Presenter: Jessica Jackley, Co-Founder of Kiva, the Revolutionary Micro-Lending website
Jessica Jackley is the co-founder of Kiva, the peer-to-peer micro loan website winning raves from Oprah Winfrey, Bill Clinton and countless world leaders. At Kiva.org, users can make loans directly to specific entrepreneurs in the developing world, who then use this money to grow a small business and lift themselves out of poverty. Loans start at just $25. To date, 300,000 users have loaned a staggering $67 million to over 40,000 people in the Third World. Jackley is the Lead Evangelist and spirit behind Kiva. She has worked in rural Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, amazon.com, World Vision and at the Stanford Center for Social Innovation, where she helped launch the inaugural Global Philanthropy Forum. She demonstrates how the Internet can facilitate meaningful, positive connections between lenders and entrepreneurs in the developing world and even help us all become microfinanciers. Jackley holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, has seen microfinance at work in more than 30 countries, and is considered one of the most articulate and forceful speakers on microfinance and social entrepreneurship in the world today.
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