Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Presentation on "Development in Your Pocket: Improving Lives with Mobile Phones" on February 25 at 4:00 PM in J1-050

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PANELISTS
Nick Hughes
Head of Global Payments, Vodafone
Mr. Hughes heads up the international mobile payments business unit
at Vodafone Group, a team created to build on the success of M-PESA
? Kenya?s first mobile payment system, which has seen significant
customer uptake over its first two years in operation (+5m
subscribers). Mr. Hughes started the M-PESA concept in 2004 through
some venture funding made available by the UK Government. The
system is now deployed in multiple markets and with a range of
partners. Additionally, the functionality is now extended beyond
simple person-to-person money transfer services, moving towards
broader m-commerce opportunities. This includes micro-credit,
salary and bill payment as well as cross border remittances. Mr.
Hughes joined Vodafone in 2001 from the large energy company BP,
where he worked on international projects, including a prototype
emissions trading system.

Katrin Verclas
Founder, MobileActive.org
Ms. Verclas is a recognized expert in mobile communications for
social impact. She is the co-founder and editor of MobileActive.org,
a global network of practitioners using mobile phones for social
impact. She is also a principal at Calder Strategies, focusing on
mobile strategy, impact evaluation, effectiveness and ROI
assessment, and interactive capacity building. Ms. Verclas is a
co-author of Wireless Technology for Social Change, a report on
trends in mobile use by NGOs with the UN Foundation and Vodafone
Group Foundation, and author of A Mobile Voice: The Use of Mobile
Phones in Citizen Media. Her background is in IT management, IT in
social change organizations, and in philanthropy. She has led
several nonprofit organizations, including a position as the
Executive Director of NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network, the
national association of IT professionals working in the more than
one million nonprofit organizations in the United States. Previously
, she served as a program officer at the Proteus Fund, which focused
on the use of technology in civic and democratic participation and
in government transparency. Ms. Verclas serves on the boards of
Mobile Voter and Ushahidi.

Holly Ladd
Vice President, AED Satellife
Ms. Ladd has 25 years of experience in developing, managing, and
implementing projects and overseeing diverse staff and consultants.
As Director of AED-Satellife, Ms. Ladd has pioneered the use of
mobile technologies in remote health settings. She has worked with
a wide spectrum of organizations that include USAID, Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, EngenderHealth, WHO, World Bank, and
the Red Cross. In these various organizations, she developed
low-cost, state-of-the art technology solutions that address health
information needs in Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa,
Nepal, Tanzania, Bangladesh, Bolivia, and Mozambique. Her technical
areas of expertise include health information management systems
planning and integration; service provision protocol development;
curriculum and training materials development and implementation;
development of systems for management of training along with
monitoring and evaluation.

DISCUSSANT
Jesse Moore
Director, Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA) Development
Mr. Moore is the Director of the GSMA Development Fund, with
specific focus on mServices. Previously, he worked with Vodafone on
M-PESA, a mobile payment service targeting Kenya?s un-banked
population. From 2002-2006, he founded and directed CARE Enterprise
Partners, the division of the large NGO that provides venture
capital to businesses in the developing world. During this period,
Mr. Moore helped start base of the pyramid businesses in Bangladesh,
Peru and Kenya, and spoke about social investment at dozens of
international conferences and business schools. He has also worked
as a management consultant at Monitor Company.

CHAIR
Gautam Ivatury
Strategic Advisor, Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP)
Mr. Ivatury is a member of the Board of Directors of the Society for
International Development (Washington), and a Strategic Advisor to
CGAP, the global microfinance resource center housed at the World
Bank. From 2003 through 2008, he led CGAP's work in microfinance and
technology, including setting up and managing a program co-funded by
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to demonstrate the potential
of mobile phones and branchless banking for the poor. Before joining
CGAP in 2003, Mr. Ivatury helped manage SKS Microfinance, India's
largest microfinance institution (now serving 5m households), and
founded a company to connect U.S. universities and foreign students
through the Internet. He has worked in investment and commercial
banking in the electric power industry at Donaldson Lufkin &
Jenrette and the International Finance Corporation. Mr. Ivatury
writes on microfinance and technology at http://technology.cgap.org.

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