Premal Shah, Kiva president
Position: 36 Last year: Not ranked
Why? Restructuring the microfinance industry
Agree with panel rating?
Premal Shah, president of Kiva.org, is another new face on the Agenda Setters list this year. Kiva is a not-for-profit organisation that uses the web to connect potential moneylenders with entrepreneurs in the developing world who need funding for their businesses.
This is a modus operandi that has effectively restructured the microfinance industry, according to the Agenda Setters panel.
Shah joined Kiva from PayPal in 2006, where he had worked for six years. When he arrived at Kiva he was already knowledgeable and enthusiastic about microfinance and helped to establish ties between the two very different organisations.
The Agenda Setters panel was interested in the way Kiva "matches people in the world who can finance small projects in the developing world directly".
Panellists discussed how Kiva uses its website as a rudimentary social network to build relationships between lenders and recipients. As one panellist pointed out: "Microfinance before had always been very local."
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This is why Premal Shah, president of Kiva.org and 36 on the Agenda Setters list, came to their attention. Natasha Lomas looks at how that trend plays out in the Top 50. You don't have to be a web user to know about social networking.
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