Iqbal Quadir

GrameenPhone and MIT Legatum Center

Keynote Speaker

Iqbal Z. Quadir is the Founder and Director of the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT, where he has been teaching since 2005. Quadir is an accomplished entrepreneur, author and lecturer on the potential of bottom-up economic development through entrepreneurship and innovation. His work has been recognized as a successful development model by leaders and organizations around the world.

In 1993, in the midst of a successful career as an investment banker on Wall Street, Iqbal Quadir left this American dream behind to follow another dream. This dream would forever change the lives of the people of his native country of Bangladesh and shatter many beliefs about doing business in the developing world. Quadir conceived, designed and founded GrameenPhone in rural Bangladesh to provide virtually universal access to telephony and self-employment opportunities for its poor, specifically empowering poor women who had little or no opportunity in the past to pull themselves out of poverty.

Today, GrameenPhone is a profitable venture with more than 16 million subscribers, the largest telephone company in Bangladesh. At the same time, it has created self-employment opportunities to more than 250,000 Grameen Bank borrowers, giving telephone access to more than 100 million people. Quadir is often credited as among the first to recognize empowering potential of mobile telephones to unleash economic activity in developing countries.

Cameron Sinclair

Architecture for Humanity and Open Architecture Network

Keynote Speaker

Cameron Sinclair is the co-founder and executive director of Architecture for Humanity, a charitable organization which seeks architecture and design solutions to humanitarian crises and provides design services to communities in need. Currently the organization working in fourteen countries on projects ranging from school, health clinics, affordable housing and long term sustainable reconstruction.

Sinclair and Architecture for Humanity co-founder Kate Stohr have compiled a compendium on socially conscious design titled Design Like You Give A Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crises. As a result of receiving the TED Prize, he and Stohr launched the Open Architecture Network, the worlds' first open source community dedicated to improving living conditions through innovative and sustainable design.

Sinclair is a regular lecturer and visiting professor at schools in the United States and abroad and has contributed to a number of exhibitions dealing with social justice and design. He has spoken at a number of international conferences and forums on sustainable development and post disaster reconstruction, including appearances on BBC World Service and CNN International, National Public Radio and PBS.

Bernard Amadei

Engineers Without Borders

Dr. Bernard Amadei is the Founding President of Engineers Without Borders - USA and co-founder of Engineers Without Borders-International, whose mission is to partner with disadvantaged communities to improve their quality of life through implementation of sustainable engineering projects, while involving and training internationally responsible engineering professionals and students.

Dr. Amadei's current interests cover the topics of sustainability and international development. At the University of Colorado at Boulder, Amadei directs a new program in Engineering for Developing Communities. Its overall mission is to educate globally responsible engineering students and professionals who can offer sustainable and appropriate solutions to the endemic problems faced by developing communities worldwide. Amadei's goal is to promote sustainable development, appropriate technology, service learning, and system thinking in the curriculum and research of civil engineering programs at CU Boulder and other U.S. universities.

Ken Banks

Kiwanja

Ken Banks, founder of kiwanja.net, specializes in the application of mobile technology for positive social and environmental change in the developing world. He combines over 22 years in I.T. with over 14 years experience living and working throughout Africa in countries including Kenya, Nigeria (where he ran a primate sanctuary), South Africa, Mozambique, Cameroon, Zambia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. In 1999 he graduated from Sussex University with honors in Social Anthropology with Development Studies.

His vision is to empower others to create social change, and he does this by developing and providing tools to mostly grassroots organizations who seek to better use technology in their work. In 2007 he hit headline news on the BBC when his text messaging application, FrontlineSMS, was used to help monitor the Nigerian Presidential elections. Since launch the software has been successfully implemented in over forty countries including Afghanistan, Indonesia, Zimbabwe, the Philippines and Pakistan.

Niti Bhan

Emerging Futures Lab

Niti Bhan has been developing and implementing new market strategies for both the developed and developing world for almost two decades. Her experience spans advertising and marketing communications during the heyday of India's market liberalization to new product and service launches in the United States. Niti's key skill is her ability to take the long view when identifying opportunity spaces and new revenue generation strategies based on a big picture perspective. An established author and speaker, her research interests include the challenge of designing effective business and transaction models intended for those with irregular and unpredictable incomes.

The Emerging Futures Lab is a small multidisciplinary team that aims to increase the understanding the people at the base of the pyramid across the developing world in order to improve the success rate of new ventures, products and services intended to serve this market in a holistically beneficial manner. A significant proportion of their primary and original research is published under the Creative Commons license. Recent clients include a global consumer electronics manufacturer, an energy giant and a leading mobile service provider.

Krista Botsford

Botsford Ecotech

Krista Botsford is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Botsford EcoTech Partners. She is a subject matter expert in strategies for preparing companies to comply with world-wide environmental laws, regulations, and design requirements such as the EU's "Restriction of certain Hazardous Substances" or RoHS directive (commonly referred to as "Pb-Free").

Before founding Botsford EcoTech Partners, Krista was employee no. 5 at Cooper Perkins, Inc., from which she spun off under the original name 5-Trees. Krista also worked in a number of technical positions at IBM in New York and California. She earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Boston University and an M.S. in Management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Monica Bueno

Bruce Mau Design and Massive Change

Monica Bueno was born in Bogotá, Colombia and has worked as an innovation consultant in Europe, Asia, the United States, Canada, and Latin America. As Director of Strategy and Design at Bruce Mau Design, Monica provides creative direction for various projects with an emphasis on strategy, experience design, innovation, and interactive media. She is a member of the leadership team helping shape the company's strategic direction both externally by providing business development and internally by supporting design teams. Monica is currently involved with the School of the Art Institute and Archeworks in Chicago, as well as the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá.

Monica's core skill is in developing innovative and socially meaningful solutions in the fields of healthcare, service design, finance and consumer electronics. From her experience with Philips Design and IDEO she has built a deep commitment to translating user, business, and technology research into innovative solutions that are meaningful for both users and clients. Monica's current focus is in the area of responsible design. She is interested in strategic design projects dealing with social change.

Denise DeLuca

Biomimicry Institute

Denise DeLuca is the Outreach Director for The Biomimicry Institute, whose mission is to nurture and grow a global community of people who are learning from, emulating, and conserving life's genius to create a healthier, more sustainable planet. In this position, Denise is working to advance the tools and concepts of biomimicry and to integrate biomimicry into university-level education. Denise has spoken and given workshops at universities across the nation is and working to establish Biomimicry Mexico.

Denise received her undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Masters in Civil Engineering from Montana State University in Bozeman. Denise is a PE, a LEED-AP, and a mother of three. A constant drive to apply her engineering skills to accomplish a greater good has taken Denise's career through both public and private sectors, including owning her own sustainable resource consulting business for several years.

Ross Evans

Worldbike and Xtracycle

Ross Evans is a self-described renaissentrepreneur, a title that captures the exciting array of business and social projects he has initiated. After inventing the Xtracycle FreeRadical longtail bicycle system, the opportunities he saw in that endeavor led him to co-found Worldbike, a non-profit dedicated to the design and dissemination of affordable cargo-carrying bicycles around the world. In 2002, Ross was selected as one of the top 40 designers in the world by ID Magazine. He also invented the SuperFort, an award-winning children's construction toy.

Ross earned a B.S. in Design Engineering from Stanford University. From his time studying and teaching in the Stanford Product Realization Lab, he gained experience in a broad spectrum of manufacturing processes and product design techniques. Ross is passionate about using design to do good in the world by tackling projects that are too early or risky for others to get involved in.

Lukas Feireiss

Architecture of Change

Lukas Feireiss is a teacher, writer, and curator deeply involved in the discussion and mediation of architecture, art and media beyond its disciplinary boundaries. He attained his graduate education in Religious studies, Philosophy and Ethnology, where he specialized in the dynamic relationship between architecture and other fields of knowledge. As counter-weight to his theoretical background he has gained profound professional experience in his capacity as project manager for various international projects, such as the German Pavilion.

In his recent book Architecture of Change. Sustainability and Humanity in the Built Environment, he addresses the issue of sustainability by presenting architectural projects from around the globe that combine creativity, scientific knowledge, technical innovation, social engagement, and a strong sense of responsibility to address environmental challenges. Other recent books include Spacecraft. Fleeting Architecture and Hideouts and Game Set and Match II: On Computer Games, Advanced Geometries and Digital Technologies.

Steve Glenn

LivingHomes

Steve Glenn is an entrepreneur committed to positive social change through both for- and non-profit organizations. He is the founder and CEO of LivingHomes, LLC — a developer of modern, prefabricated homes designed by world-class architects that feature healthy/green materials and energy systems, all at a great price value. A fan of architecture and an avid Lego enthusiast from a very young age, Glenn tried his hand at design in college only to find the he lacked both the talent and temperament to be an architect. Instead, Glenn concluded that the world could use more real estate developers like Jim Rouse who focus on projects that reflect a deep appreciation for the aesthetic, environment and communities in which they're created. From Lego to prefab, LivingHomes represents the fulfillment of a life-long ambition to create a company that aspires to 'wed profit and purpose' by developing homes that make great design, functionality, and sustainable design practical and affordable.

Paddy Harrington

Bruce Mau Design and Massive Change

Paddy Harrington has been designing with Bruce Mau Design since 2002. In that time, he's worked on several of the studio's high profile projects such as the Seattle Public Library, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Puenta de Vida Museum of Biodiversity, a collaboration in Panama City with Gehry Partners. Paddy later contributed to the final masterplan document for Tree City, 218 acres at Parc Downview Park in north Toronto.

Prior to Bruce Mau Design, Paddy graduated from the University of Toronto with a Masters of Architecture following an undergraduate honors degree in English Literature at the University of Ottawa. His focus is in bringing design thinking methodologies to bear on social and business challenges and in understanding the link between vision and realization.

Paddy's personal work includes award winning film making and writing projects.

Erik Hersman

Afrigadget, White African, and Ushahidi

Erik Hersman is the founder of AfriGadget, a multi-author website that showcases stories of Africans solving everyday problems with little more than their creativity and ingenuity. Fascinated by micro-entrepreneurs, gadgets and improvisation, he is proving that technology is changing Africa — daily.

Erik is also the co-founder of Ushahidi ("testimony" in Swahili), a website created to map the reported incidents of violence happening during the post-election crisis in Kenya. Currently, he is working with a team of mostly-African programmers to use what they have learned from building Ushahidi to create a free and open source engine that makes it easier to crowdsource crisis information and visualize data.

Raised in Sudan and Kenya, Erik brings unique energy and insight to the world of technology and innovation — bridging the gap between Africa and Silicon Valley. An avid blogger Erik writes two different technology blogs including: AfriGadget and WhiteAfrican. One dedicated to low-tech African ingenuity, and the other to high-tech mobile and web changes happening throughout Africa.

Sheila Kennedy

Kennedy & Violich Architecture and Portable Light Project

Sheila Kennedy and her partner Frano Violich are founding Principals of Kennedy & Violich Architecture, Ltd. (KVA) an interdisciplinary design practice that explores new relationships between architecture, digital technology and emerging public needs. Projects at KVA include the new Graduate Center for Integrated Technology at RISD, a 19th century warehouse transformed into a digital loft for graduate arts education, and the design of a sustainable multi-modal Ferry Terminal Building at 34th Street in Manhattan which integrates off grid electrical power and smart transportation technology.

In 2000, Kennedy established MATx, a pioneering materials research unit which engages applied creative production across the fields of electronics, architecture, design and material science. MATx works collaboratively with business leaders, industrial manufacturers, cultural institutions and public agencies to invent design concepts, products and building systems that advance the real world implementation of sustainable digital technologies. MATx has developed new technology applications for Dupont, Siemens, Osram, Herman Miller, Saint-Gobain, The North Face and the United States Department of Energy. The MATx team initiated the Portable Light Project, a non-profit global initiative to develop portable energy harvesting technology in a textile form that can be adapted by local people.

Clarice Odhiambo

Africa Center for Engineering Social Solutions

Clarice Odhiambo is the CEO & Founder of Africa Center for Engineering Social Solutions (ACESS), an organization that exists to uplift the livelihood of the people in Africa, in particular rural women and children. Her initiative seeks to ensure that far more of the Africa's people are given the chance to benefit from the combination of entrepreneurship and new technology to create a virtuous circle of economic development. ACESS forges strong multi-stakeholder partnerships between those who need help and those who can provide it, acting as the bridge between the Communities and Industry, Donors and Students.

Clarice has a Masters in Chemical Engineering from University of Rhode Island and 20 years of experience working for multinationals in the private sector in industrial processing. Before founding ACESS in 2007, she was the Coca-Cola Africa Water Partnerships Manager, managing external partnership activities, including supporting community development activities in water and sanitation and developing multi-industrial partnerships to help local communities.

Aliza Peleg

Better Place

Aliza Peleg is the Vice President of Operations for Better Place, a venture-backed company that aims to reduce global dependency on oil through the creation of a market-based transportation infrastructure that supports electric vehicles, providing consumers with a cleaner, sustainable, personal transportation alternative. With an infrastructure of battery charging spots and battery exchange stations, drivers experience the feeling of infinite range at a cost less than that of driving an internal combustion engine car. Peleg oversees the global business operations for Better Place, managing the company's day to day financial and administrative functions and directing external facing initiatives, including marketing, partner, and community relations.

Prior to joining Better Place, she was managing director of SAP Labs US, headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, where she was responsible for the strategy and operations of the company's Labs facilities. Peleg obtained her B.A. in Mathematics & Computer Science, and an M.B.A. from Tel-Aviv University.

Paul Polak

International Development Enterprises and D-Rev

Paul Polak—founder of Colorado-based non-profit International Development Enterprises (IDE)—is dedicated to developing practical solutions that attack poverty at its roots. For the past 25 years, Paul has worked with thousands of farmers in countries around the world—including Bangladesh, India, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Nepal, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe—to help design and produce low-cost, income-generating products that have already moved 17 million people out of poverty.

In his recent book, Out of Poverty, Paul poses this challenge: 90 percent of the world's designers focus on solutions for the richest 10 percent of the world's customers rather than the other 90 percent who need it most. Currently, Paul is spearheading D-Rev: Design for the Other 90% with the intent of igniting a design revolution. D-Rev will help multinational corporations develop affordable products for dollar-a-day customers, continuing Paul's mission—bringing prosperity to the world's poor.

Christian Werthmann

Harvard Graduate School of Design

Christian Werthmann is an Associate Professor and Program Director of the Landscape Architecture Department at the Graduate School of Design in Harvard University. His research revolves around the implementation of alternative infrastructure like green roofs, rain gardens, and constructed wetlands in heavily urbanized areas. As a co-founder of the interdisciplinary research group TransUrban, Werthmann critically examines built experiments in sustainable urbanism like the new city quarter Vauban in Freiburg, Germany, or solarCity Linz in Austria. For several years Werthmann has studied the transfer of alternative infrastructure technologies and principles to the fastest growing cities in the world. As part of his research initiative Dirty Work (founded with John Beardsley) he currently researches the integration of alternative infrastructure into informal urbanism of Latin American cities.

Jocelyn Wyatt

IDEO

Jocelyn Wyatt leads IDEO's efforts in integrating design for social impact and business factors. Jocelyn's career has focused on building social enterprises and advising businesses in the developing world. She is passionate about using the market to create social change and believes that design is an effective tool to address some of the world's largest problems.

At IDEO, Jocelyn has brought a business perspective to a variety of social impact projects with clients including Rockefeller Foundation, Kickstart, Acumen Fund, and Gates Foundation. Jocelyn's projects have included strategy, product design, and software design and have taken her to Ghana, India, Japan, and the UK. Jocelyn also teaches social enterprise at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.

Prior to joining IDEO, Jocelyn was selected as an Acumen Fund fellow and worked in Kenya with an agro-pharmaceutical producer of malaria treatments. Jocelyn served as Scojo Foundation's Interim Country Director in India and helped increase distribution of low-cost reading glasses.