STEF COETZEE, Director, AHI (South Africa)

Stef Coetzee is originally a man of the desert. He was born in Victoria West in the Karoo and grew up in Upington and on the family farm Nuichas, near Bethanie in Namibia. He attended the Universities of Stellenbosch and the Free State where he, respectively, completed an M.A. (1974) and D. Phil (1980) in economics. He completed the Strategic Leadership course at Templeton College, Oxford in 2000. His career can be divided into four phases, during which he

• became known as a development economist, first as academic at the University of the Free State and Unisa, and then at the Development Bank of Southern Africa and as head of the Africa Institute of South Africa;

• in a surprising move to himself, he then entered the field of higher education as vice-rector responsible for research development at the then University of Potchefstroom for Christian Higher Education (1994-1996), and from 1997 to 2002 as rector and vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State, where he lead a successful transformation and financial turn around strategy, for which he received the Centenary medal from the University of the Free State;

• he used the above-mentioned experience in the third phase of his career to lecture in change management, leadership and sustainable business in poor communities at the University of Stellenbosch Business School (2003-2007), where he was advisor to the CEO of NEPAD; became director of the South African Learning Laboratory on doing business at the bottom of the income pyramid; and represented the USB as member of the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative; which lead to

• his appointment as executive director of the AHI from 1 October 2007, where he plays a leadership role in the organised business sector of SA.

STUART HART, Samuel C. Johnson Chair of Sustainable Global Enterprise and Professor of Management, Johnson School of Management, Cornel University (USA)

Stuart Hart is one of the world’s top authorities on the implications of sustainable development and environmentalism for business strategy. He has published over 50 papers and authored or edited five books. His article “Beyond Greening: Strategies for a Sustainable World” won the McKinsey Award for Best Article in the Harvard Business Review for 1997. With C.K. Prahalad, Hart also wrote the pathbreaking 2002 article “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid,” which provided the first articulation of how business could profitably serve the needs of the four billion poor in the developing world. His new book, Capitalism at the Crossroads: The Unlimited Business Opportunities in Solving the World’s Most Difficult Problems, was published by Wharton School Publishing in 2005. He is the founder of the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) Learning Lab Global Network.

Before joining Cornell in 2003, he was the Hans Zulliger Distinguished Professor of Sustainable Enterprise and Professor of Strategic Management at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, where he founded the Center for Sustainable Enterprise. Previously, he taught corporate strategy at the University of Michigan Business School and was the founding director of the Corporate Environmental Management Program (CEMP).

EDWARD JARDINE, Adjunct Faculty, IESA Business School (Venezuela)

Edward (Ed) Jardine is founder of Corporate Low Income Market Strategies (CLIMSCO), a consultancy focused on developing sustainable business solutions for Low Income Markets, with an emphasis on Social Responsibility. He is an Adjunct Professor at the IESA Business School (Caracas) where he is developing the International Low Income Market Innovation program.

He was with Procter & Gamble’s Latin American Division for 29 years (1978-2007). From 2001 to 2007 he was responsible for P&G’s Andean business, as Vice President for Venezuela and the Andean Region, following assignments in Brazil (V-P Brasil and South Cone – 99-01), V-P Venezuela (96-99) and V-P Chile (93-96).

Beyond his Andean role, from 2003-2007 he led the development and implementation of P&G’s Low Income Consumer Strategy for Latin America. He was a founder and sponsor of P&G’s Latin American Low Income Consumer Learning and Innovation Center in Caracas (CLIC).

Ed is currently President of Venamcham (Venezuelan American Chamber of Commerce and Industry). He is member of the Board of several companies and NGO’s, including IESA Foundation, SEKN (Social Enterprise Knowledge Network), and Ashoka Colombia.

TOSHIYA MASUOKA, Director Corporate Advice Department, IFC (USA)

Toshiya Masuoka is currently the Director for IFC’s Corporate Advice Department, which houses IFC experts on corporate advisory services and corporate governance. In his current capacity, he is also responsible for framing IFC’s approach in its advisory services to the “Bottom of the Pyramid.”

“Toshi” joined the World Bank Group in August 1989 through the Young Professional Program. After completing his assignment in the World Bank, he joined IFC as an Investment Officer. He held various positions in investment departments including South Asia, Infrastructure and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). He held the position of Manager in the LAC Department from July 2002 to January 2004.

Between January 2004 and September 2008, Toshi was the Director of IFC’s strategy department, playing a key role in framing IFC’s corporate strategy and growth, overseeing the implementation of various strategic initiatives, and coordinating on World Bank Group level strategic issues.

Prior to joining the World Bank Group, Toshi held various positions at the Fuji Bank, Limited, including the chief of the bank’s derivatives desk. He holds an MBA from the Wharton School.

GEORGIA SAMBUNARIS, Senior Advisor, USAID Economic Growth (USA)

Ms. Sambunaris is with USAID and her career there spans over 25 years experience and includes travel and work in 40 countries, primarily in the former Soviet Union and Ukraine, and most recently in Kenya where she evaluated public private partnerships in private health finance and youth. She has worked for USAID’s Program and Policy; Latin America and Caribbean; and, Europe and Eurasia Bureaus, and presently is the Senior Advisor to the Director for Economic Growth in the Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade and works globally. Her current portfolio centers upon private health finance and insurance; youth entrepreneurship; base of the pyramid; public private partnerships; intellectual property rights in Africa, and business environment development related to health services. Her experience includes a detail to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations.

Ms. Sambunaris holds a B.S. in International Affairs from George Washington University and an MA degree from Georgetown University’s Graduate School of Foreign Service. Her master’s work and thesis concentrated on trade and bank privatization in Mexico. Ms. Sambunaris has completed executive training in public health policy and decentralization at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston as well as at the World Bank Institute in Washington DC. Presently she is a non-degree student at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She volunteers with Unite for Sight on social entrepreneurship issues and is a member of the Women’s Foreign Policy Group in Washington, DC.

SUBRAMANIAM VINCENT, Co-founder and Editor, India Together (India)

Subramaniam Vincent is a telecommunications professional and journalist-publisher with a total of 15 years of experience. He is a co-founder and editor at India Together, India's national public affairs e-magazine. Subramaniam is an expert editor, mentor, and leader of large teams of journalists. Today, in the 10th year of publication, India Together is one of the largest development-lensed e-magazines in India, has a global audience of over 140,000 visitors around 400,000 page views each month, with award-winning journalists on the team. Subramaniam Vincent is also the co-founder of the March 2008-launched Bangalore’s own community news-magazine at bangalore.citizenmatters.in. Subramaniam is also a trained radio producer. His articles, interviews and other writing are at: http://indiatogether.org/opinions/svincent/.

Subramaniam is co-author with Ashwin Mahesh on the chapter 'Journalism: The Practice and the Potential', published in the book 21st Century Journalism in India, (Sage, New Delhi, Feb 2007) and also the author of a chapter "Community Radio: Media for, of and by the People" in Indian Media: illusions, delusions and reality (Rupa & Co, Dec 2005). He has also campaigned for transparency in the Indian state of Karnataka, where in 2004, he along with fellow-campaigners successfully prevented a government-effort to repeal the state's freedom of information law.

In this technology career, Subramaniam has held engineering and project leadership positions in the telecom industry, at Cisco Systems (California), Intel Corporation (Oregon) and Microland (India). He has also conducted advanced technology research and is the co-author of two publications for the Internet Engineering Task Force, one of which is a standards specification. Subramaniam got his Masters degree in Computer Engineering at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles in 1997. He received a Bachelor's degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering, 1992.