PGI brings leading families, private investors and organizations together with practitioners and entrepreneurs to generate solutions for the world’s less fortunate. We offer a powerful program to put new concepts into practice. The PGI 2013 program will focus on agriculture, education, financial services, healthcare, housing, and water. "Technologies for development" will be a cross-cutting theme addressed for each of the sectors. PGI panel discussions are forward-looking and designed to engage participants, by outlining models and emerging best practices to deal with global challenges.
Provocative speakers, innovative initiatives, global decision-makers and a focus on outcomes continue to define and distinguish our program.
Dr. Kiran Bedi and Sir Ronald Cohen to make keynote addresses at Partnering for Global Impact 2013.

Kiran Bedi became the first woman officer in the Indian Police Service in 1972 and rose to the highest rank in the force. Her expertise includes more than 35 years of creative and reformative policing and prison management. In 1994, she received the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award (also called the Asian Nobel Prize) for this work. She is the founder of two NGOs, Navjyoti and India Vision Foundation, which reach out to thousands of under -served children, women and men in the areas of education, vocational skills, environment, counseling, and health care to the urban and rural poor. Her NGOs run four community colleges, registered with the Indira Gandhi National Open University, to provide vocational and soft skills to Indian youth.
Currently, she is in the vanguard of the nationwide India Against Corruption movement led by Shri Anna Hazare. This compelled the Indian Parliament to unanimously pass the Jan Lokpal Bill, a resolution drafted by Team Anna accepting to deter corruption, compensate citizen grievances, and protect whistle-blowers.
Dr. Bedi has authored several books, including her autobiography I Dare, anchors radio and television shows, and is a columnist with leading newspapers and magazines. She has worked with the United Nations in New York as the Police Advisor to the Secretary General, in the Department of Peace Keeping Operations. She has also represented India in international forums on crime prevention, drug abuse, police and prison reforms and women’s issues and addressed audiences at American, British, European, and Indian Universities, as well as corporate and civil society groups.
She holds Masters and Doctorate degrees in Law and is also a postdoctoral Nehru Fellow. Dr. Bedi was a National and Asian Tennis champion.
Iris Bohnet, Professor of Public Policy, is the Academic Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School. She is also the director of the Women and Public Policy Program, an associate director of the Harvard Decision Science Laboratory, and the faculty chair of the executive program “Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century” for the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders. She serves on the boards of directors of Credit Suisse and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (HEID), as well as the Advisory Board of the Vienna University of Economics and Business, and numerous academic journals. She is a member of the Global Agenda Council on Women’s Empowerment of the World Economic Forum.
Professor Bohnet teaches decision-making, negotiation and gender in public policy and leadership in degree and executive programs, and has been engaged in the teaching, training and consulting of private and public sector leaders in the United States, Europe, India and the Middle East.
A behavioral economist combining insights from economics and psychology, her research focuses on questions of trust and decision-making, often with a gender or cross-cultural perspective. Her most recent research examines “gender equality nudges,” interventions that decrease the gender gaps in organizations, politics and society. Professor Bohnet’s academic work has been published in the best journals of her profession, including the American Economic Review, the American Political Science Review, and the Quarterly Journal of Economics. Her work has been profiled by leading media outlets around the world.
A Swiss citizen, she received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Zurich in 1997 and spent a year as a research fellow at the Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley from 1997-1998. She joined the Harvard Kennedy School as an assistant professor in 1998 and was made full professor in 2006. She is married to Michael Zurcher, and she and her husband have two children. The family lives in Newton, Massachusetts, USA.
Sir Ronald Cohen is Chairman of The Portland Trust and Big Society Capital. He is a co-founder and director of Social Finance USA and was a co-founder of Bridges Ventures. In 2012 Sir Ronald received the Rockefeller Innovation Award for innovation in social finance.
He chaired the Social Investment Task Force (2000-2010) and the Commission on Unclaimed Assets (2005-2007). He was a co-founder and director of Social Finance UK (2007-11). He co-founded and was Executive Chairman of Apax Partners Worldwide LLP (1972-2005).
He was a founder director and Chairman of the British Venture Capital Association and a founder director of the European Venture Capital Association. He was also a founder and former Vice-Chairman of EASDAQ and a director of NASDAQ Europe.
He is a graduate of Oxford University, where he was President of the Oxford Union. He is an Honorary Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School to which he was awarded a Henry Fellowship.
He is a member of the Harvard University Board of Overseers, the Board of Dean’s Advisors at Harvard Business School, and a director of the Harvard Management Company. He is a Vice-Chairman of Ben Gurion University and a member of the University of Oxford Investment Committee. He is a former Trustee of the British Museum (2005-2012) and a former trustee of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (2005-2011).
In 2007, Sir Ronald published: “The Second Bounce of the Ball – Turning Risk into Opportunity”.
Elizabeth L. Littlefield was appointed by President Obama as the President and CEO of OPIC, the US Government’s Development Finance Institution. Operating in 105 countries, OPIC manages a $16 bn portfolio of financing and insurance to support private investment in sustainable economic development, especially in the world’s poorest countries. Under Littlefield’s leadership, OPIC’s annual commitments to renewable resources projects grew ten-fold in three years to $1.5 bn, while generating increasing income for the federal budget. She has also instituted major reforms of the agency’s policies, systems and processes and introduced new financial innovations to augment the agency’s development impact.
From 2000 until 2010 Ms. Littlefield was Chief Executive Officer of CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor), a policy and research center dedicated to advancing poor people’s access to financial services. Housed at the World Bank, CGAP develops innovative solutions, promotes industry standards, provides market intelligence and data, and advises governments, financial institutions and investors. During that time Ms. Littlefield also served as a Director for the World Bank’s Financial & Private Sector division.
Prior to joining CGAP in 1999, Ms. Littlefield was JP Morgan’s Managing Director in charge of capital markets and financing in emerging Europe, Middle East and Africa. Her responsibilities encompassed public and private financings for governments, corporations and banks, and related advisory work. In that role, she led the inaugural bond issues for the majority of the countries that tapped the markets for the first time in the 1990s. Prior to that she set up JP Morgan’s emerging markets debt trading department in London and was JPM’s Head Debt Trader for Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia. She also served as a Director in JP Morgan’s Paris office, among other positions. Ms. Littlefield has served on the Boards and Executive Committees of the MasterCard Foundation, Calvert Foundation and Women’s World Banking, among others. She was a founder of the Emerging Markets Charity in the UK. She currently serves on the President’s Export Cabinet, is the Chairperson of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Social Innovation and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Ms. Littlefield also spent 1989 – 1990 in West and Central Africa providing banking consultancy to several start-up microfinance institutions.
Ms. Littlefield taught Financial Sector Development as an Adjunct Professor in the Masters Program at the School of Advanced International Studies (S.A.I.S.). She is a graduate of Brown University and also attended Ecole Nationale de Sciences Politiques in Paris.
Claude Barras is the founding partner of Obviam, which manages SIFEM, the Swiss DFI. He has over 20 years of experience in development, investment and economic cooperation in developing and transition economies.
Claude began his career as an advisor to the Swiss Government in bilateral economic relations with Asian countries. Subsequently, he served as advisor to the Swiss Executive Director at the World Bank Group in Washington DC. From 1999 until the founding of SIFEM, Claude was in charge of managing SECO’s investment portfolio in SME-specializing private equity funds and direct SME investments.
Claude holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.
Patricia M. Dinneen has focused on Emerging Markets for most of her 36-year career. She is currently a Managing Director at Siguler Guff & Company, a global multi-strategy private equity investment firm with over USD 10.0 billion in assets under management. Dr. Dinneen joined the firm in 2004 to build the BRIC private equity investment business, focusing on Brazil, Russia, India, China and select Frontier Markets. She has primary responsibility for overseeing the due diligence, selection and monitoring of funds and co-investments for the firm’s USD 2 billion BRIC strategy. Prior to joining Siguler Guff in 2004, Dr. Dinneen was at Cambridge Associates where she led research, client advisory work and due diligence in Emerging Markets private equity, including performance benchmarking. Prior to Cambridge, she spent ten years at British Telecommunications (BT), where she was involved in establishing over ten joint ventures in the Emerging Markets of Asia and Europe. Before BT, Dr. Dinneen worked at Hughes Communications, leading business projects to extend digital data and TV satellite communications in developed and Emerging Markets. She has also held positions at The RAND Corporation and the White House. Dr. Dinneen holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and a PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Jed Emerson works with a limited group of three families, each of whom is pursuing Total Portfolio Management approaches to impact investing wherein market-rate, near market and philanthropic capital is all managed on a sustainable/responsible and impact basis. He is Senior Strategist with Impact Assets, a nonprofit financial services firm offering an impact donor advised fund and educational resources to wealth advisors and their clients. Jed chairs the "IA-50" an annual landscape overview of impact funds offering an orientation to those new to impact investing regarding the themes and strategies of impact investment funds. He has written extensively on impact investing (co-authoring the first book on the topic), is the originator of the concept of Blended Value and has presented at the World Economic Forum, the Clinton Global Initiative and countless other events around the world.
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Karen has extensive expertise and experience in fund structuring, investment processes and fundraising. Prior to YSB, she was the Chief Financial Officer at Affectis AG and an advisor to B-to-V (Business Angel Network) in Switzerland. Before that, Karen was an Investment Manager at Apax Partners and a consultant at McKinsey & Co. She holds an MBA from INSEAD, Fontainebleau, and a M.Sc. in Biology from the University of Constance.
Luther M. Ragin, Jr. is the Chief Executive Officer of the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing the scale and effectiveness of impact investing. The GIIN builds critical infrastructure and supports activities, education, and research that help accelerate the development of more robust impact investing industry.
Prior to joining the GIIN, Luther served as Vice President for Investments at New York-based F.B. Heron Foundation from 1999 to 2011. Mr. Ragin oversaw the F.B. Heron Foundation's endowment, building a portfolio of more than $260 million, steadily increasing the impact investing allocation to more than 40 percent while maintaining competitive, risk-adjusted financial returns. Prior to joining the Foundation in 1999, Luther was the Chief Financial Officer of the National Community Capital Association, a trade association of community development financial institutions that provide access to capital in low-income communities. Other significant experience includes eight years as Chief Financial Officer of Earl G. Graves, Ltd., and seven years with Chase Manhattan Bank, including three years as Vice President of Syndications/ Assets Sales for the North American Corporate Finance Sector. He holds a BA and Master of Public Policy from Harvard, and is a graduate of Columbia University's Executive Program in Business Administration. He is a member of the board of directors of Social Finance U.S., the GIIN, and the Threshold Group. He is an adjunct lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and a senior research fellow at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations.
Filipe Santos is Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at INSEAD. He is the director of the Rudolf and Valeria Maag INSEAD Centre for Entrepreneurship and the academic director of the INSEAD Social Entrepreneurship Initiative. Filipe teaches entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship courses in the MBA and EMBA programs and directs the INSEAD Social Entrepreneurship Programme - ISEP. He won the GEMBA 2008 award for the Outstanding Teacher in non-core courses and was a finalist for this same award for the GEMBA 2009, 2010 and 2011 Classes. Filipe’s research lies at the intersection of strategy, organization theory, and entrepreneurship. He is particularly interested in understanding the processes through which entrepreneurs construct new firms and markets. He is also interested in the growth and scaling up processes of new ventures in order to maximize economic and social impact. A related focus of research is on business model innovation and on social entrepreneurship. His research has been published in the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Technology Policy and Management, as well as several book chapters and case studies. A native of Portugal and a former entrepreneur, Filipe holds a PhD in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University, with a focus on entrepreneurship. Filipe speaks regularly on topics of entrepreneurship and innovation from both a commercial and a social perspective. He also mentors entrepreneurs and advises venture investors.
Hans Schulz is Acting Vice President for the Private Sector and Non-Sovereign Guaranteed Operations of the Inter-American Development Bank. As Acting Vice President, Mr. Schulz is responsible for coordinating the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC), Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), Structured and Corporate Finance Department (SCF) and Opportunities for the Majority Sector (OMJ).
As General Manager of the Structured and Corporate Finance Department, Mr. Schulz oversees the Bank’s private sector operations in infrastructure, financial markets, industries and services, and health and education. SCF invests in large companies, financial institutions and mixed-capital entities on a project and corporate finance basis.Under Mr. Schulz’ leadership, SCF has doubled its assets, renewed its focus on climate change investments, addressed SMEs’ financing needs and promoted other socially inclusive finance. Mr. Schulz advocates for enhancing the competitiveness of companies while mainstreaming social and environmental sustainability into private sector operations.
Previously, he managed the IDB’s financial markets group, leading the creation of the Trade Finance Facilitation Program, and served as the Senior Advisor to the IDB’s Executive Vice President. Prior to joining the IDB, Mr. Schulz served at the Andean Development Corporation (CAF) in Venezuela, the UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Chile, and West LB in Germany. A German citizen, Mr. Schulz holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from Southern Illinois University and undergraduate degrees in economics and business from Marburg University in Germany.
Peter Tropper is Chief Investment Officer in IFC's Private Equity Group. IFC has commitments of more than $3.0 billion in over 180 private equity funds plus investments in two dozen fund managers, all dedicated exclusively to emerging markets. Mr. Tropper joined the PE group in 2001, when it was formed originally as a portfolio workout unit for older funds. He has worked on more than 200 funds, sits on several advisory committees, and often speaks at industry conferences. Mr. Tropper currently leads IFC’s program for funds that invest in small and medium enterprises.
Prior to 2001, he was the HQ "anchor" for the supervision work of IFC’s South Asia Department, with a portfolio of 100 companies in the financial sector. Until September 1999, Mr. Tropper served in IFC’s Latin America and Caribbean Department, where he was responsible for identifying and structuring IFC’s investments in the financial sector in the Caribbean and Chile, and for recommending investment strategies that contribute to the development of the region’s capital markets.
Mr. Tropper also served as the first head of IFC’s Emerging Markets Data Base unit, which has since been sold to Standard & Poor’s. The EMDB is a comprehensive data base that provides detailed statistics on stock markets in developing countries. A commercial service, it includes information on more than 2,000 stocks in 45 developing countries.
Mr. Tropper joined IFC after several years as Deputy Director of the Northeast-Midwest Institute in Washington, D.C. The Institute was created to promote the economic development of the states in the northeastern and midwestern regions of the United States.
Mr. Tropper has a B.A. from Yale University, an MBA from the University of Maryland, and a Master’s in International Affairs from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
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Belinda Fleischmann is the founder of ZYNYA Consulting, a venture focused on connecting people in philanthropy and impact investing, particularly in the sectors of water, health and education. Belinda's lateral thinking and energy allows her to facilitate fruitful meetings and the development of win-win relationships. Belinda has worked or volunteered on development projects on four continents and been involved in business and philanthropic endeavors since 2000. She holds a BA in Government from Smith College and an MSc in Urbanization & Development from the London School of Economics, and is a designated board member of the Dr. Carlo Fleischmann Stiftung.
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Sylvie Lemmet began her career in the private sector before joining Médecins Sans Frontières as a Director, and then a board member for six years.
She has spent the past 15 years working for the environment, first at The World Bank, implementing sustainable development projects, and then for the French Government, where she evaluated environmental policies as a Senior Auditor at the Cour des Comptes.
In 2007, she was appointed Director of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Paris-based Division of Technology, Industry and Economics. The Division heads UNEP’s work on climate change, resource efficiency, and harmful substances and hazardous wastes. It is also hosts a number of other initiatives, including the Green Economy Initiative, which Ms Lemmet leads, and the International Resource Panel, a body of eminent scientists and experts where Ms Lemmet is the UNEP representative.
Ms Lemmet, a French national, is a graduate of the French Ecole Nationale d’Administration and holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Harvard University as well as a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales.
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Rajesh “Raj” Panjabi is a Physician and Liberian refugee revolutionizing access to health care in rural Liberia. At age 9, Raj narrowly escaped a bloody civil war in his home country of Liberia and with his family sought refuge in North Carolina. Raj eventually trained in medicine and public health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Johns Hopkins, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where he is now an Instructor in Medicine and Associate Physician in the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women's Hospital. While still a medical student, Raj returned to Liberia to serve the people he had left behind. With other survivors of Liberia’s civil war and American colleagues, he co-founded Tiyatien Health, which employs people from Liberian villages as well-trained health workers to provide care in remote communities lacking doctors. He started Tiyatien Health to bring high-quality health care to the villages and to do it in a way that could scale up to cover the whole country. Dr. Panjabi has presented at Clinton Global Initiative and was named a “hero of global health” by Scientific American Lives, received the Outstanding Recent Graduate Award from Johns Hopkins University, and is an Echoing Green, Draper Richards Kaplan, Mulago Foundation (Rainer Arnhold) Fellow.
Cornelius has played leading roles for 25 years in social impact enterprises, financial management, philanthropy and investments. On the Executive Board (CFO) of Goetheanum, General Anthroposophical Society, Switzerland (2002-2011) he is responsible for all aspects of finances, with affiliates in 90 countries and approx 8,000 related institutions in education, bio-dynamic agriculture, medicine, socially responsible business and banking. He also acts as a Trustee/Advisory Board member of various foundations and is Founder of Camphill (life – sharing) Communities/North America, Williams College, MA. He is the the recipient of a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship.
Percy Barnevik has more than forty years’ experience working for some of the world’s largest national and multinational companies. In 2000, he decided to focus his philanthropic work on poverty alleviation in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu through job creation for adults. In 2006, he founded Hand in Hand International, an organization that has already created over 1.5 million jobs in India and which aims to create 10 million jobs worldwide. He has been CEO/Chairman of Skanska, ABB, Investor, AstraZeneca and Sandvik and is a former board member of American Du Pont and General Motors. Percy Barnevik has received numerous international management awards including:
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