• Almaz Negash, Managing Partner, Entwine Global
• Charles V. Fishel, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Abundant Biofuels
• Claudia Viek, Chief Executive Officer, California Association for Micro Enterprise Opportunity (CAMEO)
• Conrad MacKerron, Director, Corporate Social Responsibility Program, As You Sow Foundation
  
• Lloyd Kurtz, Senior Portfolio Manager, Nelson Capital Management
• Rupert Ayton, Chairman & Co-Founder, Center for the Development of Social Sciences (CDSF)
• Sanjay Sinha, Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Micro Credit Enterprises (MCE)

Almaz Negash
Managing Partner & Founder, Entwine Global
Women and Global Poverty: How Microlending Can Enhance and Sustain Their Livelihood

Due to dire poverty and lack of access to capital, many people in Africa, Asia, Latin America and other parts of the world are at an economic disadvantage. The problem is even more severe for women for they are deprived of equal access to education, health care, capital, and decision making powers in the political, social, and business sectors. According to the UNDP Human Development Report, women in Africa represent 52 per cent of the total population, contribute approximately 75 percent of the agricultural work, and produce 60 to 80 percent of the food. Yet they earn only 10 percent of African incomes and own just 1 per cent of the continents assets.

In recent years, there has been a movement by individuals, social entrepreneurs, foundations, NGOs and non-profit organizations to help women in developing countries generate income through microlending/financing programs. Microlending/financing can be used by promoting sound practice, supporting on-going research and monitoring programs, by ensuring policy targets and programs that meet the needs of the community.

Almaz Negash consults businesses and educational institutions on international trade, marketing, economic development and sustainability. Over the last fifteen years she has helped build and foster countless, vital strategic relationships between a diverse set of individuals and organizations around the world. Serving at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Ms Negash had the opportunity to further her expertise in connecting, former head of states, business and community leaders, individuals and organizations from varied backgrounds to critical global challenges. She went from advising firms and governments on how to increase their bottom lines through trade and joint partnerships at SVCITD, to the often times much more difficult task of bringing individuals from different countries, cultures, and educational backgrounds together to share common goals and objectives at the Markkula Center.

Ms Negash is co-founder of the Global Women Leadership Network at the Leavey School of Business at SCU and a co author of the book Awakening Social Responsibility. She writes and speaks on regional and global issues.

Charles V. Fishel
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Abundant Biofuels Corporation
Integrating Socially-Responsibility into For-Profit Economic Development

Dr. Fishel will be speaking on creative micro finance schemes for foreign direct investment.  For example, in the Philippines, Abundant Biofuels Corporation is joint venturing with the Lumad tribal structure to develop biofuels on ancestral.  Also, where land is held individually by small farmers, Abundant Biofuels plans to work with micro lenders to facilitate outsourcing of planting and harvesting of Jatropha used to produce biofuels.

Dr. Fishel is chairman and CEO of Abundant Biofuels Corporation.  He serves on the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausaane Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels (Environmental Impacts Working Group and Social Impacts Working Group).   He serves as a director on the boards of several public and private for-profit companies, including the Brownfield Foundation, Inc., a charitable, non-profit corporation dedicated to land recycling for the good of the community and the environment.

He has held senior management, finance and legal roles with Fortune 100 multi-national organizations (Intel, Teledyne, Carnation Company, Peter Kiewit Sons’ and Williams Companies) as well as start-up companies.  Industry experience includes technology (electronics, biotechnology and nanotechnology), insurance, construction, mining, broadcasting, food processing, energy, manufacturing, public utility, and consulting about technology evaluation and commercialization.

Dr. Fishel teaches at San Jose State University and visiting professor at the Naval Postgraduate School.  He is the author of Global Business Strategies (CyclopsMedia: 2004).  

Claudia Viek
Chief Executive Officer, California Association for Micro Enterprise Opportunity (CAMEO)
Micro Enterprise Development: A Potent Tool for Stimulating Local Economies

Micro Enterprise organizations that provide loans, business assistance and training have emerged as the primary support for Main Street businesses during this severe recession. What trends support a focus on investment in locally owned businesses and what needs to be done to focus economic stimulus efforts so that all of our diverse communities in California benefit? The presenter will also provide an overview of statewide Micro Enterprise resources and a description of current policies on the state and national levels. This California Association for Micro Enterprise Opportunity model for California can be replicated in other countries for their micro enterprise communities.

Claudia Viek is the CEO of CAMEO, the California Association for Micro Enterprise Opportunity, a statewide network of 130 organizations and individuals committed to promoting economic opportunity and community well-being through Micro Enterprise development. CAMEO’s nonprofit members served 20,000 businesses in 2007 with training, business assistance and micro loans.

Ms Viek has been a pioneer in both the Micro Enterprise and business incubation fields in California. She was the founder and former Executive Director of the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center in San Francisco - an award winning training, financing and business incubation program. Ms Viek served on the Board of the National Business Incubation Assoc and founded the Pacific Incubation Network of incubator members from Baja to Alaska.

Ms Viek is the past President of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of National Assoc. of Women Business Owners has served on numerous nonprofit boards in her community.

She has a BA from William Smith College, and has a large extended family, including eight grandchildren.

Conrad MacKerron
Director, Corporate Social Responsibility Program, As You Sow Foundation
The Basic Components of a Socially Responsible Company

After a decade of corporate scandals on sweatshop labor, phony balance sheets, and subprime mortgages and increasing consumer expectations for a low-carbon future, it’s surprising how many companies still do not have adequate policies in place to address crucial social and environmental flashpoints. If you are a principal in a new or ongoing company, it is important to know about the basic corporate responsibility policies and practices investors and stakeholders expect from company management. Mr. MacKerron will review existing key issue areas as well as newly emerging ones.

Mr. MacKerron is Director of the Corporate Social Responsibility Program at As You Sow Foundation, which uses shareholder advocacy to promote progressive CSR policies at publicly traded companies. He has been instrumental in key social and environmental policy changes at major U.S. companies. His efforts have led to commitments by Dell, Apple and Best Buy on take back and recycling of electronics; and The Coca-Cola Co., Nestle Waters NA, and PespiCo on beverage container recycled content and recovery.

He led a dialogue with Gap Inc. that resulted in the 2004 release of a ground-breaking public report ranking the performance of supply chain facilities and frankly discussing problems with global factory monitoring. He was also part of a core group that developed Project Kaleidoscope, a multi-year project to improve working conditions at 10 Walt Disney Co. and McDonald’s Corp. suppliers in China’s Pearl River Delta.

Mr. MacKerron is a former Social Investment Analyst at Piper Jaffray Inc. and Progressive Asset Management, and former analyst for energy and environment at the Investor Responsibility Research Center (now RiskMetrics Group). He also served as board member of the Social Investment Forum, which promotes the practice of socially responsible investing, and was chair of its Advocacy and Public Policy Program.

Lloyd Kurtz
Senior Portfolio Manager, Nelson Capital Management, Owned by Wells Fargo Bank
Social Investing, Then and Now

Social investing has grown and evolved dramatically over the past five years. Lloyd Kurtz, a longtime researcher and practitioner will bring us up to date on the globalization and increased role of sustainability in this rapidly growing investment field.

Lloyd Kurtz is a senior portfolio manager at Nelson Capital and lead PM for socially responsible investing (SRI). Before joining Nelson Capital in 2004, Mr. Kurtz was a Senior Vice President at Harris Bretall Sullivan & Smith in San Francisco where he served as Director of Quantitative Research and provided research coverage for the healthcare, basic industry and energy sectors. Before joining Harris Bretall in 1995, he spent four years as Senior Research Analyst at KLD, a Boston research firm specializing in social investment research. At KLD, he did much of the initial quantitative work in the development of the Domini Social Index.

Mr. Kurtz is a Research Fellow at the U.C. Berkeley Haas Business School's Center for Corporate Responsibility, and serves as Program Administrator for the Moskowitz Prize. He has published numerous articles on SRI in academic journals, and authored a chapter on SRI for the 2008 Oxford Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility.

He holds a B.A. from Vassar College, an M.B.A. from Babson College, and is a Chartered Financial analyst. In 1999, he received the SRI Service Award for his contributions to social investing.

Rupert Ayton
Chairman & Co-Founder, Center for the Development of Social Sciences (CDSF)
Emerging or Just Merging: Is Social Investing a Brave New World or More of the Scary Old World?

Is modern portfolio theory dead? Is social investing alive? Are they different, or are they based upon the same principles? What are the social investment options available today? What will they be tomorrow? Rupert Ayton provides an experience-based context for unraveling these knotty questions and others, discusses current trends, and highlights specific examples.

Rupert Ayton has worked in the financial arena for more than 25 years. He is recognized as a leading thinker in the social finance sector and in 2004 founded the non-profit Center for the Development of Social Finance. Mr. Ayton has served on the California State Assembly’s Emerging Domestic Markets investment task force and now serves on the investment committee of the McKenzie River Gathering Foundation, an early proponent of SRI. Mr. Ayton is also Chief Financial Officer of Movilix Financial Services, LLC, an Oregon-based start-up serving the unbanked Hispanic community.

Sanjay Sinha
Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Micro Credit Enterprises (MCE)
Microfinance & Socially Responsible Investing (SRI): How Do the Two Intersect?

Sanjay Sinha will provide an overview of the Microfinance industry.  Further, he will discuss a particular business model within this industry.  Since 2005, this business model has been providing opportunity for socially driven investors to leverage their capital to address poverty on a global basis.

Sanjay Sinha has been the Deputy Chief Financial Officer of MicroCredit Enterprises (MCE) since January, 2007.  As with 80% of MCE’s management team, this position is a pro-bono position.  Mr. Sinha was introduced to the world of microlending at an early age while living in India.  Micro-businesses, such as gardening services, laundry and small retail outlets were all around his community at that time; however, Mr. Sinha did not know, back then, that some of these businesses were made possible by themovement that was founded in his neighboring country of Bangladesh by the Nobel Laureate, Muhammed Yunus.  

Professionally, Mr. Sinha has spent most of his career in the financial services industry, primarily as a Relationship Manager.  Mr. Sinha’s focus has been on developing and managing relationships with Fortune 500 and middle market companies in a variety of industries.  He is currently with California Bank & Trust in the Commercial Banking Group in San Francisco, California. 

His previous banking experience includes two years with Rabobank International and seven years with Yasuda Trust & Banking Company. In addition to his tenure and experience in banking, Mr. Sinha spent three years with The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta, Georgia and two years with two internet start-ups in Silicon Valley, first with BigVine.com and, then, with CompanyFinance.com.  Mr. Sinha holds a Bachelors of Science in Management from the University of Tennessee and a Masters of Business Administration in Finance from Georgia State University. 

Since 2007, Mr. Sinha has also been a pro bono Business Advisor with Pacific Community Ventures, a private equity and business advisory group that focuses on providing capital and strategic advice to businesses in low and middle income neighborhoods in the State of California.