Members
2010 Think-tank Members
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Sir Fazle Hasan Abed
Founder and Chairman, BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee)
Fazle Hasan Abed is a social worker, brilliant and visio...Sir Fazle Hasan Abed
Founder and Chairman, BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee)Fazle Hasan Abed is a social worker, brilliant and visionary. He left his job to devote himself to Bangladesh's War of Independence. Abed initiated the BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee), the largest non-government development organisations in the world in terms of size and diversity of interventions.
BRAC now operates in more than 69 thousand villages of Bangladesh and covers an estimated 110 million people through its development interventions that range from primary education, essential healthcare, agricultural support and human rights and legal services to microfinance and enterprise development.
In 2002, BRAC went international by taking its range of development interventions to Afghanistan. Since then, BRAC has expanded to a total of eight countries across Asia and Africa, successfully adapting its unique integrated development model across varying geographic and socioeconomic contexts.
He has been honoured with many international awards for his achievements within the BRAC, among which: the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership (1980); Unicef's Maurice Pate Award (1992); Olof Palme Award (2001); Gates Award for Global Health (2004); Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership (2007), World Entrepreneurship Forum’s Entrepreneur for the World award in the category Social Entrepreneur (2009).
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Zoltan Acs
Director, Centre for Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, George Mason University
Zoltan J. Acs is University Professor at the School of P...Zoltan Acs
Director, Centre for Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, George Mason UniversityZoltan J. Acs is University Professor at the School of Public Policy and Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Public Policy. He is coeditor and founder of Small Business Economics, the leading entrepreneurship and small business publication in the world. He is also a visiting professor at Imperial College Business School in London.
His career has focused on the link between innovation and entrepreneurship in industries, cities, and worldwide. In May 2010 Acs joined the Office of Advocacy as chief economist. At this position, Acs focuses on small business dynamics and entrepreneurship.
Professor Acs is a leading advocate of the importance of entrepreneurship for economic development. His policy initiatives take a broad view of public policy encompassing the individual, the economy, international aspects, the region and social policy.
He received the 2001 International Award for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Research, on behalf of The Swedish National Board for Industrial and Technical Development. He has published more than 100 articles and 20 books.
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Nikhil Agarwal
Director, EABS (Europe Asia Business School)
Dr Nikhil Agarwal is an international expert on ICT &...Nikhil Agarwal
Director, EABS (Europe Asia Business School)Dr Nikhil Agarwal is an international expert on ICT & Development. In 2006, he was invited by the United Nations to serve as High-Level-Advisor to UNGAID. In 2008, he becomes the first Indian to be appointed as Co-Chair of Advisory Council of ISOC (Internet Society). He has previously taught at Virginia Tech, USA; University of Bradford and SPJIMR. He has published over 30 papers in leading research journals like JIBC and IEEE. Dr Agarwal is alumnus of Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, UK.
Dr Agarwal has more than 12 years of teaching experience, having taught in full-time and visiting capacities at various universities such as University of Cambridge (UK), University of Bradford (UK) and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (US).
Dr Agarwal has an M.Phil Technology Policy from the Cambridge-MIT Institute, University of Cambridge, UK, and a Doctorate in Management from Institute of Management Technology (IMT), India. He is also the recipient of several awards including Sir Dorabji Tata Trust Award, Cambridge Trust Award and has received grants from Malta-based Diplo Foundation.
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Rajesh Agrawal
Chairman, CEO and Co-founder, RationalFx
Rajesh Agrawal is the founder of Rational FX, which oper...Rajesh Agrawal
Chairman, CEO and Co-founder, RationalFxRajesh Agrawal is the founder of Rational FX, which operates as an online currency exchange for people looking to make investments overseas. His diversification idea stemmed mainly from clients that needed large sums of money to take overseas for property investment.
Rajesh Agrawal has over seven years of experience in IT, currency risk management and commercial foreign exchange. After working with a leading commercial foreign exchange company in London for over three years, Rajesh along with a former colleague founded RationalFX. What was started as a two-man business in Brighton, is now a multi-million pound turnover business based in the city of London with offices in Spain and Dubai.
RationalFx is one of fastest growing companies in the UK with thousands of private clients and over 1500 business clients from 45 different industries.
Therefore, Agrawal founded MovebytheSun.com, a website that helps people find property overseas, a natural expansion to his existing customer base and an added advantage to his affiliated partners.
Rajesh is also an adept speaker and writer on foreign exchange markets, work philosophy and entrepreneurship. Rajesh holds a Bachelor's degree in Finance & Marketing, and an MBA in IT & Marketing.
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Sakie Akiyama
Founder, Chairman & CEO, Saki Corporation
Mrs. Sakie Akiyama is the founder, Chairman and CEO of S...Sakie Akiyama
Founder, Chairman & CEO, Saki CorporationMrs. Sakie Akiyama is the founder, Chairman and CEO of Saki Co. Ltd., Japan, successfully established a global top-level market position in the industrial robot field. She succeed in developing the innovative automated inspection robot with machine vision technology, which made it possible to change the visual inspection of electronic modules from human eye to machine vision. In the start-up stage, despite the situation that Saki was quite a small company with only two people, Sony decided to adopt Saki robot in the mass production line for “Sony Walkman” in 1997, and expanded since them.
Mrs. Sakie Akiyama expanded the business into global market, and has grown to earn 70% of sales from outside Japan, not only in Asia but also Europe and North and South America. She established group companies and offices in 11 countries to build sales and technical service network.
From 2003 to 2009, she was a member of advisory committee member (for tax system) of Japanese Prime Minister. In 2010 she was appointed to become a committee member of Industrial Structure Council of Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).
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Syed Babar Ali
Managing Director, Packages Limited
As an entrepreneur and industrialist, Syed Babar Ali env...Syed Babar Ali
Managing Director, Packages LimitedAs an entrepreneur and industrialist, Syed Babar Ali envisioned and set up Packages Limited (Pakistan’s largest paper & board mill), Milkpak Limited – now Nestle Pakistan Limited - (the largest food processing company in Pakistan); Tetra Pak Pakistan Limited, IGI Insurance Company Limited, Tri-Pack Films Limited, and IGI Investment Bank. He is Chairman of Sanofi-Aventis Pakistan Limited, Siemens Pakistan Engineering Company Limited, and Coca-Cola Beverages Pakistan Limited. He believes in the joint venture philosophy and most of his businesses are joint ventures with major multinationals.
As an educationist, he led the establishment of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in 1985 of which he is the first Pro-Chancellor. LUMS is Pakistan’s premier management education institution. In 1992, he founded Ali Institute of Education for training of primary and secondary school teachers.
He promoted the cause of the World Wide Fund for Nature (earlier World Wildlife Fund) where he served in various capacities. He served as Pakistan’s Minister of Finance, Economic Affairs & Planning in 1993. He also acts as Honorary Consul-General of Sweden in Lahore.
He received honours and awards from the Government of Sweden, the Netherlands, an OBE from Britain (1997), and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree of Laws from McGill University, Montreal, Canada (1997).
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Tugrul Atamer
Dean of Faculty at EMLYON Business School
In addition to his role as Dean of Faculty, Tugrul Atame...Tugrul Atamer
Dean of Faculty at EMLYON Business SchoolIn addition to his role as Dean of Faculty, Tugrul Atamer is also professor of strategic management at EMLYON. He holds a Doctorate degree in management science from the University of Grenoble. He was Visiting Professor at the University of South Carolina, where he thought International Management and Strategic Change for MIBS programme.
His areas of expertise include : strategy, international strategy, organisational change, transnational integration processes within multinational corporations and international transfer of technology and knowledge. He has designed and delivered numerous tailor made programs for top management, senior and high potential managers in European companies including Société Générale, Norbert d'Entressangle, IBM France, Totalfina, Alcatel, Auchan... In the USA, he has co-designed and delivered executive and management development programs for General Motors, Ingersoll Rand and Verizon.
He has carried out consultancy assignments with several companies.
Dr. Atamer's research has been extensively published in leading French and International scientific and management journals, including Long Range Planning, Journal of World Business, French Review of Management, Industrial Organization Review…
He is a founding member of French Strategic Management Society and member of SMS. He is currently on the editorial board of the Journal of World Business.
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Thompson Ayodele
Director, Initiative for Public Policy Analysis
Thompson Ayodele is the Director of Initiative for Publi...Thompson Ayodele
Director, Initiative for Public Policy AnalysisThompson Ayodele is the Director of Initiative for Public Policy Analysis, a public policy think tank promoting the institutions of free society based in Lagos, Nigeria. He attended Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, where he got a degree in humanities, and Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin, Nigeria, where he also received his Diploma in Law. Prior to his work with IPPA Nigeria, he was a journalist with “The Comet.”
Mr. Ayodele was Deputy Country Director, Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) Nigeria from 2002 to 2006. He is currently a coordinator of Malaria Free Zones, a Hedge Fund/Free Africa Foundation Project, in Nigeria, Cameroon and Benin Republic.
Mr. Ayodele is an avid writer and has written several articles. His articles have been published in the New York Times, Financial Times, Australia Financial Review, This Day Nigeria, Daily Independent Nigeria and New Age Newspapers. He is the author of the upcoming publication: “Why Informal Business Thrives in Nigeria.”
He has just completed a six-month research study “Entrepreneurship vs. Poverty” for Independent Institute. Mr. Ayodele has traveled widely and is a Fellow of International Policy Network, London.
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Beatrice Ayuru
Founder, Lira Integrated School
Ayuru Beatrice Byaruhanga was born in a polygamous famil...Beatrice Ayuru
Founder, Lira Integrated SchoolAyuru Beatrice Byaruhanga was born in a polygamous family in Northern Uganda. She studied in the rural part of the country and emerged as the first girl of the sub region to go to the University since that institution was opened in 1955. She obtained a degree in Education.
She had an inspiration to improve on the education of people of Northern Uganda, above all the girls who were denied education due to bride price demand according to the tradition. With the gift of entrepreneur skills, she started growing cassava. Then she used the profits to buy and rent out wheelbarrows to local workers, reinvested her profits in a canteen. Later she used the profits as collateral to obtain a loan to establish the Lira Integrated Nursery, Primary and Secondary School. The school is funded, in part, by agricultural and aquaculture ventures that have been undertaken in an effort to teach entrepreneurship skills to students and members of the Lira community.
Currently, she has opened a savings and credit institution to support staff and community development so as to improve on their family livelihood. Lira Integrated University is underway to be opened in August 2011 on the same land where the Nursery, Primary, and Secondary schools now sit.