Jessica Jackley Flannery is a co-founder of Kiva with her husband Matt, and the spirit behind the organization. Flannery first saw the power and beauty of microfinance while working in rural Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda with Village Enterprise Fund and Project Baobab on impact evaluation and program development.
Previously, Flannery worked in the Stanford Center for Social Innovation to launch the inaugural Global Philanthropy Forum, and at Amazon.com, Potentia Media, the International Foundation and World Vision. Flannery has spoken widely on microfinance and social entrepreneurship, and has seen microfinance at work in a variety of communities in more than 30 countries.
Jessica Flannery holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business with Certificates in Global Management and Public Management, and a BA in Philosophy and Political Science from Bucknell University.
Alice Eldridge is the Vice President for Ethics and Business Conduct at Lockheed Martin Corporation. As part of Lockheed Martin's senior leadership team, Eldridge is responsible for managing the company's internationally recognized ethics program, which includes awareness and compliance training, outreach activities, issues management, and performance tracking. She has extensive experience and knowledge in a wide range of legal issues including export and import control and government-contracting litigation.
Alice Eldridge earned her bachelor's degree in Economics and Political Science from the University of Vermont at Burlington and earned her JD with honors from George Washington University.
Andrew Savitz is a creative business leader, advisor, author and speaker, with over 20 years of hands-on experience assisting corporation to become leaders in sustainability and environmental performance and reporting. An internationally known expert on corporate social responsibility and sustainability, Savitz is the author of The Triple Bottom Line: How the Best Run Companies are Achieving Economic, Social and Environmental Success - and How You Can Too (Wiley, August 2006).
As a lead partner in PricewaterhouseCooper's global Sustainability Business Services practice, Savitz was PwC's liaison delegate to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and represented the firm on environmental and sustainability related matters at the Conference Board. Savitz authored PwC's widely cited 2002 Sustainability Survey- the first of its kind in the United States.
Now working as a senior consultant at Sustainable Business Strategies, Savitz assists companies to assess, design, develop and implement sustainability programs from vision to reporting, including policies, procedures and programs related to human rights, supply chain management, HIV/AIDS, political contributions, environmental, health and safety management and compliance, community and investor relations, codes of conduct, and international and national standards and guidelines including the United Nations Global Compact, the Global Reporting Initiative, the CERES principles, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, and the McBride principles.
Prior to PwC, Savitz served as General Counsel in the Massachusetts Office of Environmental Affairs. He directed all legal matters for the Commonwealth related to environmental affairs, environmental law, regulations and policy. As the Commonwealth's first Assistant Secretary for Environmental Law Enforcement, he was instrumental in creating the Massachusetts Environmental Crime Strike Force which coordinated the environmental enforcement of criminal and civil laws throughout Massachusetts. Savitz also worked on the regulatory and policy aspects of Environmental Impact Assessments under the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA), and on efforts to improve the Commonwealth's hazardous waste cleanup, air pollution control and coastal zone development laws.
While attending Georgetown University Law Center at night, Savitz was a staff member for United States House of Representatives, Commerce, Consumer and Monetary Affairs Subcommittee. He conceived and organized hearings on regulatory policy related to finance and consumer protection. He drafted the Corporate Democracy Act, which was introduced to Congress in 1980 and presaged many of the corporate governance issues being debated today.
Andy Savitz is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, where he was an editor of the Georgetown University Law Review. He attended New College Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, earning a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He received his undergraduate degree from The Johns Hopkins University.
Martina Musteen is an Assistant Professor of Management in the Entrepreneurial Management Center (EMC) at San Diego State University. Musteen's research interests include international entrepreneurship, knowledge transfer, social network theory, managerial cognition, and corporate reputation. Musteen is currently involved in several research projects designed to examine factors influencing the internationalization of entrepreneurial ventures and the role of networks in firms learning about foreign markets. Martina Musteen received her Ph.D. from the University of Kansas (KU) and her master's degree from CIMBA, Italy. She completed her undergraduate work at the European Division of the University of Maryland in Heidelberg, Germany, where she graduated summa cum laude.
Matt Dacey is President and Chairperson of Cornell University Johnson School's Venture Capital Club. In addition, he is the founder and CEO of CustomGrocery.com and OneClickGrocery.com which he has been running for four years.
CustomGrocery includes custom software focused on online grocery startups across the country. The Custom Grocery team develops grocery software for startups and grocery stores looking to enter the online grocery shopping industry.
OneClickGrocery is an online grocery delivery company dedicated to campus communities.
Matt Dacey is currently pursuing his MBA at the Johnson School at Cornell University. He received his undergraduate degree from Syracuse University.
Eben Bayer is CEO and Co-founder of Ecovative Design.
Before founding Ecovative, Bayer worked at Applied Research Associates. During his time with ARA, Bayer designed components of multiple remotely operated vehicles, including the armor for a US Marine humanitarian de-mining vehicle, and the production molds for a small reconnaissance drone.
Eben Bayer received a dual B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and Product Design and Innovation from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in May of 2007.
Julia Posacki is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of CW Enterprises. Through her brand, InvestingIsSimple, she delivers financial savvy to professionals and up-and-comers. IIS aims to unravel the mystique of the markets and give you the tools and confidence to know that you, too, can play with the "big boys" of Wall Street. In addition to the InvestingIsSimple web site, Julia speaks to various audiences nationwide.
Prior to launching IIS, Julia spent seven years working in the Fixed Income and Derivatives areas of Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch.
Julia Posacki earned a Bachelor of Science in Operations Research & Industrial Engineering and a Master of Engineering in Financial Engineering from Cornell University.
Marissa Goodman was the marketing manager for Celebrity Brands at Steve & Barry's from 2006-2008 where she oversaw creative production and promotions. Marissa is now an account executive for Verizon at Momentum, an event marketing agency located in New York City.
Marissa Goodman is a graduate of Cornell University.
Alex Counts is President and CEO of Grameen Foundation, a dynamic nonprofit, Washington D.C.-based organization that has grown to a global network of 46 microfinance partners in 25 countries. Counts became Grameen Foundation's first Executive Director in 1997, after ten years of working in microfinance and poverty reduction, primarily in Bangladesh.
Today, under Counts' leadership, Grameen Foundation impacts an estimated 20 million lives in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and the Arab World.* Grameen Foundation's annual budget has grown in each year of its existence, from $100,000 in 1997 to over $13 million in 2006, and its breakthrough impact has been chronicled in the Economist and elsewhere.
Counts was a Fulbright scholar who spent time in Bangladesh, where he witnessed dire poverty as well as the innovative solutions that had been developed and applied on a wide scale by the Grameen Bank and other members of the Grameen family of companies. He trained under and worked closely with Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the founder and managing director of the Grameen Bank, and the 2006 Nobel Laureate.
In addition to working with Grameen Bank in 1988-89 and 1992-1994, he served for three years as the legislative director of RESULTS, an international grassroots citizen's lobbying group working to create the political will to end hunger that has played a leading role in advocating for increased funding and better targeting of resources to support global health, education and microfinance initiatives. He also served as a regional project manager for CARE-Bangladesh for two years.
Alex Counts is a Cornell University graduate, with a degree in economics.