Valeria Budinich, Vice President, Full Economic Citizenship Initiative
Valeria Budinich has worked for 20 years in the creation and expansion of business development programs in 22 countries worldwide. At Ashoka, as the Vice-President leading the Full Economic Citizenship Initiative, she focuses on enabling commercial alliances between social entrepreneurs and private companies to deliver products and services to small producers and low-income families. Her main area of professional interest is finding ways to harness the collective power of social and business entrepreneurs.
From 1986-1996, she worked for Appropriate Technology International (ATI), a global non-profit foundation specializing in providing technical and financial assistance to small and medium sized enterprises in rural areas. As its Chief Operating Officer, she assumed a leading role in the development field's thinking about small producers. From 1997-1998 she served as founding Vice-President for Latin America at Endeavor, a foundation specialized in linking entrepreneurs in emerging economies with venture capital investors in the US. She launched Endeavor's first field operations in Chile and was part of the core team that designed Endeavor's search and selection process to identify high yield investment opportunities.
From 1999 - 2001, she served as VP for New Initiatives at BDA, a California-based consulting firm specializing in business process redesign and technology innovations for private sector clients worldwide. At BDA, Valeria developed innovative services for small- and medium-scale entrepreneurs and launched the first seed capital fund in Chile financing exclusively enterprises at the start-up level. Since 1995, Valeria has also worked as an advisor to groups like Woman's World Banking, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and UNIFEM. She was brought up in Chile and trained as an industrial engineer.
Susan Davis, Director, Ashoka Global Academy
Susan is a member of Ashoka's International Selection Committee for Ashoka Fellows and prior to helping launch the Academy, led Ashoka's expansion into the Middle East/North Africa/Central Asia region. She serves as an external advisor to the Director General of the International Labor Organization and consultant to Get America Working. Susan was the Executive Director of WEDO, a global women's advocacy organization that pioneered new mechanisms for the global women's movement to influence negotiations at global United Nations meetings from 1993-1998.
Prior to that, she led innovative initiatives aimed at scaling up microfinance institutions that were owned and governed by poor women at Women's World Banking and the Ford Foundation in Bangladesh. During her four and half years in Dhaka from 1987 to 1991, she helped to start Ashoka in Bangladesh and served as its first volunteer representative. Susan served as the Assistant Director of the first quasi-public export trading company launched in the 1980s by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. She helped to found and now chairs the board of the Grameen Foundation USA. She also serves on the boards of Project Enterprise and Aid to Artisans. Susan was educated at Georgetown, Harvard and Oxford universities and is from Louisiana.
Al Hammond, VP for Innovation and Special Projects for the World Resources Institute
Dr. Hammond is charged with catalyzing and sometimes leading development of new projects, initiatives, and tools. He also directs WRI's Digital Dividends project, which works with foundations, development agencies, and a number of major corporations to further the use of pro-poor business strategies and digital technologies in development. Dr. Hammond has published extensively in the scientific, policy research, and business literature, including recent articles in Foreign Affairs ("Digitally Empowered Development," March, 2001), the Harvard Business Review ("Serving the World's Poor, Profitably," September, 2002), and Foreign Policy ("Selling To the Poor," May-June, 2004). His most recent book is Which World?: Scenarios for the the 21st Century, published in 1998.
Dr. Hammond holds degrees from Stanford University and Harvard University in engineering and applied mathematics. Prior to joining WRI, he created the Research News section of the international journal Science and went on to found and edit several national publications, including Science 80-86 (published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science), Issues in Science and Technology (published by the National Academy of Science), and the Information Please Environmental Almanac (published by Houghton-Mifflin). In addition, he broadcast a daily radio program for five years (syndicated nationally by CBS) and has written or edited ten books. Dr. Hammond has won several national magazine awards and other journalist honors.
Dr. Hammond has published extensively in the scientific and policy research literature; has lectured widely; and has served as a consultant to the White House science office, to several U.S. federal agencies, to the United Nations, and to several private foundations. Among other pursuits, he is a skier and small boat sailor.
Ronald Regen Vice President in charge of Mergers & Acquisitions for Grupo Nueva
Grupo Nueva produces piping systems for drinking water and sewage, irrigation systems, housing construction materials, wood and agricultural products in 25 countries of Latin America. The vision of Grupo Nueva state that they wish "to be recognized as a leading industrial group in Latin America, operating in a framework of ethics, eco-efficiency, and social responsibility, that generates economic value and improves our neighbors? and our region?s quality of life." Ashoka is currently partnering with Amanco, one of Grupo Nueva's companies to provide affordable irrigation systems to small farmers in Mexico. Email: Ronald.degen@gruponueva.com
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