” by Town & Country. A leading voice in the “artist as citizen” discussion, she has performed and spoken at the Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit, Skoll World Forum, Aspen Ideas Festival, and the United Nations. The daughter of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus, Ms. Yunus is a graduate of The Juilliard School.

Biography

Camille Zamora is the Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Sing for Hope. An internationally acclaimed soprano, she has appeared with collaborators ranging from Plácido Domingo to Sting, with ensembles including London Symphony and Glimmerglass Opera, and in live broadcasts on NPR, BBC Radio, Deutsche Radio and Sirius. A graduate of The Juilliard School, she has been recognized by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and named one of CNN’s Most Intriguing People, NY1’s “New Yorker of the Week” and one of the “Top 50 Americans in Philanthropy” by Town & Country. A regular contributor to The Huffington Post and a leading voice in the “artist as citizen” discussion, Camille has performed and spoken at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit, Skoll World Forum, Aspen Ideas Festival, and the United Nations.

Biography

Dr. Tutan Ahmed is an Assistant Professor in Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur. He has prior experience of working with the United Nations, the World Bank and with the Government of India with different capacities. He has done his Fellowship (Ph.D.) in Public Policy & Management from IIM Calcutta. Prior to this, he has completed his Bachelor’s in Engineering from Jadavpur University. A desire to create a larger impact led him to choose Public Policy as his area of Ph.D. and consequent works.
At present, Dr. Ahmed is working on the applications of different technologies to solve public policy problems.

Biography

Kieran is a professor-in-practice and Associate Director of the Gandhi Center for Inclusive Innovation at Imperial College Business School in London. Kieran spent 15 years in banking where worked on various transformative fintech initiatives globally. Over the past decade, he has applied this financial expertise to various social enterprises and impact investment projects, including the establishment of the Uinspire Academy, a global platform looking to affect positive social change. At the Gandhi Center, he is focused on data-driven solutions to issues such as global poverty; preventable child and maternal mortality; climate change and financial inclusion. His work has also involved using international partnerships and government policy to tackle the root causes of global inequality.

Biography

 Dr. Md.  Nazrul Islam (Asif Nazrul) is a law professor, researcher, writer and civil society activist. He did a PhD in international law from the University of London in 1998 and worked as a fellow at the IUCN-Environmental Law Center in Germany in 2001. He published research papers in leading international and national journals and wrote chapters in books published by the Kluwer Academic publishers and IUCN Environmental Law Center.  He also reviewed academic book for Journal of Environmental Law published by Oxford University Press.

He worked as a Consultant to European Union Delegation, UNDP, ADB and is involved with ILA and SAHR, among other reputed think-tank organizations.  

Biography

Jacques joined the Action Tank as Managing Director in 2011, shortly after its inception in 2010. After a 10-year career in strategy consulting, Jacques started his own business in 2003, selling customised children products. He sold his company in 2013.

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 have two spectacularly talented daughters.

Biography

Dr. Harry Bradbury is a specialist in Sustainable Economic Development. He was a leader of three of the world's largest advisory firms with global advisory experience for Companies, Governments and Development Banks over more than thirty years. Deloitte Managing Partner, Central Europe; Booz.Allen & Hamilton EMEA Leader; and AT Kearney Emerging Markets Leader. Founder & CEO of two award-winning, London Stock Exchange-listed, Anglo-American companies in sustainability and clean technology. Chief Economic Advisor to the Kingdom of Bahrain Government. Professor Yale University in Sciences and Newcastle University in Business. Creator of a Foundation for Yale, Harvard and Cornell universities. Bachelors and Doctorate degrees, Liverpool University.

Biography

Alex Counts established Grameen Foundation in 1997. Prior to that, he was trained under Professor Yunus, serving as a senior research fellow at Grameen Bank. Since its modest beginnings, Grameen Foundation has grown to become a leading international organization that has been active in the social business movement, having created the first social business in India. Counts’ writings include the just-released Changing the World Without Losing Your Mind: Leadership Lessons from Three Decades of Social Entrepreneurship and Small Loans, Big Dreams: How Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and Microfinance Are Changing the World. At present, Counts teaches at the University of Maryland and is an independent consultant.

Biography

Nini is CEO at myHarapan, established in 2010 dedicated in helping youth to achieve their true potential by making positive social impact.  She is equipped with 20 years of start-up experience including training and coaching for SMEs and unemployed graduates.
 
She graduated from the University of Warwick in Accounting and Finance, and is an alumna of INSEAD SE Program. She received the Social Innovation Leadership award 2015 by World CSR Congress, India; Malaysian Great Women of Our Time Award 2015 (nomination); the CSR Leadership Award 2017; Top 10 Women Social Entrepreneur 2017 and is a Fellow at SERA Hong Kong in 2018.

Biography

Dominique V. Dauster, born 1976 in Wiesbaden, Germany, is an Entrepreneur, Managing Director of the Yunus + You – The YY Foundation and Special Advisor for International Relations to Prof. Muhammad Yunus. Dominique advocates the social business movement in various European and Asian countries as well as in Colombia and serves as Prof. Yunus´ United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Sherpa.

Biography

Tsuneaki Hirao is a Managing Director and Head of Credit Suisse Private Banking, Japan. He covers a large number of Ultra High Net Worth clients whose assets exceed $50 million USD in Credit Suisse Private Banking, Japan. On the other hand, there exist many social problems to be solved through social business in the world. He has been actively involved in connecting his Ultra High Net Worth clients to those social problems. While he supports to make his UHNW clients Make Money as a private banker, he supports his UHNW clients to Make Other People Happy.

Biography

Kerstin is the founder of Yunel, a Berlin-based company with the mission to unleash human potential and happiness for positive social change. In short, to make happiness work. Previously, she was a Business Consultant with McKinsey & Company’s Sustainability and Resource Productivity Practice (2006-2014). Before joining McKinsey, Kerstin studied Human Geography, Political Sciences, and Psychology in Hamburg (1999-2005). Kerstin is a trained journalist (1996-1998) and business trainer in Positive Psychology (2014-2015). She also holds a PhD in Human Geography from Cologne University (2008-2011). Her research on poverty reduction through social business made her fall in love with Bangladesh.

Biography

Tasnima is the Global Director of Strategic Ventures and Head of UK at Yunus Social Business. Prior to YSB, Tasnima worked in senior roles in the UK as a business strategist and a senior lawyer at the magic circle law firm, Allen & Overy.

Tasnima has completed research and lectured in the fields of Leadership and Strategic Management at leading business schools. Tasnima holds degrees in Business (Distinction) and Law (Honours) from Australia’s top university, University of Sydney, where she was a full-term International Merits Scholar and Commonwealth Scholar. Tasnima was born in Bangladesh, raised in Sydney and currently resides in London.

Biography

Prof Sukor Kasim and his senior colleague, Prof David Gibbons, initiated the first international replication of the Grameen Bank Model in poverty alleviation in 1986 in Selangor, Malaysia. By 1989, Prof Sukor was actively in providing technical assistance through CASHPOR and Grameen Trust to Grameen replicators in China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, The Philippines, Ghana, Iran and South Africa. As the Head of YSBC at AIU in Kedah, Northern Malaysia, he will utilize the social business paradigm in creating sustainable livelihood opportunities by targeting households at the bottom of the Malaysia’s wealth pyramid with the goal of bridging inequality with prosperity and empowerment.

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 was Director, Development of Grameen Trust for 12 years which sets up microcredit programs globally. She is the Managing Director of Grameen Healthcare Trust and a board member of Grameen Healthcare Services, Grameen Creative Lab, Yunus Social Business, YY Foundation, Grameen Intel, Grameen Trust, Grameen Euglena Ltd. and Grameen Caledonian College of Nursing. She has spoken at numerous international conferences and summits on microcredit and social business, and serves as a judge for global social business competitions.

Biography

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

Biography

Yoan is a former rugby athlete and the Co-founder & Director of the Yunus Sports Hub. YSH’s mission is to solve problems through the power of sport and social business. YSH designs and runs initiatives such as: Inclusive & Sustainable Olympics or Global Business Accelerators for athletes.

Yoan also supports the social business movement through different projects within the Grameen Creative Lab - such as the introduction of BNP Paribas in the SB movement - and the Centre Yunus Paris.

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

Biography

In 1979 Masaharu joined NTT,　mainly in charge of international legal management including intellectual property license, lobbying, public relations, and internet business projects.

In 2001, after retiring NTT, he joined Kyushu University, teaching in the Law School. At the same time, He was General Counsel of Kyushu University. Since 2009, he has been in the project of Prof. Muhammad Yunus, establishing ‘Yunus & Shiiki Social Business Research Center’ as Executive Director. He holds an MBA from the University of Washington and was an Attorney at Law qualified in New York State.

Biography

Dr. Sam Ro has been teaching social entrepreneurship and related courses at the University of Michigan – Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute (JI) since 2010. He also works for the Center for Entrepreneurship of the Joint Institute, and he is leading Bangladesh Challenge project, funded through the Global Engagement Initiative of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, exploring the use of technology to support sustainable development. Apart from teaching, he has worked with many NGOs and not-for-profit private schools for migrant children and has personally founded a children’s choir for migrant children in Shanghai called New Voice Children’s Chorus.

Biography

Narayan is the CTO of Grameen Intel where his team developed the maternal wellness bangle, vaccine monitoring solution and a digital soil testing kit and are exploring AI for good. He is a Senior Principal Engineer at Intel exploring AI in content creation across media, sports and entertainment. Previously, in the New Technology Group, he conceptualized gesture-based music creation using wearables and the cricket bat sensor. Narayan has 45+ patents issued, 30+ pending, published 24+ journal papers and has co authored a book “The Rule of One: The Power of Social Entrepreneurship” to be published by Penguin Random House. Educated at the Indian Institute of Technology (B.Tech) and Cornell (M.S, Ph.D.), Narayan is also a freelance actor and film-maker.

Biography

April Tam-Smith is a devoted philanthropist, finance professional, and socially-conscious entrepreneur in NYC. She's a Managing Director in a top-tier investment bank and the co-founder of P.S. Kitchen, a social business, plant-based restaurant that donates 100% of its profits to philanthropic endeavors. PS also provides gainful employment to those who need a second chance, including the formerly incarcerated and victims of domestic violence. April was the recipient of the Columbia Tamer Center Social Enterprise Award, the 50 Outstanding Asian Americans in Business Award, and the John Mack Leadership Award. She received her Bachelor's from MIT and her MBA from Columbia.

Biography

Richard T. Tugume previously worked as an external auditor with PwC, a Finance Manager with TechnoServe Uganda, a Senior Financial Controller with Kilicafe (a triple certified coffee exporting Coop) in Tanzania, a Regional Portfolio Manager with Root Capital, a US-based Social Investment Fund, in charge of portfolio (at various times) in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and the DRC, and is currently the Country & Investment Director for Yunus Social Business Uganda. He holds a B.com(Acc) degree from Makerere University in Uganda, and an MBA from the University of Nairobi in Kenya. He is an avid practicing farmer, a champion of environmental conservation and social justice, loves traveling and learning new ideas.

Biography

The Youthink Centre is one of the leading Chinese youth think and do tanks focusing on global challenges and opportunities. Founded in 2009, Youthink Center had the vision to build an eco-system to support young leaders to learn, advocate, and take action on various topics such as the Sustainable Development Goals, Climate Change and Social Business. Youthink has partnered with 50+ media outlets and 110+ organizations, maintaining a network of 1000+ youth organizations/associations in China.

Alex was the initiator of the Chinese Youth Delegation to UN Rio+20 and then he led Chinese Youth participation on global development agenda and actively participated in UNGA and UNFCCC COP and UN DPI NGO Meetings. 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

Juno Wang currently serves as CEO and Pioneer Angel of Foundation for Yunus Social Business Taiwan; and Chairman of Master Success Management College, also general manager of Freeman Management advisers limited. She was President of the Council for Industrial and Commercial Development; Past President of Rotary Club of Taipei Elite under Rotary International District 3480.

Biography

Pipat Yodprudtikan is the chairman of Thaipat Institute, a public-interest organization established in 1999 with its aim mainly in promoting corporate sustainability and responsibility in the private sector. He leads the operation since it was founded and had delivered more than 300 engagements in research, training, and consulting with many of the multinational corporations, state enterprises, and major listed companies in Thailand.

Pipat founded the Thai CSR Network in 2005 as a platform of CSR practices for businesses and serves as a hub of CSR knowledge sharing among Thai companies and co-founded the Thailand Social Business Initiative (TSBI) in 2016 to promote the concept of social business pioneered by Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus in Thailand.

Pipat has B.Eng. from Kasetsart University, M.Sc. from Chulalongkorn University, and Ph.D. from Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University, Thailand. He is also a frequent lecturer at several universities and speakers at the major public forum on many occasions.

Biography

Bordin Rassameethes  is currently a director of Yunus Social Business Center Thailand @ Kasetsart University and a former Dean of Faculty of Business Administration and former Vice President of Kasetsart University. 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 chain management.

Biography

Former usoh was a former Minister of  Education, from 2013 until May 2018. He played an important role in the formulation of the Malaysia Education Blueprint (Higher Education) 2015-2025 and to redesign the Higher Education systems. The initiatives include the Integrated CGPA, CEO@Faculty Programme, 2u2i, industry and academia are one, MOOCs, APEL, learn & earn and many more. Idris also propagate Minister of Education

Dato’ Seri Idris JWaqf (Islamic Endowment) for social wellbeing. For that reason, he was appointed as advisor to Al-Bukhary International Islamic University (AIU), an endowment university that will teach Social Business as major component.

Idris is currently a Member of Parliament for the constituency of Besut, Terengganu, and experienced as a Minister of Education II (2013-2015), Chairman of Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) (2008-2013), and Chief Minister of Terengganu (2004-2008).

Biography

Biography

Hiroshi was born in Osaka in 1953. After graduating from the College of Social Studies of Kansai University in 1978 he joined Yoshimoto Kogyo. He was one of the founding members of the Tokyo Office in 1980. In 1993 he served as the Head of the Soft Content Development of the Production Division. In 2001 he was appointed as a Director and went on to serve as the Senior Managing Director and Vice President.

In 2009 he assumed duties as the CEO & Representative Director. He was appointed as the Representative Director & Chairman in 2019.

Biography

Dr. Faiz Shah currently heads Development Management at the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, and is Director of the Yunus Centre at AIT. He teaches on the CSR masters program, coordinates the AITE Healthcare Resources Group, co-directs the Energy Distribution Services Management & Technology program, and is visiting professor at the College of Innovation at Thammasat University, Bangkok.

In a 30-year change management and capacity-building career in a number of countries, Dr. Shah has advised government- and UN agencies, worked with major corporations, groomed over 3,000 grassroots officials and social, overseen over 300 community-level development projects in diverse communities from Himalayan villages to the Thar desert. Between 1995 and 2001 he led Saga, at the time the world’s largest soccer-ball company, in pioneering a widely recognized socially responsible business model.

Biography

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Biography

Corazon A.  Henares is the President of Dungganon Bank (DBI), a subsidiary of Negros for Tomorrow Foundation (NWTF). Before taking the lead at DBI in 2016, she played a major role in making NWTF one of the first successful Grameen replicators in the Philippines.  
She has a Master of Arts Degree in Psychology and worked in the academe before joining NWTF 35 years ago to spearhead research activities and oversee field operations. She now applies insights from her 30-year experience in microfinance operations to ensure that DBI offers products best suited for its micro and small enterprise clients.

Biography

Thisana is CEO & co-founder of Noburo and executive member of ITTP, the fast-growing micro-finance institution licensed from the Bank of Thailand. Noburo aims to solve emerging working class's financial problems through the power of data and technology.

Thisana holds a degree in Computer Engineering at Kasetsart University and Technology Management for Innovation from The University of Tokyo (Japanese Government Scholarship). She worked for Deloitte and publicly listed company where she has contributed to strategy planning and business investments among Thailand, Japan and other countries in Asia Pacific region. Before Noburo, she started a non-profit activity called “light me up project” in 2012, inspired by the passion in social development and wealth gap and poverty reduction.

Biography

Ms. Niru Shamsun Nahar has been working at Grameen Caledonian College of Nursing since 2010. She joined as a Vice Principal and got promoted to be the Principal in 2015. Previously she worked for both government and non-government organizations at home and abroad. She had her Diploma in Advanced Nursing & MSc. in International Health from Queen Margaret University in Edinburg, Scotland. She has long been contributing in the development of Nursing education in Bangladesh by actively sharing her knowledge and helping others. She is actively involved in promoting social business.

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 Winner Betty Williams and board member of several institutions, such as the Robert Francis Kennedy Foundation for Europe, Kwame Nkrumah Pan-African Centre, the International School of Sustainability, SocialbusinessItalia and so forth.

Biography

M Shahjahan is the advisor to Chairperson Professor Muhammed Yunus. He was the Acting Managing Director of Grameen Bank for four years. Mr. Shahjahan is a member of the Board of Directors of several health, education, agriculture, welfare, renewable energy and telecommunications companies. He obtained a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) degree in Accounting from the University of Dhaka in 1976, and a Master’s degree in Accounting in 1977 and a Master’s degree in Finance in 1981.

Biography

Tahsan Khan is a Bangladeshi singer-songwriter, actor and teacher. With 8 full-length albums and many singles till date, Tahsan Khan has reached millions with his soulful lyrics and sweet melodies. In 2008, he took a hiatus from the music industry to pursue MBA from the University of Minnesota, as a Fulbrighter and returned to Bangladesh to pursue teaching as an avocation.

His foray into acting in recent years propelled him to a different league of his own as a polymath. With 6.7 million followers on Facebook and 1.1 million followers on Instagram, he is currently the most followed Bangladeshi singer in social media. He is also the celebrity spokesman of Grameen Uniqlo.

Biography

James Chau is a news anchor, United Nations Goodwill Ambassador, and host of ‘The China Current with James Chau’. He has earned a special reputation for his interviews with world leaders in politics, science and health. In 2016, he was appointed by the World Health Organization as WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Sustainable Development Goals and Health. Since 2009, he has also served as UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador, the first person in China named to this position. Born in London to parents from Indonesia and Hong Kong, he studied piano at the Royal Academy of Music and graduated from Cambridge University.

Biography

She graduated in piano and information science and technology. She has been improving her composing activity together with Master Fabio Vacchi in Post Graduate Master Course “Musical Theatre and Opera composition”, Opera Academy Verona, and since 2010 also 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. Her composing and testing activity turns more and more towards visual arts and she co-operates with important artists creating the genres of Music Frame (Fotogramma Musicale) in which she suggests a relationship between visual suggestions and sound construction produced by computer. Under this  research sound and noise lose their historic significance of opposites, inside the digital tool, and they change into an unidentifiable raw material to be transformed in music.

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. She ranked among great artists at important international competitions both of electroacoustic and acoustic music. Many of her compositions have been recorded on CD and DVD and have been spread on international circuits.

Biography

Dr. Suraj Kumar is SDG Lead and International Partnerships Advisor to Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), Bhubaneswar and an Adjunct Professor of Sustainable Development at the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA). Dr. Kumar has worked in the development sector since 1993 at senior levels (nearly 17 years with the UN) in the design and implementation of programmes on sustainable human development, livelihoods, urban governance, women’s empowerment and ICT for Development.

Biography

Professor Anil K Gupta is a visiting faculty, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad; after retiring recently and at IIT Bombay. Fellow, NAAS, WAAS, and INSA; Founder, Honey Bee Network, NIF, SRISTI.org and, GIAN.org; CSIR Bhatnagar Fellow, 2018-21.

                                                                                              
Mission is to expand the global as well as local space for innovations from and for  grassroots, link ideas in informal and formal sector; to  ensure recognition, respect and reward for creative communities. Co-Teach PPIDI course with Hon'ble Former President of India Shri Pranab Mukherjee, GRIIT with  Bharat Ratna Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, former President of India (2008-12), Shodhyatra, CINE etc.

Biography

Christina is the Director Circular Economy at the Grameen Creative Lab and Co-founder of the Plastic Lab working on circular solutions to end plastic waste and environmental degradation by using the power of social business. As a member of the multi-stakeholder Prevent Waste Alliance she is responsible for developing collection and recycling systems in high-leakage areas to reduce ocean plastic and to create global marketplaces for recycled plastics. Christina has set up a local Circular Economy Network to promote exchanges between designers, sustainability officers, entrepreneurs and experts. She also has a teaching assignment at the University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt for the Department of Industrial and Communication Design.

Biography

Md. Ashraful Hassan has been working with Grameen Group since 1984. He currently serves as Managing Director of Grameen Telecom and is engaged in promoting and providing easy access to GSM cellular services in rural Bangladesh. He also serves as Managing Director of Grameen Distribution Ltd, Grameen Shamogree & CEO of Grameen Telecom Trust. Out of those Grameen Distribution Ltd. is a large Social Business Company and others two are developing & promoting Social Business. He has a profound knowledge in sales channels and product sourcing. He gained extensive and diversified knowledge in various industrial sectors. He has wide experience of project development and industrial setup specially in social business and also has an extensive knowledge in the field of construction engineering. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of several enterprises. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering.

Biography

Raihan Mohammad is a green visionary, entrepreneur and a motivator. He call himself and his team the Eco-Warrior. He is constantly creating green awareness among people and helping the govt. to build a perfect bio-packaging standard for everyone.

He brought the First ever 100% Organic and totally Home-Compostable shopping bag for Bangladesh, the perfect Replacement for polythene bags. It hit the local and international premium brands like storm and some of them are already working with him.

A North South University graduate, he always has a keen eye on people’s need which are getting ignored and he likes to address it. Because he believes, meeting customers need is business.

Biography

Chaiwat Kovavisarach is Chairman at Bangchak Retail Co. Ltd. and President, CEO & Non-Executive Director at Bangchak Corp. Public Co. Ltd. Mr. Kovavisarach is also Vice President-Alumni Association at Asian Institute of Technology and on the board of 5 other companies.

In the past he was Managing Director at TURNAROUND Co. Ltd., Chairman of Bangchak Biofuel Co. Ltd., Senior Executive VP-International Trading Unit at PTT Public Co., Ltd. and Director-Investment Banking Club at Association of Securities Cos.

Biography

Amy Dahmen is an educator, communication practitioner, and program designer. Her experience unites on-field work with research & design. Human-trafficking, violence alleviation, church mobilization in social justice, and sport-for-development have been the focus of her work & graduate research in India, New York, and Paris. She is the co-founder of Kabubu, a Social Business that integrates refugees through sport, and is the communications manager of Yunus Sports Hub. Through her work, she lives out her call to connect the seemingly-disconnected & solve problems creatively. She is from the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

Biography

A lawyer by training, Marie Barsacq worked for ten years for the French National Olympic Committee (CNOSF), devoting her energies to employment, training and qualification in the sporting movement. She then joined the French Football Federation (FFF), where she set up the Institute of Football Coaching (IFF) before becoming the FFF’s assistant general manager for amateur football.

Marie Barsacq then took up position as the Executive Director of Impact and Heritage for the Paris 2024 Bid Committee, a position she now holds for the Organising Committee.

Biography

Mr. Ge Yang, is a famous Chinese table tennis player and was 2016 Paralympic Table Tennis Champion. When he was 5 years old, he lost his right lower arm because of firecracker accident. Although the sudden blow cast a heavy shadow on his young heart, he did not bow to his fate. Through his unremitting efforts, he also made his life more wonderful. He collected the World Championships for the Disabled, the World Cup, the Paralympic Table Tennis both singles and team gold medals.  On December 4, he became the first leg of the torch relay at Guangzhou 2010 Asian Disabled People's Games held in Beijing.

Biography

Biography

Elisa Yavchitz is currently Manager at Les Canaux’, an organization which is a dedicated place for all actors that aim to put society and the environment at the core of their project. A health economist, she first worked with World Health Organization and the French Ministry of Health. She spent these past seven years with Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, as a special adviser on economic and attractivity development issues. Elisa Yavchitz is convinced that the development of social business will generate jobs for all, increase solidarity and provide the opportunity to create a good life for everyone.

She is one of the leaders of the ESS 2024 platform which aims to inform, mobilize and accompany the social business sector to deliver inclusive and sustainable Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris.

Biography

A former Vice-President for Institutional Advancement at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), Dr. Woon has wide-ranging experience in the military, private sector, academia, and diplomacy. He was most recently the Vice Chairman of Alba Group Asia, and worked as China policy advisor to the US Secretary of Defense. From 2006 to 2010, Dr Woon was the Managing Director of Li & Fung Group’s China Corporate Office and Managing Director of Toys ”R” Us China.  Dr Woon has also been a Vice-President of Starbucks Coffee Company in China.

Biography

Mst. Taslima Akter is a young entrepreneur of 37 years old who lives in Nagarpur, Tangail, Bangladesh. Her mother is Grameen Bank’s member for 20 long years. She started her cloth business with her mother’s money 47.58 USD (BDT 4,000). She rented a small shop for running her business. Due to shortage of capital, she took assistance capital 1784 USD (BDT 150,000) from Grameen Shakti Samajiki Byabosha Ltd. to expand her business with more goods. Situation favored her & she made a good sale with enough profit. Now three shops and additional with 2 employees. 2nd time GSSBL Equity Fund is BDT 350,000 (USD 4163) for expansion. She is now happy and contributes to the family; reduce poverty & creating more employment

Biography

Ms. Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana was appointed Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in September 2018.

Prior to joining ESCAP, Ms. Alisjahbana was Professor of Economics at Universitas Padjadjaran in Bandung, Indonesia.

From 2009 to 2014, she was Minister of National Development Planning and Head of the National Development Planning Agency, Indonesia. In 2016, she was a member of the High Level Independent Team of Advisors to support the ECOSOC Dialogue on the longer term positioning of the United Nations Development System in the context of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development.

Biography

“In 2003, I went to my in-law’s house with my young pet goat. I came back in 2005 to my parental home with a daughter in my womb and three goats. The reason is inhuman torture for dowry.”

Eti Begum was born to a poor family in Thakurgaon. Tortured since marriage, Eti that she would be independent. She bought a sewing machine with a loan from Grameen Bank and bought a cow with the savings. Later, with Grameen Telecom Trust, she founded Julekha Dairy Farm. She holds a Bachelor of Social Science, and dreams of being a lawyer to help women like her.

Biography

Mr. Suphachai Chearavanont is CEO of Charoen Pokphand Group (C.P. Group), one of Asia’s leading conglomerates that consists of over 100 companies operating in 21 countries in agri-food, retail and telecommunications. He also serves as the Chairman of the Executive Committee of True Corporation and oversees group-wide strategies on sustainability policies and corporate communications.

Mr. Chearavanont has been a member of the Thai Government’s Independent Committee for Educational Reform since May 2017 and Chairperson for the United Nations Global Compact Network Thailand since 2016. In 2013, he helped launch Thailand’s first telecommunications infrastructure fund and established True’s CSR initiative that helped deliver education to underprivileged children in 6,000 schools in rural areas of Thailand.

Biography

His health innovation improves the quality of life of people with Workplace stress. He trains and hires ex-convict women and tribal youths, to provide a steady income from a service contract with many corporates as CSR-in-process, impacting on reduced drug crime and reforestation from reducing corn fields. He was elected to be Vice Chairman of Social Enterprise Thailand Association. SHE received many notable awards and lots of attention from ASEAN. He is now working with the regulator of capital markets to turn CSR to impact investing, following the SE Promotion Act of Thailand.

Biography

M.L. Dispanadda Diskul (Duke) is CEO of the Mae Fah Luang Foundation under Royal Patronage (MFLF), based in Thailand. The MFLF is internationally renowned for its model on sustainable development and application of social entrepreneurship and community empowerment principles. Duke leads MFLF in Thailand as well as internationally‒ in Myanmar, Afghanistan, and Indonesia; represents the Foundation in sharing its sustainable development principles and expertise at key national and international policy forums; and looks after the management of the MFLF’s five social businesses under the DoiTung brand. Duke is co-founder and was recently elected President of the Social Enterprise Thailand Association (SE Thailand), and was selected for the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leader (2013) and Asia 21 Young Leader (2013)

Biography

Lani Fraizer serves at the cross-section of leadership, social innovation, and workforce development. In the last 20 years, she has transformed her passions into a portfolio career through hybrid social business ownership, professorship, and consultancy—working on talent, workforce and capacity building projects for Fortune 100 technology companies, HED and serving as an Advising Emeritus for the Grace Hopper Women in Computing. Author of Developing Lifelong Changemakers, formerly served as Chair/Professor at Pepperdine, and currently Visiting Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at the University of the Pacific, Contributing Expert for the UN in New York, and Visiting Expert of YCA Thailand.

Biography

Md. Imran Hossain was born in 1990, subject to extreme poverty. He decided to make up for his father’s losses by becoming a businessman. He financed a shop by taking money from his father in 2008. Inspired, Imran’s mother took a loan of BDT 20,000 (USD 240) from Grameen Bank and invest in her son’s business.

Grameen Telecom Trust invested Imran’s business in 2015 under the Nobin program. With this capital he established a mini garment factory. He has created employment for 15 males and 42 females. He wants to make his ‘New Collection Garments’ a brand and export his products.

Biography

Mr. Hasim is a highly promising Nobin Udyokta (New Entrepreneur) from Kumarkhali, Kushtia. Due to financial crisis Mr .Hasim could not continue his study after 10th grade. He worked for 5 years at his uncle's handicraft factory. He had an aim to run his own handicraft factory.

In order to materialize his dream, he came into contact with Grameen Kalyan and attended a Social Business Design Lab. There he presented his business proposal. Grameen Kalyan agreed to invest in his project. Immediately after getting the investment, Hasim employed 40 women as part time workers at his factory.

Biography

Callum is Manager of the Yunus Center at AIT, runs the SDG Lab, and is part of the Program Design Team at AIT Extension. Callum manages a diverse social innovation projects and has experience working in +10 countries. He teaches the Project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation professional training course as well as the Customer Relationship Management course at AITE and runs numerous training programs and workshops on Social Business and Innovation in Europe and Asia for youth. Callum has lectured with the AIT, KMUTT and Rajamangala University of Technology Isan. He has previously worked for the European Institute of Cooperation and Development in Myanmar and Paris, starting a TVET Social Business, for a DfID project with a community-based organisation in Zimbabwe, and for the U.K. Department of Education.

Biography

Thapana Sirivadhanabhakdi was appointed President and CEO of Thai Beverage Public Company Limited in 2008 and under his Vision 2020 to become the leading total beverage company in ASEAN.

His recent undertaking has been to support the government's "Pracharath Rak Samakkee", a public-private partnership programme to help the economic development of local communities in the areas of agriculture, community tourism and product value creation. Thapana also founded and chairs C asean, a social enterprise to promote ASEAN connectivity, business and cultural promotions for young entrepreneurs. Under Thapana's leadership, ThaiBev was awarded the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) for Emerging Markets in 2016 and World Level in 2017.

Biography

With more than 15 years of global strategic consulting experience, Tongjai has recently turned her focus to Sustainable Development and Social Enterprise operations. She has been an instrumental figure in the launching of Pracharat Raksamakkee social enterprise network across Thailand, which focuses on rural community development. Additionally, Tongjai leads Sustainability Program at C asean with wide range of activities, including award-winning "Win  Win WAR" TV program.

Biography

Mechai Viravaidya is best known for his role as one of Thailand’s leading social changemakers who has had significant impact on Thailand’s population, HIV infection, Social Entrepreneurship, poverty eradication and rural education. He founded the Population and Community Development Association in 1974 and the Bamboo School in 2008. He also served as UNAIDS Ambassador, Senator, Cabinet Minister and Chairman of several major state enterprises. He received awards from the UN, the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation, the Prince Mahidol Award, from Bill and Melinda Gates and was recognized as one of Asiaweek’s “20 Great Asians” and one of TIME Magazine’s “Asian Heroes”.

Biography

Claire is an expert in stakeholder engagement, organizational growth and shared value partnerships to enable development programs to scale. Claire joined Water.org in August 2015 as Senior Strategist of Enabler Partnerships, to spur portfolio diversification and unlock financial flows to expand global water supply and sanitation financing channels and products to last mile clients. As Senior Manager she currently leads the global practice Sector Engagement.
 
Formerly, Claire was the Chief Catalyst at The Partnerships Advisory before joining Water.org. Claire was a senior officer of the PepsiCo Foundation where she reset the strategic focus of the Foundation from US-only giving into the global giving arena. Prior to PepsiCo, Claire founded Downside Up, Russia’s first community-based special needs education organization.

Biography

Abdul Hai Khan joined Grameen Trust (GT) as Managing Director in 2017. Before joining GT, he worked with Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus at Grameen Bank for more than 25 years. Mr. Khan has a wide range of experience in the Grameen Bank Approach worldwide. He has conducted international training programs on Microcredit and Social Business as well as monitored microcredit projects run, owned and/or managed by GT worldwide. Mr. Khan serves as a member on a number of Boards in different microfinance organizations and Social Business entities in Bangladesh, China, France, Kosovo, India, Italy and USA.

Biography

Léa has been involved for the past 10 years with the social innovation scene, previously working with the United Nations Development Program, and then as one of the 30 youth under 30 working group advising former French President on inclusive and sustainable legislation. Léa joined Makesense 5 years ago. During her first 2 years, she was coordinating, designing and leading all the Makesense student and early-stage incubation programs in Europe. During this time she supported the creation of 700 projects and engaged 5,000 students with social innovation. On the side, she used to teach social entrepreneurship to Master degree students of Sorbonne University in Paris. In 2015, she moved to the Philippines to develop Makesense activities in the region and has been leading social innovation programs in various countries of the region such as Singapore, Korea, Philippines, and Thailand. In 2017, Lea became the Asia Director of Makesense.

Biography

After graduating from Ecole Polytechnique, he joined Veolia in 1993. Today, as CEO of 2EI-Veolia he develops pilot projects and incubates innovative urban solutions throughout the world in the field of sustainability. 2EI-Veolia acts as an incubator to test the viability of innovative mechanisms and partnerships. In particular POP-UP by Veolia is a social open innovation program that has been implemented in four countries, with more than 100 social start-ups incubated so far. 2EI, as a consultancy team, helps disseminate them to markets. Eric Lesueur is Managing Director of Grameen Veolia Water and Board Member of the Toilet Board Coalition.

Biography

Biography

Eanda Ukmata was born in the Gjakova Municipality. She took a loan from KGMAMF in 2018 to expand her beauty salon business. Eanda was inspired by her mother’s work. When she had free time, she helped her mother in a shop where she worked as a hairdresser and makeup artist.

Eanda completed graduation on Public Administration. After receiving funds from KGMAMF, Eanda is now a professional makeup artist. She has a well decorated studio. After taking credit from KGMAMF she has invested around 6000 Euro to improve her business space.

Biography

M. Jahangir Alam Chowdhury is Professor in Finance and the Executive Director of the Center for Microfinance and Development, University of Dhaka. He received Ph.D. in Banking and Finance from the University of Stirling, UK. Prof. Chowdhury’s research focuses on microfinance, poverty, entrepreneurship, and payment for ecosystem services. Dr. Chowdhury has co-authored numerous peer reviewed journal papers, conference articles and book chapters, and has received several awards and grants from various funding agencies including the Association of Commonwealth Universities, SANDEE, University of Stirling, Royal Economic Society, Asian Scholarship Foundation, Government of Japan, Partnership for Economic Policy, Grand Challenges Canada, Microfinance Management Institute, and Government ofTaiwan.

Biography

Dr. Wu, Pei-Chih is an associate professor of Department of Occupational Safety and Health at the Chang Jung Christian University (CJCU) in Taiwan. She is also the director of Research and Development office of CJCU. Her Specialties are Indoor air quality, Climate change and health and Bioaerosols. Apart from managing Innovation Incubation Center of CJCU during 2012-2013, she is the Chairman of the Board, Ark Better Life Company.

Biography

Dr. Fadi Kattan holds a PhD in Accounting from the University of Bradford in the UK in addition to several professional certifications in accounting, auditing and finance.  He has been the Dean of the School of Business Administration at Bethlehem University since 2002.  Dr. Kattan is the founder and director of the Master’s program in Cooperation and Development offered at Bethlehem University.  He is the main lecturer in the accounting department at Bethlehem University.  Dr. Kattan is a member of several international accounting professional bodies including the AICPA, the IIA, and the IMA.  In addition to his expertise in the field of accounting and finance, Dr. Kattan lectured in the field of development and the role of the private sector in sustainable development not only in Bethlehem University but also at universities in other countries such as Italy, Nepal and Ethiopia. Dr. Kattan serves as a member of several boards of different institutions in Palestine.  His experience in local businesses and institutions made him think of the importance of establishing a non-technology business incubator at Bethlehem University in cooperation with the Indiana University in the USA. He works on merging the academic education with the real world scenarios in Palestine.

Biography

Md. Kamruzzaman (Didar) is a Senior lecturer of Finance at Daffodil International University. He holds MBA in finance from the University of Dhaka as well as having FDP from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA). Currently, he is pursuing the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) from CFA Institute, USA.  He is having a flair for finance with special focus on behavioral finance, corporate finance, capital market, financial analysis & microfinance. Besides, he is also having keen interest in social business and social entrepreneurship and has been working with these initiatives since 2015. Now, he is working as the convener of Social Business Students’ Forum (SBSF) and member of Yunus Social Business Centre (YSBC), DIU. He has published research papers in the renowned journals including, SCOPUS Indexed and presented papers in national and international academic conferences.  

Biography

Qin Jianwei, Vice Dean of Business School of Zhengzhou University, Executive Director of Yunus Social Business Center of Zhengzhou University. He is Long-term commitment to the study of world economic and international trade issues, now organizes more than 40 professional teams to carry out eight thematic studies around social Business and inclusive finance.

Biography

I am Kshitiz Baral. I live in Masbar-7, Pokhara,Kaski District, Gandaki Province, Nepal. I am an aspiring lecturer teaching entrepreneurship and microfinance in Novel Academy and La Grandee International College. Besides, I also look after Yunus Social Business Centre, Novel Academy. I have been inspiring and mentoring the social entrepreneurship in Gandaki Province, Nepal. I myself have been practicing microfinance and social Business in a village called Durlung, Parbat District, Kaski. I got inspired by Prof. Muhammad Yunus after reading his book Banker to the Poor and had my MBA, internship in Yunus Centre Dhaka on Microfinance and Social Business.

Biography

Dr. Yung-Kai Yang is an associate professor at the National Kaohsiung University, Taiwan. Apart from managing the YSBC at NUK, he is also the founder of “Rain Tree Coffee” that aims to promote the welfare of Indonesia immigrants and students in Taiwan. He also published academic papers on topics such as social enterprise business model and internationalization of social enterprises.

Biography

Dr. Ani Kartikasari  recently joined the Yunus Centre for Social Business at Lincoln University in New Zealand. In the past five years, I teach courses on policies and practices in international rural development.  Integral to these is the need to apply key principles of sustainability in the management of development projects and inclusive business models. Such initiatives must be economically feasible, environmentally workable, and socially acceptable at both local and global levels. I have assessed many research essays and theses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Social business, through eco-tourism, micro-entrepreneurship, value-adding activities, and poverty alleviation projects, has been the key theme that runs through the courses, for which major challenges and opportunities have been explored and potential solutions recommended.  

Biography

Dr Rafiuddin Ahmed is fueled with gallons of spirit for social entrepreneurship, innovation, incubation and lean start up. He has ample motivation and passion to change the world with enormous social change making ideas.
 
As we are approaching a future of unemployment due to technological advancements, the emergence of artificial intelligence and humanoids, he thinks it is high time to prepare our youth to combat the uncertainty of employment. Kids can prepare them early by learning emotional intelligence and soft skills alongside their main academic curriculum. He started a kidspreneurial training facility (his doctoral outcome i.e. www.innokids.org) for primary school children where they will learn social entrepreneurship, EI, Soft skills and STEAM. The motto is - “It’s never too early to be your own boss”. Rafi has  also been  working as an Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Dhaka for the last 14 years. In short, he is a pracademic, an edupreneur, evangelist, trendsetter and kidpreneurship trainer.

Biography

I am the Director of Operations, Chair of Business and Enterprise at Social Impact, a Yunus Social Business Center has been launched since last March and an associate professor at Lille Catholic University, France and 

My career alternates academic positions and field work.

My academic positions in different universities in France are mainly teaching and management of programs and institutes oriented.

My field work, essentially in Haiti, was related to microfinance as a means to empower rural communities by using groups and cooperative methodologies. It was also dedicated to support young rural social entrepreneurs.

Biography

He is the Chairperson of Centre of Sustainability & CSR at Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH), Gr Noida.
He is an Independent Director of National Aluminum Co Ltd (NALCO) a public limited company of Government of India
He has got more than three decades of experience of working in development, finance and MSME sectors and promotion of social business and enterprises.

He has worked with government organizations and with UNDP and UNIDO. and  associated with projects supported by the World Bank and DFID, UK.

He is visiting faculty at National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRDPR), National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (NIESBUD), National Institute of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (NIMSME) in India.

Biography

Ryukoku University has established a “Yunus Social Business Research Centre” (“YSBRC”) at Ryukoku University for the development of social businesses in Japan and to carry out collaborative activities with Yunus Social Business Centres ("YSBC”) throughout the world.
 
In this year, the 380th anniversary of our University's establishment, we have been able to write a new chapter in our history by establishing the YSBRC.

We will continue to make further efforts in education, research and social contribution.