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The Resource Center has all the info you'll need From content to user feedback, the resource center has the information you need for every level of the entrepreneurial process.
Vincent Perlas is President of the LifeBank Foundation. Trained in agribusiness and public health, Vincent chose to dedicate his time exclusively to microfinance in 2005. After years of working in banking and agriculture in nonprofit and for-profit capacities, he began to believe in the promise of microfinance as a serious solution to worldwide poverty. Although he admits that poverty is caused by a spectrum of factors, he firmly believes that the lack of financial services for the working poor, the majority, is one of the core sources of the problem.
Muhammad Yunus earned the nickname "banker to the poor" by giving tiny cash loans -- often the equivalent of a few dollars -- to the poorest of the poor in Bangladesh. That simple idea grew into an international movement so vibrant that Yunus was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize for Peace. Yunus earned a Ph.D. in economics at Vanderbilt University in 1969. He taught at Middle Tennessee State University before returning to Bangladesh in 1972 to teach economics at Chittagong University. According to a now-famous story, his first loan was given to a group of very poor women from the village of Jobra in 1974; the amount was the equivalent of $27. Two years later, in 1976, Yunus founded the Grameen Bank to make such loans on a wider scale, mostly to people with no collateral who would not be served by typical banks. The notion became known as microcredit, and as it spread to other countries it gave thousands of people the opportunity to pull themselves out of abject poverty. Yunus and Grameen were jointly given the Nobel Prize in 2006. By that time the bank had helped more than six million borrowers, the vast majority of them women. In awarding the prize, the Nobel Committee stated: "Lasting peace can not be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty. Microcredit is one such means."
Paul Yock interviews Howard Holstein, regulatory attorney, on understanding the FDA.
Josh Makower, CEO of ExploraMed, speaks briefly about his experience working in medicine and technology. Dr. Makower also discusses at length the numerous political, financial, and regulatory hurdles against future medical innovation, and calls for audience involvement in the tangled web of healthcare, patents, and insurance reimbursement.
Recognizing our nation’s need for greater economic participation at all levels of society, the Icehouse Entrepreneurship Program captures and conveys the “mindset” of entrepreneurs who overcame adversity and are now helping lead our economic recovery. The program was created by the Entrepreneurial Learning Initiative and Clifton Taulbert’s Building Community Institute.
The Ice House Entrepreneurship program is a revolutionary new online learning program desired to inspire and engage participants in the fundamental aspects of an entrepreneurial mindset.
Twenty percent of the world's population do not have access to clean drinking water, says Miox CEO Carlos Perea. What's an entrepreneur to do? Ideally, find a way to clean and reuse the global water supply that's, "twice as good at half the cost" of conventional chlorine decontamination. In this lecture, Perea demonstrates his company's abilities and explains the benefits and challenges of being an entrepreneur in clean technology.
Alec Ross, Senior Advisor for Innovation in the Office of Secretary of State and Co-founder of global non-profit One Economy, discusses in detail innovation policy and how it can change national diplomacy. In addition, Ross offers advice to global innovators, stressing quality time management, effective hiring practices, the mutual benefits of mentoring, and assertive risk practices.
Rahul Chowdhury, a recent Kellogg graduate, talks about how he came up with the concept and launched DenuoSource, an international sales and marketing consulting firm. In this segment, Rahul describes the value of his MBA and how it helped him launch.
Thom Ruhe from the Kauffman Foundation discusses the new book The Big Short, by best-selling author Michael Lewis. The book details the origins and outcomes of the current economic and housing crisis.
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