Ela Ramesh Bhatt is an Indian cooperative organiser, activist and Gandhian, who found the Self-Employed Women's Association of India (SEWA) in 1972, and served as its general secretary from 1972 to 1996. She is the current Chancellor of the Gujarat Vidyapith. A lawyer by training, Bhatt is a part of the international labour, cooperative, women, and micro-finance movements and has won several national and international awards, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award (1977), Right Livelihood Award (1984) for "helping home-based producers to organise for their welfare and self-respect" and the Padma Bhushan (1986).
Jacqueline Novogratz is an American entrepreneur and author. She is the founder and CEO of Acumen, a non-profit global venture capital fund whose goal is to use entrepreneurial approaches to address global poverty.
Legatum Limited, also known as Legatum, is a private investment firm, headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Legatum is a partnership that uses its own funds to invest globally. The firm also invests in activities to promote entrepreneurship and free enterprise as well as anti-slavery, health and education initiatives.
Chetna Gala Sinha is an Indian social activist working to empower women in drought-prone areas of rural India by teaching entrepreneurial skills, access to land and means of production. Chetna Sinha and six other women chaired the 48th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland in January 2018. Chetna Gala Sinha has been awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar, India's highest civilian award for women. In 1997, she set up the Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank – India's first bank for and by rural women. Mann Deshi Bank had 100,000 account holders and had loaned over $50 million to support female micro-entrepreneurs in 2018. Mann Deshi foundation runs Business Schools, a Community Radio and a Chambers of Commerce for rural women micro entrepreneurs. In 2018 it had supported nearly half a million women.
Premal Shah is an American entrepreneur who co-founded Kiva, a global poverty alleviation non-profit that has raised over $1 billion for low-income entrepreneurs in eighty countries.
A'Lelia Perry Bundles is an American journalist, news producer and author, known for her 2001 biography of her great-great grandmother Madam C. J. Walker.
Laila Rashed Iskander Kamel is an Egyptian social entrepreneur and politician. She is formerly Egypt's Minister of State for Environment Affairs in the interim government of Prime Minister Hazem El Beblawi.
Poonam Ahluwalia was a social entrepreneur and founder and director of Youth Entrepreneurship and Sustainability (YES), an international nonprofit and YouthTrade, an organization promoting youth entrepreneurship, based at Babson College in Wellesley, MA.
Jagriti Yatra is an initiative of Jagriti Sewa Sansthan, a non-governmental organization that promotes entrepreneurship. The initiative was launched in 2008. In Hindi, Jagriti Yatra means a journey of awakening, and as the name suggests it is a journey of social awakening. Youngsters, between the age group of 20 and 27, from India and overseas can apply to go on the yatra. The journey is for 15 days in which, a distance of 8000 kilometers is covered. They visit 15 role models at 12 destination covering The Indian States of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan and Gujarat in a train that transports only the yatris or travelers of the Jagriti Yatra. The individuals who go for the journey are supposed to live in the train for the span of 15–18 days and interact with their fellow travelers. The Tatas were associated with the programme during 2008-2010.
Linus Liang is the co-founder of Embrace, a social enterprise startup that aims to help the 20 million premature and low birth-weight babies born every year, through a low-cost infant warmer. Liang also co-founded CLZ Concepts and was an early employee of Zynga.
Kelsey Ramsden is a Canadian entrepreneur. Ramsden was dubbed Canada’s Top Female Entrepreneur and is recognized for building multiple, multimillion-dollar businesses both offline and online. She has founded and run different businesses ranging from construction to children’s toys, such as SparkPlay.
Silatech is an organization based in Qatar, spearheaded by the wife of the former Emir of Qatar Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser. The current CEO of this organization is Ms Sabah AlHaidoos. Silatech means "your connection" in Arabic. The initiative seeks to create jobs and economic opportunities for young people in the Arab world, targeting 18- to 30-year-olds. by 2016, Silatech claims to have helped 200,000 young Arabs to obtain jobs. The initiative’s model involves building partnerships with governments, private companies and NGOs.
Sunil Shivaji Khandbahale is a MIT Sloan Fellow, Innovator and Entrepreneur from Nashik, India. He is best known as a founder and CEO of KHANDBAHALE.COM, a free multilingual digital dictionary and translation platform for 23 languages, with a vocabulary of 10 million words and phrases.
Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli, MFR is a Co-Founder of Sahel Consulting and serves as its managing partner. She has 23 years of experience in international development, and through her work with Sahel has shaped agriculture strategy and policy in West Africa for a range of clients in the public, private and nonprofit sectors.
Women's Entrepreneurship Day (WED) is a day on which the work of women entrepreneurs is observed and discussed, held on the nineteenth of November of each year. The inaugural event was held in New York City at the United Nations, with additional events being held simultaneously in several other countries. 144 nations overall recognized the first WED in 2014, which included the presentation of the Women's Entrepreneurship Day Pioneer Awards. The organization behind WED also has an ambassadorship and fellowship program.
Vani Kola is an Indian venture capitalist. She is the founder and managing director of Kalaari Capital, an Indian early stage venture capital firm. She was listed as one of the most powerful women in Indian business by Fortune India in 2014.
Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji is a Nigerian social entrepreneur and human development expert whose work cuts across entrepreneurship, education, youth development and public leadership. She is the founder and chief executive officer of Rise Networks, a Nigeria-based private and public sector funded Youth Interest social enterprise.
Aakanksha Bhargava is an Indian entrepreneur, leading a large relocation business in India. She is the chief executive officer and President of PM Relocations Pvt Ltd (PMR) in Gurgaon.
Emma Sinclair MBE is a British businesswoman, entrepreneur and journalist.
Ajaita Shah is an Indian entrepreneur and social activist. She is the founder and CEO of Frontier Markets and the President of Frontier Innovations Foundation.
