December 11th, 2009

Matt Berg is a technology practitioner with over 10 years experience living and working in Africa. Matt currently serves as the ICT Coordinator for the Millennium Villages Project based out of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He is responsible for overseeing the design and implementation of ICT activities across the fourteen Millennium Villages sites in Africa.

Prior to joining MVP, Matthew was the Director of the Geekcorps’ Mali Program, a USAID funded project aimed at improving access to information to rural areas of Mali. With his local Malian staff and international volunteers, Matt oversaw programs that involved bringing innovative ICT services to rural villages, via the Last Mile Initiative, supporting community radio stations and developing innovative appropriate technologies ranging from low cost wifi networking systems to an offline version of Wikipedia. Matt also served as a Geekcorps’ Volunteer in Senegal after getting his MBA from Thunderbird.

December 4th, 2009

Sonila is a Partner in Dalberg's New York office and leads Dalberg's Energy and Environment practice. She advises leading multilateral organizations, government agencies, companies and NGOs in the areas of strategy, organizational effectiveness, and public-private partnerships. Her experience spans a broad range of development topics including energy and environment, humanitarian assistance, governance, and economic development. Prior to joining Dalberg, Sonila worked for McKinsey & Company, where she served organizations in the financial, non-profit and media sectors. She holds an MBA from Columbia University and an undergraduate degree in Economics from Harvard University.

November 20th, 2009

Antony Bugg-Levine joined the Rockefeller Foundation in New York in January 2007. Among other responsibilities, he leads the Foundations Initiative on Harnessing the Power of Impact Investing that seeks to help catalyze an efficient industry that can deploy investment capital to complement philanthropy in solving social challenges at scale. Prior to joining Rockefeller, he served as the Country Director of the international NGO TechnoServe in Nairobi, Kenya where he helped to design and implement business solutions to rural poverty focused on smallholder farmer economic integration and consulting to medium-scale enterprises.  Earlier in his career, as a consultant with McKinsey, he focused in financial services and healthcare.  A native of South Africa, he served in the late 1990s as the communications director at the South African Human Rights Commission and as a speechwriter and media strategist for the African National Congress's 1999 election campaign.  He is an associate adjunct professor at the Columbia Business School where he teaches Business Innovations in International Development.

November 13th, 2009

Mr. Landau is a global entrepreneur who has built a portfolio of successful ventures in real estate, mortgage banking, information and communication technologies, and advanced banking solutions. He also serves as Chairman of MAP Internationals sister company, MAPcash, a new-model debit card issuer for consumers in emerging markets.  Mr. Landau is a former board member of Regalian PLC, and has a longstanding strategic alliance with Inter-Governmental Philatelic Corporation (IGPC), the world's largest philatelic agency.  He received his bachelor's degree from the London School of Economics and a master's degree in real estate developmentand finance from New York University. He received his law degree from Yeshiva University's Cardoza School of Law and is admitted to practice law in New York, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia.

October 30th, 2009

Dr. Lan Xue is a professor and Dean of the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University. His teaching and research interests include Science & Technology, innovation policy, and crisis management. Dr. Xue has a Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University and taught at the George Washington University before returning back to China in 1996. He has served as a consultant for the World Bank, APEC and other international organizations, and acted as a policy adviser for many Chinese government agencies. He currently serves as a Vice President of the China Association of Public Administration, Vice President of the Chinese Association of Science and Technology Policy, and Vice Chairman of the National Steering Committee for MPA Education. He is also a member of the Visiting Committee for Harvard Kennedy School, a member of the international advisory board for UNU-MERIT, Vice Chair of the Global Agenda Council on Catastrophic Risks of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and a member of the Board of Governors.

October 16th, 2009

Steven Wisman is the Director of Operations for the Millennium Villages Project. Working in collaboration with Millennium Promise's key partners for this sustainable development initiative - Columbia University's Earth Institute (EI) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) - his responsibilities include management oversight, operational support, and partnership development services for the project's local management teams. Previously, Mr. Wisman worked for two international nongovernmental organizations, OICI and IFESH, over a 22-year period in a variety of positions. During this time, 11 years were spent based in South Africa (2001-2002), Liberia (1998-2000), and Sierra Leone (1989-1995). Mr. Wisman has a Master’s of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University with a concentration in International Economics and Development, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Claremont McKenna College. He was a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Agadez, Niger.

October 2nd, 2009

Dr. CJ Jones is Country Manager for GAIN (Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition).

She has lived and worked in east and southern Africa since 1989. During this time, CJ has held a variety of high-level private sector positions including technical consultant to privatization in Zambia, lead local consultant for the privatization of

Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines, founder director of the Lusaka Stock Exchange, founder director of African Plantations Corporation, and director of several Zambian commercial banks.  CJ also established her own investment company and developed a reputation for management of businesses and business opportunities at the cutting edge of African industry, raising considerable amounts of new foreign investment capital in the process.  An Australian citizen, CJ received her professional qualifications at both Sydney University and Wollongong University. CJ is also a qualified educator with postgraduate qualifications in Education as well as Administration and Finance

October 9th, 2009

Leigh Winowiecki is a postdoctoral fellow with the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Her research focuses on the link between soil formation and biogeochemical cycling of plant nutrients in agricultural landscapes. She received her Ph.D. in soil science jointly from the University of Idaho and CATIE (Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza) in Turrialba, Costa Rica. At the Tropical Agriculture and Rural Environment Program, where she is working with Drs. Pedro Sanchez and Cheryl Palm, Dr. Winowiecki will contribute to the African Soil Information Service (AfSIS) project, which will digitally map and predict imperative soil properties of 18.1 million square kilometers of sub-Saharan Africa.

September 25th, 2009

Masa Kogure is the founder and President of TABLE FOR TWO International, a Japanese organization that promotes public health on a global scale by simultaneously addressing hunger in the developing world, and obesity and other lifestyle-related health issues in the developed world. Kogure is the author of "Connecting the World With Twenty Yen," a hands-on guide to social entrepreneurship in Japan and globally. He received a Bachelor’s in Engineering from Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan and a Masters of Engineering from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia. As an engineer, Kogure conducted research within the medical field, including the investigation of a new type of artificial heart valve.