The Silicon Valley Microfinance Network

The Bay Area’s premier microfinance education and networking organization

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June 8th Meeting: Economic Empowerment for Women in Liberia

Posted by hilarywilson on June 3, 2011

Economic Empowerment for Women in Liberia

Featuring Chid Liberty of Made In: Liberia

-June 8th, 2011-

The next Silicon Valley Microfinance Network (SVMN) meeting will take place on Wednesday June 8th, 2011 and will feature Chid Liberty (Co-Founder of Liberty & Justice and Founder of Made In: Liberia) as he discusses his thriving, multi-national social enterprises.  Together, Liberty & Justice and Made In: Liberia provides the platform and tools necessary for enterprising women in Liberia to shift from unproductive trades in the informal economy to formal employment in productive small to medium enterprises (SMEs).

Join us as Chid discusses how his organization is revolutionizing the fair trade industry while providing economic opportunity for women in post-conflict Liberia.

Chid Liberty

“We give the Gaps and Levis and Pranas of the world an easy way to buy sustainably sourced African cotton.” -Chid Liberty

When: Wednesday, June 8th, 2011

6:00pm – 6:30pm – Drinks, appetizers, networking
6:30pm – 7:15pm – Intros & Speaker presentation
7:15pm – 7:30pm – Q & A
7:30pm – 8:00pm – Networking

Cost:

in advance: $20 regular attendee | $10 students,  non-profits (w/ ID)
at the door: $30 regular attendee | $20 students & non-profits (w/ ID)
(includes dinner + drinks)

Where: Swedish American Hall (Upstairs) – 2174 Market Street , San Francisco, CA 94114

To register, please click on the SVMN registration link here (Order now – seating is limited!):

Speaker Bio

Chid Liberty

Before co-founding Liberty & Justice Chid worked in finance and information systems for several high growth technology companies including Metavante Corporation (now Fidelity National Information Services), Mindjet, and Trilogy Integrated Resources. A Liberian native, Chid left Africa as an eighteen month old baby when his father became the Liberia’s Ambassador to Germany with residence in Bonn. Chid’s family later fled to the United States to escape Liberia’s deteriorating political situation.

In addition to his work at Liberty & Justice, Chid lectures extensively on social entrepreneurship and innovation, most recently at Princeton University, Tennessee State, and the University of Liberia where he serves as Entrepreneur in Residence at the Monrovia Business Startup Center, a program funded by SPARK, a Dutch NGO, and other European partners. He sits on TransFair USA’s Fair Trade Certified Apparel Multistakeholder Group where he helps to guide Fair Trade Certified apparel policy for the United States. Chid was also awarded the Cordes Fellowship in 2010 and sits on the 2011 Cordes Fellowship Selection Committee where he helps give emerging social entrepreneurs a chance to attend the Opportunity Collaboration, a four-day problem-solving, strategic retreat for change-makers engaged in poverty alleviation and economic justice enterprises.

About Made In: Liberia

Made In: Liberia (MIL) is a US based non-profit organization, that supports capacity building programs in Liberia, West Africa. MIL exists to empower Liberian women by providing them with the training and skills necessary to participate in the global economic market while promoting sustainable development and increasing access to education and healthcare.


MIL’s mission is to provide the platform and the tools necessary for women in Liberia to transfer from unproductive trades in the informal economy to formal employment in productive Small and Medium Sized Enterprises making sustainable products and services for domestic markets.

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April 28th Meeting: “Financing Good” Featuring Jocelyn Wyatt & Chuck Slauther

Posted by hilarywilson on April 20, 2011

Financing Good: How Partnerships Between Microfinance & Social Enterprises Benefit the Bottom of the Pyramid

- Thursday, April 28th -

The next Silicon Valley Microfinance Network (SVMN) meeting will take place on Thursday, April 28th, 2011 and will feature Jocelyn Wyatt, Co-Lead & Executive Director of IDEO and Chuck Slaughter, Founder & President of LivingGoods as they discuss where social enterprise meets microfinance.

 

Where does social enterprise intersect microfinance?

In recent years, thriving social enterprises have joined forces with established microfinance organizations to leverage one another’s financial services and distribution channels in order to more effectively provide innovative products, tools and equipment to the rural poor.  During this panel, these industry leaders will address how the combination of microfinance financial tools and distribution channels with consumer products sales can provide financial sustainability for families in developing countries, and the pros and cons of this innovative business trend.

To register, please click on the SVMN registration link here (Order now – seating is limited!):

When: Thursday, April 28th, 2011

6:30pm – 7:00pm – Drinks, appetizers, networking
7:00pm – 7:45pm – Intros & Speaker presentation
7:45pm – 8:00pm – Q & A
8:00pm – 8:30pm – Networking

Cost:

in advance: $20 regular attendee | $10 students,  non-profits (w/ ID)
at the door: $30 regular attendee | $20 students & non-profits (w/ ID)
(includes dinner + drinks)

Where: O’Melveny & Myers San Francisco Office (Two Embarcadero Center, 28th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94111)

Speaker Bios

Charles Slaughter, Founder and President


Chuck earned both a BA and a Master’s in Public and Private Management from Yale. He is the Founder of TravelSmith Outfitters, a direct marketer of travel clothing and gear which he created in 1991 and built into the #1 brand in travel wear. In the late 1980’s he served as a Program Officer for Trickle Up, a pioneering micro-enterprise development program. Chuck sold TravelSmith in 2004. Shortly thereafter, as it’s pro-bono president, Chuck lead the turnaround of CFW Shops/ HealthStore, which employs a system of franchised rural clinics to reduce death and illness from infectious diseases in Kenya.

Chuck also advises and invests in consumer businesses and as an affiliate of Golden Gate Capital, has participated in the acquisition of more than a dozen companies with combined sales in excess of $2 billion.

Chuck was a recipient of Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year award. He currently serves on the boards of Living Goods, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Three Day Blinds and BRAC USA. He is a member of Technoserve and the Initiative for Global Development. Chuck lives in Sausalito, California with his wife Molly and sons Cooper, Riley and Jackson.

Jocelyn Wyatt, Co-Lead & Executive Director, IDEO

Jocelyn leads IDEO’s Social Innovation domain, which she has expanded over the past several years. In her work, she builds social enterprises and advises businesses in the developing world, using the market to create social change. She has lent her perspective to social-impact projects with clients such as the Acumen Fund, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Kickstart, and the Rockefeller Foundation. While grappling with strategies and issues related to product, service, and system design, she has worked in China, Ghana, India, Japan, Kenya and the U.K.

Prior to joining IDEO in 2007, Jocelyn worked in Kenya as an Acumen Fund fellow with an agro-pharmaceutical company involved in the production of malaria treatments. She served as VisionSpring’s interim country director in India, where she helped increase the distribution of low-cost reading glasses to the urban and rural poor. She also did international training, project management, and business development for Chemonics International, a contractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Jocelyn received an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management and a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Grinnell College in Iowa. She teaches social enterprise at the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley. She is a Catapult Design Advisory Board Member, a Tactical Philanthropy Advisory Board Member, an Aspen Institute First Movers Fellow and a Steelcase Green Giant. When she’s not traveling the world, Jocelyn enjoys hosting dinner parties, reading in the park, and exploring the neighborhoods of San Francisco.

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Re-Cap SVMN Microfinance Photography Auction

Posted by hilarywilson on March 2, 2011

SVMN Cocktail Party & Photography Auction

Earlier this month, SVMN had the pleasure of working with Opportunity Fund to host an event in downtown San Francisco, featuring winning photos from the annual CGAP Photography Contest.  It was a great night filled with terrific people and beautiful photography, all benefiting a great cause!

Brian DiCola, a San Francisco-based photographer, was kind enough to document this evening for us. Please go to http://www.briandicola.com/blog/?p=196 to see the full blog post on this great event!

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February Speaker Event

Posted by hilarywilson on February 23, 2011

Microfinance for Student Loans: Giving Youth a Little Credit!

- Thursday, February 24th -


The next SVMN Speaker Event on Thursday, February 24th at Blum Hall on the UC Berkeley campus feature Kushal Chakrabarti (Co-Founder & CEO, Vittana), Ben Elberger (Regional Director, Kiva) and Noga Leviner (Executive Director, Lumni USA), as they discuss the challenges, successes and future landscape of the new frontier of harnessing microfinance for students loans, both in the US and abroad.

Industry leaders are leveraging debt and equity-like investments as well as P2P lending models to provide youth (both in the US and abroad) with the tools necessary to pursue higher education. As a result, the student-loan market has experienced explosive growth.  SVMN is proud to present this unique opportunity to hear the nation’s leaders talk about the rise of using microloans for education and answer your questions. We look forward to seeing you there!

Register early! Online registration closes the day of the event. At-the-door admission is $10 more. Tickets are limited!

When: Thursday, February 24th

6:30-7:00 — Sign-in, dinner, networking
7:00-7:50 — Intros and speaker presentations
7:50-8:15 — Q&A
8:15-8:30 – Networking

Where:

Blum Hall (Across Hearst St. from Ectheverry Hall)
UC Berkeley Campus
2521 Hearst Ave Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94709

Cost:

in advance: $20 regular attendee | $10 students & non-profits (w/ ID)
at the door: $30 regular attendee | $20 students & non-profits (w/ ID)
(includes food + drinks)

Speaker Bios

Kushal Chakrabarti, Co-Founder & CEO Vittana

As the son of first-generation immigrants, Kushal knows first-hand the importance of education and its power to change lives. He owes everything to a few teachers and mentors who believed in him and took a risk on him when he was younger. Previously, Kushal led technical strategy, design and development for the multi-hundred million dollar personalized recommendations system at Amazon.com and, before that, was a research scientist working in artificial intelligence and computational biology. He has authored over 20 patents, talks and peer-reviewed articles over his career.

Kushal graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.S. in computer science and a B.A. in molecular biology. What gets him up every morning is the knowledge that although there’s a lot about the world he can’t change, he can help make a difference about this.

Ben Elberger, Regional Director, Kiva

As Regional Director, Ben is responsible for setting strategy in Anglophone Africa and South Asia, managing field-based staff, and conducting due diligence on potential MFI partners. Based in San Francisco, Ben contributes to Kiva’s risk management framework, assists in building out Kiva’s evolving internal portfolio systems, and is spearheading efforts to enter and expand in key South Asian markets. Ben was previously a Microfinance Partnerships Manager and Microfinance Partnerships Coordinator with Kiva joining the team in early 2006. Prior to Kiva, Ben was a research assistant at the Center for Global Development where he worked with research fellows investigating the impact of International Monetary Fund programs on developing country health spending and on the political dynamics of the global health agenda. He has published on topics in international development and microfinance. Ben is a graduate of Stanford University with a degree in Public Policy and, despite being a native New Yorker, loves California.

Noga Leviner, Executive Director, Lumni USA

Noga brought Lumni to the United States in 2008 and has led the company through its startup phase including legal and operational design, setting strategic direction, fundraising and business development, and testing the concept pilot. She previously worked as a Program Manager for Ashoka where she headed the organization’s 60-country impact assessment program, conducted due diligence on the work of social entrepreneurs, and led or co-led the launch of a series of programs to identify and support social entrepreneurs including those pursuing financial services innovations. She holds a B.A. from Stanford University.


Parking Info:

Blum Hall is located about 100 yards past Euclid Avenue on the south side of Hearst Avenue, across Etcheverry Hall, at the north-east end of UC Berkeley’s campus.  The closes parking structure to Blum Hall is the Upper Hearst Lot.

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October 28 SVMN Meeting: Microfinance: Not all it’s cracked up to be… Or is it?

Posted by hilarywilson on September 27, 2010

Microfinance: Not all it’s cracked up to be… Or is it?
A Bangladesh case study on the positive and negative cultural effects of microfinance.

The next Silicon Valley Microfinance Network (SVMN) meeting will take place on Thursday, October 28, 2010 and will feature Ananya Roy, Professor of City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley, Education Director of the Blum Center for Developing Economies and author of Poverty Capital: Microfinance and the Making of Development (Routledge 2010).

Purchase Poverty Capital in advance.

While some tout microfinance as “the vaccine for the pandemic of poverty,” others criticize the extent of its effectiveness.  In Bangladesh, microfinance has been connected to improvements in income, secondary school enrollment, food security and infant and maternal mortality rates.  Yet many question whether it actually empowers women, arguing that the change in gender norms has been repressive to Bangladeshi women.

So which is it?

Join us as Ananya Roy draws upon several years of research to take a closer look at Bangladesh.  She will explore the nature of microfinance and its unique combination of financial services, social protection programs, development infrastructure, and political mobilization.  Moving beyond the usual debate of commercial versus subsidized microfinance, Roy will probe deeper into the true effects of microfinance on human development.

To register, please click on the SVMN registration link here (Order now – seating is limited!):

When: Thursday, October 28, 2010

6:30pm – 7:00pm – Drinks, appetizers, networking
7:00pm – 7:45pm – Intros & Speaker presentation
7:45pm – 8:00pm – Q & A
8:00pm – 8:30pm – Networking

Where: SoMa Hub

901 Mission St, Suite 105
San Francisco, CA 94103

Cost:

in advance: $20 regular attendee | $10 students & non-profits (w/ ID)
at the door: $30 regular attendee | $20 students & non-profits (w/ ID)
(includes appetizers + drinks)

Speaker Bio

Ananya Roy is Professor of City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley, where she also serves as Education Director of the Blum Center for Developing Economies.  Roy’s course on Global Poverty has become one of Cal’s largest courses and she chairs a new undergraduate program in Global Poverty & Practice.  At Berkeley, Roy is the recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award and Golden Apple Award for Outstanding Teaching, the highest teaching honors bestowed by the campus and its students. Roy conducts research on poverty and development in South Asia, the Middle East, and North America.  Her most recent book is titled Poverty Capital: Microfinance and the Making of Development (Routledge 2010).

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