Chairman, Yunus Centre,

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

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

Founder, Coordinator and Visiting Faculty , Honey Bee Network, SRISTI, GIAN, and EVC, NIF, IIMA

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

President and CEO , Grameen Foundation

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

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

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

Pro Vice Chancellor and Vice Principal (Research), Yunus Chair in Social Business & Health, GCU, Scotland

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.

Co-Founder & Ceo, Trustee, Social Alpha and Tata Institute For Genetics And Society, Head - Innovation And Entrepreneurship - Tata Trusts

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

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

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

Managing Trustee/ Director, Swades Foundation

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

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

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

Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Danone

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

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

Professor, ULAB

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

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

Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Grameen Intel

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

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

Co-founder and CEO, Earth2Orbit

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

Chairman and Managing Director, EM3, AgriServices Pvt. Ltd., India

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

Managing Director, Narayana Hrudayalaya

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

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

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

Chief Executive Officer, VEOLIA

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

Director, Amity Business School and Dean, Faculty of Management, Amity University Rajasthan

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

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

President and CEO, Grameen America

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

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

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

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

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

Ms. Jung is a graduate of Princeton University

Chairperson, Centre for Self help Development (CSD)

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

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

President, Grameen China

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

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

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

Consultant, Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation Inc

Executive Director , IDF

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

Founder, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Evangelical Social Action Forum (ESAF), Small Finance Bank

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

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

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

Former MD, Grameen Bank

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

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

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

Co-founder and Country Director, Yunus Social Business, India

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

Communication and Engagement Manager, Danone Communities

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

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

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

Chief Executive Officer, Global Impact Initiative

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

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

Giles has a unique blend of leadership and business skills gained in the corporate environment married with financial and governance skills gained in the Not for Profit sector. He also holds numerous Volunteer Not-for-Profit Directorships ranging from Human Rights, Disabilities, Arts and Sports.

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

Founder, 'Free lunch for children

Managing Director and President, Siemens Healthcare Pvt. Ltd

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

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

Managing Director, Grameen Danone Foods Limited

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

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

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

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

President-Elect and Director , Yunus Social Business Centre, Kasetsart University, Thailand

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

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

Senior Lecturer in Social Business, Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health , Glasgow School for Business and Society, Glasgow Caledonian University

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

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

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

Managing Director, Grameen Telecom Trust

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

Managing Director, Grameen Trust

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

Before joining GT, Mr. Khan worked as the Deputy General Manager of Grameen Bank and served as the Head of Training and Special Program Department. He had the opportunity to work with Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus in Grameen Bank for more than 25 years.

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

Mr. Khan has a wide range of experiences on GT’s worldwide replication programs following Grameen Bank Approach (GBA). He was the CEO of Kosovo Grameen Missione Arcobaleno Microcredit Fund (KGMAMF) in Kosovo from 2003-2005 and General Manager of Family Bank in Bahrain from 2009-2011. He has conducted many international training programs on various issues on Microcredit and Social Business in different countries as well as monitoring and evaluation visits to the microcredit projects run, owned and/or managed by GT worldwide. He also conducted a ‘Fact Finding Mission’ in Nepal in 2013.

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

Managing Director, Grameen Kalyan

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

Managing Director, Grameen Communications

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

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

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

Professor, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB)

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

Founder and Chairperson, the Mann Deshi Mahila Sahkari Bank

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

Co-founder, Grameen Creative Lab, Germany

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

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

Founder, KIIT

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

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

Actor, Activist and Film Director, National Rugby Player,

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

Strategy Consultant, Grameen Creative Lab

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

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

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

CEO, Peace and Sport

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

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

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

Executive Officer, School of Public Health & Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, Australia

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