Global Entrepreneurship

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Inefficiency as Opportunity in the Developing World

Can you do well by "doing good"? How do you make money in countries where the average worker makes as little as a dollar a day? Why is technology the answer for grass roots entrepreneurship on a village by village basis?

Presented in association with the MIT Media Lab and the MIT Program in Developmental Entrepreneurship, join us for an evening that will open the eyes and minds of entrepreneurs looking to capitalize on emerging global markets.

How to do good, and make money, by identifying needs and solving inefficiencies affecting poor regions
How high-tech solutions work in low-tech areas
Why "bottom-up" entrepreneurship works and "top-down" doesn't
How to use the US legal and financial systems to go global
How to overcome legal and governmental obstacles

The national panel presentation will be followed by a Seattle panel discussion and Q&A from the audience.

The Cambridge panel includes Alex (Sandy) Pentland (moderator), professor of Media Arts and Sciences at the MIT Media Lab and co-founder and director of the MIT Program for Developmental Entrepreneurship; Damien Balsan, co-founder and vice president of business development for WAY Systems, a leader in mobile point-of-sale devices; Rick Burnes, co-founder of the venture capital firm Charles River Ventures; Iqbal Quadir, founder of the GrameenPhone cellular network in Bangladesh , and co-founder and director of the MIT Program for Developmental Entrepreneurship; and Randy Zadra, managing director of the Institute for Connectivity in the Americas.

The Seattle panel includes Steve Brilling (moderator), Executive Director, Entrepreneurship
Center Albers School of Business & Economics, Seattle University; Matt Caemmerer, Vice 
President of Strategic Development for Contrado International; and Tim Wood, Technical 
Program Manager at the Grameen Technology Center.

About MIT Enterprise Forum of the Northwest
The MIT Enterprise Forum of the Northwest is a volunteer, non-profit organization that gives emerging technology-based companies the opportunity to present their strategies to panels of experts during a series of public forums. The Seattle chapter of the MIT Enterprise Forum is one of 24 worldwide chapters of the MIT Enterprise Forum, Inc. affiliated with the Alumni Association of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All Events are open to anyone interested in growing or enhancing a business.

Global Panel Speaker Biographies

Sandy Pentland, Moderator

Professor Alex (Sandy) Pentland PS '82 is co-founder and director of the MIT Program for Developmental Entrepreneurship and the Toshiba Professor of Media Arts & Sciences at the MIT Media Lab. Sandy is a pioneer in mobile communications, health systems, and technology for developing countries. One of the world's most-cited scientists, he has helped to create more than a dozen organizations, including several publicly-listed firms. He was previously founding director of the Center for Future Health and the Media Lab Asia, and was the Academic Head of the MIT Media Laboratory. A winner of numerous international awards in the arts, sciences and engineering, he was chosen by Newsweek as one of 100 Americans most likely to shape this century.

Panelists

Damien Balsan

Damien Balsan GM '02 has over 15 years of experience in the telecommunications, mobile, bank card, and payment industry. Damien started his career in Mexico at France Telecom, in charge of developing the Minitel concept following France Telecom's investment of $500M in Telmex (Telefonos de Mexico). He has held several positions at Gemplus, the leading smart card manufacturer, including: Sales Director of Central and Eastern, General Manager for South America, and Director of Marketing for the Gemplus Mobile Business unit that focused in mobile banking and mobile commerce applications. Damien graduated from MIT's Sloan School of Management and was one of the first Developmental Entrepreneurship alumni, completing his thesis on Mobile Commerce Business Models with a particular focus on developing countries. The ideas developed in this thesis led him to become a co-founder of WAY Systems, an international leader in mobile point-of-sale devices.

Rick Burnes

Rick Burnes was a co-founder of Charles River Ventures in 1970 and has played a major role in the firm's development into one of the country's major venture firms with offices in Waltham , Massachusetts and Menlo Park , California. Over the last 15 years, Rick has focused on investments in the fields of communications and information services. Among the successful investments he has led are: Cascade Communications, Chipcom Corporation, Epoch Systems, Abacus Direct, Summa Four, Concord Communications, Prominet, Aptis and Sonus Networks.

Apart from venture capital, Rick has been active in community organizations. Currently he is Chairman of Boston's nationally recognized Museum of Science, Chairman of the Entrepreneur's Foundation of New England, Vice Chairman of Sea Education Association and Director of The Boston Foundation.

Iqbal Quadir

Iqbal Quadir is internationally known for developing a new vision for universal information access, which he realized as the GrameenPhone network and its famous village phone ladies. Although considered unrealistic at the time, today it is widely considered to be one of the world's most important poverty alleviation inventions. From 2001-2005, he was a fellow at Harvard's JFK School of Government, teaching how technologies can affect change in developing countries. He is now co-founder and director of the MIT Program for Developmental Entrepreneurship, and organizing projects providing electricity, fertilizers, and potable water in Bangladesh and other countries.

Randy Zadra

Randy Zadra is currently Managing Director of the Institute for Connectivity in the Americas (ICA), which was created for promoting and funding hemispheric innovation in the application of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the Latin American and Caribbean region. He has more than 15 years of experience in ICT, and extensive international experience. Randy previously held senior management positions at Teleglobe in Montreal, Quebec and Washington, DC and has founded two Internet start-ups, focusing on providing accessible Internet in developing countries. He has also worked with the Ministry of Industry in Canada, in international trade development and polic

Seattle Panel Biographies

Steve Brilling, Moderator
Steve is the Executive Director of Seattle University's Entrepreneurship Center, and has over 20 years of executive leadership experience in financial services, holding titles of CEO, COO, CIO, and EVP. During this time, he was responsible for a number of functional disciplines: information technology, sales, marketing, human resources and training. Additionally, he has been part of several start-up ventures and over 14 years of consulting experience, most notably Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). Throughout his career, Mr. Brilling has played significant roles in mergers and acquisitions, alliance formations, new business development, and spokesman for the reinsurance industry. He holds a master's degree in Business Administration and bachelor's degree in quantitative techniques. Along with his current Seattle U responsibilities, he is actively involved with several early stage companies, focusing on organizational transformation, market segmentation, and marketing strategies.

Matt Caemmerer

Matt is currently the Vice President of Strategic Development for Contrado International - a company focused on the design, development, and deployment of broadband surveillance solutions. He has over 15 years of experience in ICT.

Mr. Caemmerer's other career has been built on social entrepreneurialism. In the past, Mr. Caemmerer helped launch Nourish The World, a novel direct sales organization built on the purchase and donation of humanitarian food aid (which fed 3 million children).
He also helped found MandaDolar, an alternate remittance organization for Mexican laborers in the USA.

Mr. Caemmerer is currently on the Board of Directors for Sapotek - a company that designs and develops virtual computers (or webtops) in an effort to reduce the digital divide. Currently, Sapotek's product operates in Spanish, Portuguese, and English and is used in 22 countries. Mr. Caemmerer is also the co-founder of The Ablery Institute, a start-up designed to provide radically simplified Internet services for the disabled and disadvantaged. And Mr. Caemmerer is also the founder of the International Sound Scene, a start-up designed to build an online marketplace for international sounds.

Tim Wood

Tim, a Technical Program Manager at the Grameen Technology Center, specializes in applying information technology to address the problems of poverty and health in developing countries. After 12 years at Microsoft working on software development, Tim spent two years working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation where he defined the Information Technology Strategy for their Global Health Program and reviewed grant proposals. He joined the Grameen Technology Center in 2002 to focus on replicating the Grameen village phone program. Tim Wood brings a broad range of technical and business expertise, and a valued perspective on technology initiatives for developing countries. He received his BA in Political Science from Stanford University.