The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship is a Swiss not-for-profit organization founded in 1998 that provides platforms at regional, national, and global levels to promote social entrepreneurship. The foundation is under the legal supervision of the Swiss Federal Government. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. Each year, it selects 20–25 social entrepreneurs through a global "Social Entrepreneur of the Year" competition.
Grameenphone, widely abbreviated as (d/b/a) GP, is a telecommunications service provider in Bangladesh. As of December 2023, its subscribers span over 82.20 million. It is a joint venture between Telenor and Grameen Telecom. Where Telenor owns a 55.8% share of Grameenphone, Grameen Telecom owns 34.2% and the remaining 10% is publicly held.
Ann Lesley Cotton OBE is a Welsh entrepreneur and philanthropist who was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2006 Queen's New Year Honours List. The honour was in recognition of her services to education of young women in rural Africa as the founder of Camfed.
Grameen Telecom (GTC) was established in Bangladesh by Muhammad Yunus with a partial stake in Grameen Phone (GP) and registered as a Not-for-Profit Company, Limited by Guarantee, under Section 28 of the Companies Act, 1994. GTC launched the program of Village Phone that enables rural poor to own a mobile phone and turn it into a profit-making venture. The vision behind the village phone program was formulated by Iqbal Quadir, who was convinced that a mobile phone could become a source of income. Quadir worked with Yunus and the Norwegian company Telenor to make the program a reality.
Iqbal Z. Quadir is an entrepreneur and promoter of the role of entrepreneurship and innovation in creating prosperity in low-income countries. He has taught at Harvard Kennedy School and at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the brother of Bangladeshi-American entrepreneur and artist Kamal Quadir.
Forum of Young Global Leaders, or Young Global Leaders (YGL) is a non-profit organization. It was created by Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum and is managed from Geneva, Switzerland, under the supervision of the Swiss government. It is run by the World Economic Forum.
Innovations is a peer-reviewed academic journal that focuses on entrepreneurial solutions to global challenges. It is published quarterly by the MIT Press.
Eli Beer is the founder of United Hatzalah of Israel, and President of the U.S.-based organization Friends of United Hatzalah. United Hatzalah of Israel is an independent, non-profit, fully-volunteer emergency medical services organization that provides fast and free emergency medical first response throughout Israel.
REFUNITE, short for Refugees United, is a Danish non-profit organization founded in 2008 by David and Christopher Mikkelsen. The organization uses online and mobile solutions to facilitate family reunification of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs).
Bengali Americans are Americans of Bengali ethnic, cultural and linguistic heritage and identity. They trace their ancestry to the historic ethnolinguistic region of Bengal region in the Indian subcontinent, now divided in South Asia between Bangladesh and West Bengal of India. Bengali Americans are also a subgroup of modern-day Bangladeshi Americans and Indian Americans. Bengali also classified under Bangladeshi Americans. Significant immigration of bengalis to the United States started after 1965.
Jane Marie Chen is the co-founder of Embrace, a social enterprise that invented and distributes a low-cost infant warmer, that gives premature and low-birth-weight infants a better chance at survival. The Embrace infant warmers / incubators have now helped to save over 700,000 babies in 25 countries. Jane served as the first CEO of Embrace, the non-profit arm of the organization, before stepping into the chief executive officer (CEO) role of Embrace Innovations, the for-profit social enterprise that was spun off in 2012..
Marlon Parker is the founder of Reconstructed Living Labs (RLabs) - a South African social entrepreneur who uses information communications technology (ICT) to empower communities, a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and named by the Mail and Guardian as 1 of 300 young South Africans you have to take out to lunch. He was elected an Ashoka Fellow in 2014.
Maria Christina Lampe-Önnerud is a Swedish inorganic chemist, battery-inventor, and entrepreneur. She has founded the companies Boston-Power Inc. (2005–2012) and Cadenza Innovation. She is developing batteries for use in computers, electric vehicles, and grid storage. She has received a number of awards, including the World Economic Forum's Technology Pioneer Award in 2010 and again in 2018, and is an elected member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. Lampe-Önnerud has many interests, including opera singing, jazz dancing, playing the cello, and choir directing.
Ekhanei or ekhanei.com was a mobile-based online marketplace classified advertisements website of buying and selling property, gadgets, vehicles and personal items for sale. Tickets and jobs are also posted among other things. Starting in 2006 as CellBazaar, it was the first online free classified ads website in Bangladesh. By Alexa Internet ranking, as of August 2015, it was the top shopping site and the fifth business and economy website in Bangladesh. In 2017 the parent company announced to shutdown it.
Philip E. Auerswald is an American author, economist, and cofounder and coeditor of Innovations (journal). His most recent book, The Code Economy: A Forty-Thousand-Year History, explains how code has been a key driver of human development.
bKash is a mobile financial service (MFS) in Bangladesh operating under the authority of Bangladesh Bank as a subsidiary of BRAC Bank PLC. This mobile financial service company started as a joint venture between BRAC Bank Limited, and Money in Motion LLC. As a mobile financial service (MFS) provider in Bangladesh, bKash users can transfer money into their mobile accounts and then access a range of services. In particular, transferring and receiving money domestically and making payments. Services like mobile recharge prepaid and postpaid package internet service Value Added Service Customer Service or paying utility bills are also possible through bKash USSD (*247#) and bKash App. A user can receive remittance on bKash. In November 2021, bKash became the first ever unicorn startup company in Bangladesh. In May 2023, bKash became the regional sponsors of the Argentina Football Association.
Miniya Chatterji is a prominent Dubai based business woman and a globally acclaimed sustainability leader. She is the CEO of Sustain Labs Paris. Sustain Labs Paris is an enterprise based in India, UAE, and New Zealand that builds large sustainability focused ventures.
Njideka Françoise Harry is a World Economic Forum Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship Fellow.
Social entrepreneurship in South Asia involves business activities that have a social benefit, often for people at the bottom of the pyramid. It is an emerging area of entrepreneurship that is supported by both the public sector and the private sector.
Asif Saleh is a Bangladeshi development professional. He is the current Executive Director of BRAC, Bangladesh. one of the world's largest development organisations. Saleh has been instrumental in the growth of BRAC, which operates across Asia and Africa, focusing on areas such as poverty graduation, and climate change.
