The Official Site for the Book: In the River They Swim

President Paul Kagame

His Excellency Paul Kagame was sworn in as President of the Republic of Rwanda for a seven-term mandate on 12 September 2003 after being elected in the first ever democratically contested multiparty elections held in August 2003.

Paul Kagame was born in October 1957 in Ruhango, Southern Province, to Deogratius and Asteria Rutagambwa.

In 1960, he fled persecution and ethnic pogroms that were to characterize Rwanda in subsequent decades, and became a refugee in Uganda.

Paul Kagame was among the first 27 men who, together with Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, launched a five-year liberation war in Uganda in 1980.

He served as a senior officer in the Ugandan army between 1986 and 1990 during which time he attended a staff and command course at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, USA.

In October 1990, Paul Kagame returned to Rwanda after thirty years in exile to lead the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) in the struggle for the liberation of Rwanda.

On 19 July 1994, he was appointed Vice-President and Minister for Defense in the Government of National Unity.

In 1998, he was elected Chairman of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a partner in the Government of National Unity.

On 17 April 2000, Paul Kagame was unanimously elected President of the Republic of Rwanda by the Transitional National Assembly. He took the Oath of Office on 22 April 2000.

President Kagame was awarded the 2003 Global Leadership Award by the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), in recognition of his role in uniting and reconciling Rwandans and in promoting peaceful solutions to the conflicts in the region.

In July 2003, President Kagame was elected 1st Vice President of the African Union during the African Union Heads of State and Government Summit held in Maputo, Mozambique.

In April 2005, President Kagame was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor Laws by the University of the Pacific in the USA.

In September 2005, President Kagame was awarded the Andrew Young Medal for Capitalism and Social Progress by Georgia State University in the USA; and in the same month received the African National Achievement Award by the Africa America Institute in the USA.

In April 2006, President Kagame was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Oklahoma Christian University in the USA.

President Kagame was presented the ICT Africa Award in 2006 and in 2007 - an award which recognizes organizations and individuals that have demonstrated excellence in promoting the use of ICTs for the overall development of the African continent.

President Kagame was the recipient of the 2007 African Gender Award presented by Femmes Africa Solidarité in recognition of outstanding achievement in furthering gender mainstreaming in the economic and political spheres, as well as addressing social and cultural barriers that impede the involvement and advancement of women in national affairs.

In August 2007, President Kagame received “The Abolitionist of the Year 2007” Award after Rwanda abolished the death penalty. The award was presented by Hands Off Cain to recognize the person, who, above all others, has demonstrated an extraordinary commitment in the struggle for a moratorium on executions and the abolition of the death penalty.

President Kagame has been married to Jeannette Nyiramongi since 1989. They have four children.

President Kagame is a keen tennis player and football fan.

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Dr. Rick Warren

Dr. Rick Warren is passionate about attacking what he calls the five “Global Goliaths” – spiritual emptiness, egocentric leadership, extreme poverty, pandemic disease, and illiteracy/poor education. His goal is a second Reformation by restoring responsibility in people, credibility in churches, and civility in culture. He is a pastor, global strategist, theologian, and philanthropist. He's been often named “America's most influential spiritual leader” and ”America's Pastor”.

As a pastor, he founded Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., in 1980 with one family. Today, it is an evangelical congregation averaging 22,000 weekly attendees, a 120-acre campus, and has more than 300 community ministries to groups such as prisoners, CEOs, addicts, single parents, and those with HIV/AIDS. Recently, the church fed 42,000 homeless people – three meals a day – for 40 days.

He also leads the Purpose Driven Network of churches, a global coalition of congregations in 162 countries. More than 400,000 ministers and priests have been trained worldwide, and almost 157,000 church leaders subscribe to the Ministry ToolBox, his weekly newsletter. His previous book, The Purpose Driven Church is listed in “100 Christian Books That Changed the 20th Century”. Forbes magazine called it “the best book on entrepreneurship, management, and leadership in print.”

As a global strategist, Dr. Warren advises leaders in the public, private, and faith sectors on leadership development, poverty, health, education, and faith in culture. He has been invited to speak at the United Nations, the World Economic Forum in Davos, the African Union, the Council on Foreign Relations, Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, TIME's Global Health Summit, and numerous congresses around the world. TIME magazine named him one of “15 World Leaders Who Mattered Most in 2004” and in 2005 one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World”. Also, in 2005 U.S. News & World Report named him one of “America's 25 Best Leaders”.

As a theologian, Dr. Warren has lectured at Oxford, Cambridge, the University of Judaism, the Evangelical Theological Society, and numerous seminaries and universities. His six books are known for explaining theology in understandable ways and have been translated into more than 50 languages. Dr. Warren says he teaches theology without using theological terms and telling people it is theology. His latest book, The Purpose Driven Life, has sold 25 million copies and is the best-selling hardback book in American history, according to Publisher's Weekly.

As philanthropists, Rick and Kay Warren give away 90 percent of their income through three foundations: Acts of Mercy, which serves those infected and affected by AIDS; Equipping the Church, which trains church leaders in developing countries; and The Global PEACE Fund, which fights poverty, disease, and illiteracy.

• Media Quotes:
• The Weekly Standard - “...clearly among the two or three most influential Americans working from the west coast.”
• The Economist - “Rick Warren is arguably the most influential pastor in America.”
• The Times (London) - “Business and political leaders across America are turning to Rick Warren for guidance.”
• Forbes - “Were it a business, Saddleback Church would be compared with Dell, Google or Starbucks.”
• ABC News - “The Purpose Driven Life is the epicenter of a spiritual shock wave taking root across America in unlikely places like offices and university campuses. It has become a movement.”
• TIME - “Movie stars and political leaders aren't the only ones turning to Rick Warren for spiritual guidance. Millions of people – from NFL and LPGA players to corporate executives to high school students to prison inmates – meet regularly to discuss The Purpose Driven Life.”
• USA Today, Wall Street Journal, New Yorker, Boston Globe, TIME, Washington Post, New York Times

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Dr. Donald Kaberuka

Mr. Donald Kaberuka is the seventh elected African Development Bank Group (AfDB) President.

He took the oath of office on September 1, 2005, in a ceremony at the institution's Temporary Relocation Agency in Tunis. The occasion was witnessed by the Chair and members of the Bank's board of governors, the board of directors, members of the diplomatic corps in Tunis and staff of the institution.

“I solemnly declare and undertake that I will abide by the provisions of the Agreement establishing the African Development Bank… and that I will discharge my duties and functions with loyalty, discretion and conscience.”

With those words, Mr. Kaberuka became the seventh elected President of the Bank in 2005 for the next five years.

As Bank Group President, Mr. Kaberuka chairs the institution's boards - African Development Bank and the African Development Fund, the Group's soft loan arm.

Mr. Kaberuka was educated in Tanzania and the United Kingdom where he obtained his M Phil (Econ) and a PhD in Economics from Glasgow University in Scotland.

He speaks English, French and Swahili fluently.

Prior to joining the Bank, Mr. Kaberuka served as Rwanda's finance and economic planning minister from 1997 to 2005, and has been widely acknowledged as the country's principal architect of its successful post-war reconstruction and economic reform programme. He initiated and implemented major economic and governance reforms in the fiscal, monetary, budgetary and structural domains, including the independence of the country's central banks. These reforms resulted in the widely acclaimed recovery of the Rwanda's economy and sustained economic growth which enabled the country benefit from debt cancellations under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative in April 2005.

Mr. Kaberuka had over 12 years experience in the Banking industry, trade, finance, international commodity business and development issues, before joining the government.

As the country's finance and economic planning minister, the AfDB President served as Rwanda's governor at the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the African Development Bank.

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Luis-Alberto Moreno

Luis Alberto Moreno was appointed to be Colombia's Ambassador to the United States in September 1998 by President Andrés Pastrana and ratified by President Alvaro Uribe upon his election in May 2002. Ambassador Moreno has overseen a dramatic improvement in Colombian-U.S. relations during his tenure in Washington. His most notable achievement has been the successful effort to build strong bipartisan support in the United States Congress for passage of more than US$4.0 billion in U.S. assistance programs for Colombia. These resources have contributed to a material positive transformation of the security and economic situation in Colombia. Ambassador Moreno was also instrumental in the renewal and extension of the Andean Trade Preferences Act (ATPA), and has been one of the leading promoters of negotiations towards a Colombia-U.S. Free Trade Agreement.

Prior to his post as Ambassador, Moreno served a distinguished career in both the public and private sectors in Colombia. Immediately prior to his appointment in Washington, he served as representative for the Andean Region of WestSphere Capital, a private equity firm focusing on investment opportunities in Latin America, from August 1997 to July 1998. Previously, he served as senior advisor to the Luis Carlos Sarmiento Organization, the leading banking & financial group in Colombia with over US$10 billion in assets, from November 1994 to August 1997.

From 1991 to 1994, during the administration of President César Gaviria, Moreno worked in the Colombian Government in a variety of leadership positions. From December 1991 to July 1992, Moreno was the President of the Instituto de Fomento Industrial (IFI), the Colombian government's industrial finance corporation, and a holding company for many of the largest state enterprises in the country. As head of IFI, Moreno led a successful privatization program and developed new financing instruments for private industry to take advantage of the Gaviria administration's economic liberalization policy.

In July 1992, he was named Minister of Economic Development. During his tenure, he modernized the Ministry and its subordinated agencies, and led the design and implementation of Colombia's industrial policy and competitiveness strategy. He was also in charge of part of the Government's social investment portfolio, notably its low-income housing strategy. As Minister, he was responsible for the regulation and oversight of all private corporations and the formulation and enforcement of industrial and intellectual property norms. In these areas he cooperated with neighboring governments in the context of what is now the Andean Community of Nations. Upon leaving the Ministry in January 1994, he was tapped to chair Andrés Pastrana's Presidential Campaign.

Previously, Moreno was Executive Producer of “TV Hoy”, an award-winning news program, from January 1982 to September 1990. During his tenure, “TV Hoy” received the “King of Spain Prize” for journalistic excellence, the Spanish language equivalent of a Pulitzer. Prior to that, from June 1977 to January 1982, he was Divisional Manager at Praco, a major importer and manufacturer of agricultural and industrial machinery.

Throughout his career, Moreno has received some of the highest decorations and distinctions awarded by the Colombian state and the country's private sector. These have included: the “Orden al Mérito Civil Ciudad de Bogotá, en el Grado de Gran Cruz”, awarded by the Mayor of Bogotá on May 16, 1990; the “Orden al Mérito Industrial – José Gutiérrez Gómez”, awarded by the Colombian National Business Association (ANDI) on July 24, 2002; and the “Orden de Boyacá en el Grado de Gran Cruz” – the highest distinction given by the Colombian state, awarded by the President of Colombia on August 2, 2002.

Moreno been invited on numerous occasions to write op-eds and articles on Colombian and international politics and economics for some of the most prestigious publications in Colombia and the United States. His writings have appeared in such newspapers as The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Miami Herald and El Tiempo, and in such magazines as Foreign Affairs en Español and Semana. He has also been a guest speaker in a wide variety of academic, political and economic forums in the United States and Latin America.

Moreno obtained Bachelors degrees in Business Administration and Economics from Florida Atlantic University in 1975, and an MBA from the American Graduate School of International Management at Thunderbird University in 1977. For his distinguished work in the field of journalism, he was awarded a Neiman Fellowship by Harvard University to undertake studies at that institution from September 1990 to June 1991.

Luis Alberto Moreno was born on May 3, 1953. He is married to Gabriela Febres-Cordero, and has two children, Nicolás and Natalia.

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Dr. Ashraf Ghani

Dr. Ashraf Ghani is Chairman of the State Effectiveness Institute, which exists to rethink the role of the state in the globalized world from the citizen perspective. Dr Ghani is also currently involved in a number of activities supporting the reform of global institutions, including work as a Commissioner on the UN High-Level Panel on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, as a Governor of IDEA and the World Justice Project of the American Bar Association. Recently, the Government of Afghanistan nominated him for the position of United Nations Secretary General. He is currently on leave from his position as Chancellor of Kabul University.

As Adviser to the UN during the formulation, negotiation and implementation of the Bonn Agreement for Afghanistan, Chief Adviser to President Karzai during the Interim Administration and Afghanistan's Finance Minister for the duration of the Transitional Administration, he is widely credited with the design and implementation of some of Afghanistan's significant reforms during this period. Previously, he was Lead Anthropologist at the World Bank, spending nearly a decade reviewing country strategies, conditionalities, and designing reform programs, including in Russia, India, China and Vietnam.

Born in Afghanistan in 1949, he studied political science at the American University of Beirut, earning degrees there in 1973 and 1977. He continued his academic career in the United States, where he studied international affairs and anthropology at Columbia University where he earned his PhD. He later attended the Harvard-INSEAD and Stanford business schools leadership training program for the World Bank. He served on the faculty of Kabul University (1973-77), Aarhus University in Denmark (1977), University of California, Berkeley (1983), and Johns Hopkins University (1983-1991). He is married with two children and lives in Washington DC and Kabul.

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Michael Fairbanks

Michael Fairbanks is a Co-Founder of SEVEN, a philanthropic foundation run by entrepreneurs, whose strategy is to produce films, books and original research to markedly increase the rate of diffusion of enterprise solutions to global poverty.

He is the founder and Chairman Emeritus of the OTF Group, a strategy-consulting firm based in Boston, and the first venture-backed U.S. firm to focus on developing nations. He was a U.S. Peace Corps teacher in Kenya, and a Wall Street banker. A long-time angel investor, he is a founding shareholder in Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, which has drugs currently undergoing FDA trials to fight cancer and autoimmune diseases.

His most recent projects include advising the President of the Inter-American Development Bank on its Opportunities for the Majority Initiative; working for the President of Rwanda to improve the competitiveness of that nation’s tourism, coffee and agro-industry sectors; and advising the Minister of Finance of Afghanistan on private-sector reforms. He conceived and oversees the Global Pioneers of Prosperity Program, in cooperation with OTF, Legatum, the Multilateral Investment Fund, and the Templeton Foundation, which finds and recognizes role model businesses in the world’s poorest nations.

He co–authored Harvard Business School’s landmark book on business strategy in emerging markets, "Plowing the Sea, Nurturing the Hidden Sources of Advantage in Developing Nations," with a foreword by Michael Porter. Business Week Magazine said, "Plowing the Sea points the way toward creating prosperity in developing nations; " the Boston Globe named it one of the ten best books of the year in Politics and Economics; and Exame magazine, Brazil’s leading business weekly, called it one of the ten best books of the decade.

He co-conceived and contributed to the global best selling book "Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress," edited by Sam Huntington and Larry Harrison at Harvard. His most recent book, edited with Malik Fal, Marcela Escobari-Rose, and Elizabeth Hooper contains essays by OTF colleagues and clients from around the world. It is entitled "In the River They Swim: Essays from Around the World on Enterprise Solutions to Poverty," and was released in May 2009.

His work has been translated into a dozen languages, including Korean, Mongolian and Serbian. He was a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, a lecturer at Harvard, and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts. He studied philosophy and biochemistry at the University of Scranton, a Jesuit university in Pennsylvania where he was a trustee for six years, and African politics at Columbia University in New York City.

He was appointed to the Commission on Globalization with, among others, Mikhail Gorbachev, Jane Goodall and Joe Stiglitz. In 2007, he was appointed to the President’s Advisory Council in Rwanda with Pastor Rick Warren, President Donald Kaberuka of the African Development Bank, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. In 2006, his alma mater gave him its highest award, a doctorate in humane letters for his "accomplishments and devotion to social justice." He is a citizen of the US, Ireland, and Rwanda.

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Malik Fal

Malik Fal is Managing Director of Endeavor South Africa.

Previous, Malik was Microsoft's Business Marketing & Operations (BMO) Group lead for West-East-Central Africa, based in Johannesburg to cover 49 African countries. The BMO function at Microsoft is often described as a COO position, combining business planning, strategy, and marketing. At Microsoft Malik is responsible for the formulation and execution of Microsoft's strategy in Africa's vast geography. This role covers a vast array of core business and special project activities including Microsoft's Corporate Citizenship investments in Africa (with programs like “Partners in Learning”, “Microsoft IT Academies”, and the “Student-to-Business” youth empowerment program), all partner and customer Marketing activities, and all internal research, business planning, and strategy processes.

Before Microsoft Malik was with the OTF Group consultancy as Vice President, Africa region. OTF group was previously part of the Monitor Group, functioning as Monitor's Country Competitiveness (MCC) practice.

After completing five years of business studies, Malik worked for six years for Pepsi-Cola International, across eastern and southern Africa. He then attended Harvard's Kennedy School of Government where he received a Master's degree in Public Administration (MPA-2).

While at PepsiCo, Malik first worked in Operations as a District Manager in the Boston metro area, and later as a Franchise Bottler Manager covering several countries in Southern Africa and Indian Ocean islands. Being an African who was educated and professionally trained in Africa, Europe, and the US, Malik developed a passion for understanding the “essence of development” through exposure to a number of different models. He is particularly experienced in business strategy for firms in developing countries, and the practical roles government, private sector institutions, and individuals must play to find focused and sustainable solutions in the development process.

These interests brought him to the Monitor Company in the summer of 1998. It was there, in the MCC practice that for the first time Malik got a chance to see some of today's most innovative ideas about development. While at MCC, he worked on Competitiveness programs for countries in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. He has also led consulting engagements with the World Bank, one of MCC's, and now OTF's, long term clients.

Through his work at Monitor and the OTF group, Malik has dealt closely with the key strategic issues facing a myriad of industries such as tourism, coffee, ICT, tea, mining, horticulture, and others, working with both public and private sector leaders in those industries. Malik's most recent responsibilities included the management of full-fledged competitiveness engagements for the Office of the President of Rwanda, OTF's various business development initiatives across Africa, teaching engagements with Harvard Business School's pilot executive course entitled “Making Markets Work”, and on-going engagements with OTF's long-term development institutional clients such as the World Bank, DFID, or USAID.

Malik's leisure interests include running, swimming, and travel; he is also a voracious reader on a wide range of topics.

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Marcela Escobari

Marcela Escobari is Executive Director of Harvard’s Center for International Development, which creates, applies and integrates knowledge from across Harvard University to resolve the dilemmas of public policy associated with eradicating global poverty.

She has over a decade of experience in economic development, including work with industrial strategy, technology policy and private sector development. Before joining the CID in November 2007, Marcela led the Americas region and served on the Executive Committee of the OTF Group, a strategy consulting firm that advises private and public sector leaders on how to improve export competitiveness. Her work has included advising the president of the Dominican Republic on the country's industrial policy, the government of Colombia on revitalizing its tourism industry, the Jamaican entertainment and tourism industries on increasing their earning potential, and the government of Trinidad & Tobago on diversifying its economy away from oil & gas and into high-tech sectors. She has also led strategy projects for private companies in corporate strategy, product positioning and market entry. Marcela has a particular interest in the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on economic development. She has led studies on the effectiveness of ICT investments in the Caribbean and Africa, and assessed the role business incubation in driving entrepreneurship in 47 developing countries. She has spoken about issues of technology, entrepreneurship and competitiveness in a wide range of policy, industry and academic forums throughout the Americas, and recently gave the keynote address at the "International Conference of Social Women Entrepreneurs" for an audience of over 1000 women entrepreneurs in Mexico City.

Prior to working at OTF, Marcela worked with indigenous communities in Bolivia for the World Bank and was a Mergers & Acquisitions investment banker with JP Morgan in New York. Marcela grew up in Bolivia, holds a B.A. in Economics from Swarthmore College and a Masters in Public Policy (MPP) from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Publications

“In the River they Swim: Essays from around the World on Enterprise Solutions to Poverty”, Ed. Escobari, Fairbanks, Fal & Hooper, Templeton Press, 2009.

“A review of the research on mobile use by micro and small enterprises (MSEs)”. M.Escobari, J. Donner, 2009, Paper accepted by ICTD2009 Conference in Qatar, chaired by Bill Gates.

“Building Competitive Advantage,” From Growth to Prosperity, Policy Perspective for Trinidad and Tobago, IADB Special Publications on Development, M. Escobari, Fairbanks, Rabkin, Rodriguez, 2006, p. 187-258.

Improving Competitiveness and Increasing Economic Diversification in the Caribbean: The Role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), M. Escobari, C. Rodriguez, D. Rabkin, InfoDev, 2005. www.infodev.org

“Un Gigante Dormido: Cinco Opciones para La Competitividad en Mexico,” PODER Magazine, Mexico edition, May 2005.

Assessing Network Applications for Economic Development, co-author; Published at the Kennedy School of Government, Supported by the CID at Harvard and the Media Lab at MIT, received Best PAE Award, 2001.

“Governance for the XXI Century; The transition to E-government” in Semana, Web Edition, 2000.

“NATURA:The Magic Behind Brazil's Most Admired Company,” Case Study, London Business School Press, 1999.

“WEG: Internationalizing a Brazilian Company,” Case Study, London Business School Press, 1999.

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Elizabeth Hooper

Elizabeth Hooper is Executive Director at SEVEN, where she works closely with the Fund's founders on key program and operational initiatives. She is particularly interested in the areas of enterprise solutions to poverty research, and the impact of culture and values on entrepreneurship and innovation. Prior to joining SEVEN, Elizabeth was the Operations Manager at the OTF Group, an international development and business strategy consulting firm. She advised the executive team on issues related to human capital management, marketing, and field operations. She also managed the firm's internal market research practice and actively consulted on key client engagements in Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East.

She holds degrees in Anthropology and Communications from the University of Massachusetts, her Masters in Business Administration from Western Governors University, and is currently completing her ALM in Anthropology at Harvard. She co-edited the book In the River They Swim: Essays From Around the World on Enterprise Solutions to Poverty with Michael Fairbanks, Malik Fal, and Marcela Escobari, due out from Templeton Press in Spring 2009. She was also a co-author of the infoDEV report “Improving Business Competitiveness and Increasing Economic Growth in Uganda: The Role of Information and Communication Technologies.”

She serves on the Board of Directors for local non-profit organizations, and is also a published fiction writer.

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Andreas Widmer

Andreas Widmer is the co-founder of the SEVEN Fund, a non-profit run by entrepreneurs whose goal is to dramatically increase the rate of innovation and diffusion of enterprise-based solutions to poverty.

Widmer is a seasoned business executive with experience in high-tech and, more recently, international business strategy consulting and economic development. He was an executive in residence at Highland Capital Partners, a venture capital firm. Prior to that, he helped lead OTF Group (formerly part of the Monitor Group), Eprise Corporation, Dragon Systems and FTP Software. Widmer has worked extensively in the United States, Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin Americas, and has brought more than 100 leading-edge technology products to market.

During his career, Widmer has participated in the early stage of four startup companies with cumulative exits valued at more than $730 million. His current projects include advising high-technology and medical device startup companies on strategy, venture capital and angel fund-raising efforts.

Widmer is an author who recently contributed two chapters to the book In the River They Swim: Essays from Around the World on Enterprise Solutions to Poverty. He regularly writes on issues of entrepreneurship, economic development and spirituality. He has authored articles and been featured in various business and general interest media including the Financial Times, Bloomberg News, Sky TV, Kigali Times, FastCompany, and Catholic Digest.

Widmer served as a Pontifical Swiss Guard from 1986-1988, protecting Pope John Paul II. He holds two business degrees from Switzerland, and two degrees from the US, a B.S in International Business from Merrimack College and an MA in Ministry from St. John’s Seminary in Boston. He speaks English, German, Italian and French, and serves on a number of international and local charitable boards. In his spare time, Widmer loves to spend time with his family and enjoys fly-fishing, skiing, and reading.

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Michael Brennan

Mike Brennan is a Program Director at SEVEN where he manages the Pioneers of Prosperity program, and other strategic initiatives in the Fund’s program portfolio. He is an author, a film producer and an internationally-respected speaker. Prior to his work with SEVEN, Mike led country level and cluster based projects in Afghanistan, Jamaica, Serbia, Macedonia, Bolivia, Ireland, and Bermuda. He was the primary author of the Council on Competitiveness’ Clusters of Innovation report for Pittsburgh, which examined regional economic growth and was part of a five-city study, led by Professor Michael Porter of Harvard University. He has co-authored "Economic Development in Post Conflict Society", with Michael Fairbanks, published by the University of Minnesota, as part of the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs State and Local Policy Conference; and is a contributing author for the newly released book from the Templeton Press "In The River They Swim: Essays from Around The World On Enterprise Solutions to Poverty."

During his career, Mr. Brennan developed broad business expertise advising senior executives at Fortune 100 companies and leveraged that experience to advising senior government and local business leaders in post conflict societies. He led projects as a VP at The Lab, a New York consulting firm, and advised Fortune 100 companies, such as The Prudential Financial Company, Alliance Capital and JPMorganChase. He ran a business center in Bulgaria in the early 1990s as a member of the U.S. Peace Corps. His work in strategic planning in the marketing group at the New York Regional Bell Operating Company, NYNEX, won the Golden Appy Industry Award. He was also a featured and keynote lecturer at dozens of venues, such as a Rotary Conference for Technology Transfer PhDs at MIT; The Annual Small and Medium Enterprise Conference in Belgrade; and The European Students’ Conference on Industrial Engineering.

He has taught market research at the university level, was a volunteer high school teacher in Kenya, and taught leadership courses to senior government officials and business leaders in Rwanda. He has an M.B.A. from The University of Rochester’s William Simon School. He was a nationally ranked marathoner as a teenager and remains an avid runner.

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Kenneth Hynes

Kenneth Hynes is a Managing Director at the OTF Group, Inc. He has ten years experience advising public and private sector leaders on the role of private enterprise in driving national prosperity.  Currently, Mr. Hynes is developing The Pioneers of Prosperity Awards Program in the Caribbean and Central America.  This multimillion dollar program, part of a global movement, spans fourteen countries across the region and seeks to identify and reward innovative firms that yield profits for the benefit of owners, workers, and the environment.

Previously, Mr. Hynes advised the political and business leadership in Jamaica on the development and implementation of their national export strategy.  He has worked with the leadership of several Caribbean nations focusing on how best to transition out of commodity industries, like sugar and bananas, to more attractive export products. Mr. Hynes has also advised senior management at the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development on their global strategy for private sector development.

Mr. Hynes is frequently asked to speak on issues of global competitiveness. Most recently, he spoke at the Euromoney Latin American Finance Conference and a conference on Caribbean investment opportunities hosted by former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair. Mr. Hynes writes a column for the Jamaica Observer.

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Eric Kacou

Mr. Eric Kacou is a business and competitiveness strategist that has advised leaders in government and business in Africa, North America and Europe. Eric currently serves as one of two Managing Directors of the OTF Group, a strategy and competitiveness firm the only US-based, venture-backed consultancy focused on emerging economies.

Eric leads the Rwanda National Innovation and Competitiveness (RNIC) Program, an initiative by His Excellency President Paul Kagame to upgrade the Competitiveness of Rwanda’s economy. This Program, which began in 2000, and is the first of its kind in Africa, is credited with helping Rwanda revitalize its economy, fostering the renaissance of the country’s private sector, and creating wage increases of up to thirty percent, on an annual growth basis, for workers. Eric Kacou has advised leaders of Uganda, Nigeria, Sudan, Mali, Burundi, Bermuda and the World Bank on competitiveness and private sector development. His work has covered a variety of industries and functions including Tourism, Coffee, Tea, Mining, Horticulture, ICT, development banking, investment promotion, and private sector institutions.

In addition, Eric currently oversees the Pioneers of Prosperity award program. This is an annual, multi-million dollar, global initiative between the OTF Group and the Social Equity Venture Fund (SEVEN); it recognizes dynamic companies in emerging markets that can be an inspiration for future business leaders. The 2007 Pioneers of Prosperity Africa Awards was featured in the documentary “Unlocking Africa”, by Emmy-nominated filmmaker Jeff Zimbalist. The 2008 Pioneers of Prosperity Africa Awards registered the participation of 1,500 businesses from ten African nations.

Prior to joining the OTF Group, Eric worked a strategy consultant with Monitor Company in Toronto and Paris advising senior Fortune 500 executives mostly in pharmaceuticals, telecommunications and manufacturing. Eric advised a global pharma firm on the launch of its launch of a breakthrough painkiller in France, supported a North America chemical manufacturer on the optimization of its supply chain and restructured the joint-venture portfolio of a US healthcare firm.

Eric earned his MBA at the Wharton School, and a B.A. in Finance at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC) in Montreal, Canada.  He is the author of several articles on competitiveness and private sector development. He is a contributor to an original book of essays, called “In the River they swim,” to be published by Templeton Press in April 2009. He is author of a book about Africa’s economic transformation, due out in 2010.Eric is a frequent speaker at development organizations, business conferences and universities.  

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Aref Adamali

Aref Adamali manufactures hand-made furniture in Nairobi, Kenya. Having spent three years with the OTF Group advising governments and businesses in developing economies on competitiveness and innovation, he recently decided to apply some of this same advice to his family's business. He is realizing that it is harder to implement good advice than to give it.

As a manger with OTF, Aref worked with the Rwandan private sector to support its move into the specialized coffee market, supported the government of St. Kitts diversify its economy away from the loss-making sugar industry, and facilitated the reintegration of the Afghan carpet sector into the global economy. As part of these efforts, Aref has also guided the development of key cross-cutting business sectors, from trade facilitation services to finance.

Prior to OTF, Aref worked at the World Bank's Global ICT Department, where he spearheaded the Bank's engagement in the development of national e-strategies. Before joining the Bank, Aref spent three years as a management consultant in BearingPoint's non-profit practice in New York, where he managed and implemented business process and IT re-engineering projects for US-based non-profits and international NGOs.

Aref has a masters degree in Economic and Political Development from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and an undergraduate degree from the London School of Economics (LSE).

Publications:

A. Adamali, J. Coffey & Z. Safdar, “Trends in National E-Strategies: A Review of Forty Countries” in World Information and Communication for Development Report 2006, World Bank, 2006

A. Adamali, “Can the Afghan Carpet Sector Grow to Become a Global Leader?” in Economic Reform Feature Service, Vol. 1, Issue 3, Center for International Private Enterprise, 2005

A. Adamali & B. Lanvin, “E-Strategies Monitoring and Evaluation Toolkit”, World Bank, 2005

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Sally Christie

Sally Christie is a Manager in the OTF Group's Latin America/ Caribbean Region. She joined the OTF Group in May 2004. Ms. Christie is currently working on a private sector development strategy for a major international bilateral. Her most recent experience with OTF was overseeing the completion of a multi-year USAID project in Jamaica, covering three clusters: Music, Tourism and Ornamental Fish. Prior to that, Ms. Christie was Project Leader for the Dominican Republic Industrial Transformation (Hair Products) Cluster, where she developed a strategy to penetrate the US market for ethnic hair care and cosmetics while mobilizing the private sector to begin working together to achieve this goal. Additional OTF experience includes a multi-year Rwanda project where she led a public / private coalition in the horticulture industry, focused on increasing exports for fresh exports and agribusiness, and managing the Gabonese Timber Innovation and Competitiveness Project, a cluster project designed to bolster export-led processing in Gabon's wood industry. Based in Libreville, she worked with industry leaders to increase downstream processing rates and attract investment to Gabon's proposed Free Trade Zone.

Ms. Christie's interest in development from a private sector perspective stems from a number of years working in emerging economies, mostly in Asia. Prior to joining the OTF Group, Ms. Christie worked as a consultant in mainland China, advising foreign multinationals and state owned companies on how best to increase internal competitiveness. She worked with companies in a number of industries, most notably pharmaceuticals and OEM manufacturing. Selected engagements included helping a British joint venture harmonize legal and operating procedures for three factories, and developing a leadership system for the Chinese subsidiary of a major French electrical controls company. Ms. Christie has also worked in the financial services sector in New York, the publishing industry in South Korea, and the wireless industry in Toronto.

Ms. Christie holds Bachelor of Anthropology and International Development from McGill University in Montreal, a Diploma in Asian Management Diploma from the APMCP, and an MBA in Operations and Entrepreneurship from the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania. She speaks English, French and Spanish fluently, and holds intermediate Korean and Chinese skills. In addition to the work experience in Asia and Africa outlined above, Ms. Christie has lived and worked in Lesotho, France and Argentina.

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David Rabkin

David Rabkin is a Vice President at American Express. He manages the Delta Airlines SkyMiles Credit Card portfolio, the credit card of the world's largest loyalty program. In this capacity, Mr. Rabkin leads a team of consumer marketers and product managers, and has profit and loss responsibility for one of his company's largest products. In addition, he serves as the cross-business unit relationship manager for what is American Express' largest corporate partnership.

Mr. Rabkin joined American Express in 2005 as a member of the Strategic Planning Group. He served as one of two Vice President, Relationship Leaders in the company's New York headquarters. In that role, Mr. Rabkin led strategy engagements for each of American Express' primary business units, as well as the Office of the Chairman.

Before joining American Express, Mr. Rabkin was a partner and co-founder of OTF Group, a venture-backed carve-out of Monitor Company's country competitiveness practice, where he spent seven years. At OTF/Monitor, his clients included CEOs, Cabinet Ministers, and several Heads of State. Mr. Rabkin served clients from twenty nations on five continents, in financial services, tourism, and a variety of other industries. Most recently, he had Profit & Loss responsibility for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Residing in Kingston, Jamaica from 2002 to 2004, Mr. Rabkin served as director of the Jamaica Cluster Competitiveness Project, a collaborative effort led by the Jamaica Exporters' Association, the Government of Jamaica, USAID, and DFID. In this context he worked with approximately 200 hundred small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), from the tourism, agribusiness, and entertainment clusters. He also worked closely with several large Jamaican firms, including Grace, Kennedy & Company, and was the author of the Sunday Gleaner column “Missing Pieces”.

Prior to business school, Mr. Rabkin was an Engagement Manager for Price Waterhouse, serving management consulting clients in the retail and consumer goods industries. He also worked for Procter & Gamble as an Account Executive in their San Francisco sales region. Mr. Rabkin holds an MBA from Harvard University and a BA in English Literature from the University of California at Berkeley.

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Robert Henning

Rob Henning, Director with OTF Group, has spent much of the past 14 years advising small businesses in developing countries enhance their competitiveness. Over the past 7 years, he has developed a particular expertise in the application of business strategy and innovation to solve competitiveness challenges in post-conflict economies such as Haiti, Rwanda, Burundi, and Afghanistan. Rob is currently based in Washington, DC where he continues to advise corporate, government and international donor clients on issues of business strategy, cluster & value chain competitiveness, and private sector development policy.

Until September 2006, he was Chief of Party for the two-year Afghanistan Competitiveness Project, a USAID funded program. The project designed strategies to upgrade the competitiveness of 3 major export clusters in Afghanistan, developed cross cutting solutions to the problems facing the export sectors and established a national competitiveness council. Prior to Afghanistan, Rob was working on the two-year Rwandan National Innovation and Competitiveness project—he managed the financial services sector. Before joining the OTF Group, worked for the Peace Corps in West Africa; he supervised micro-credit and small enterprise development in Benin and Guinea-Conakry.

Rob earned a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) from The McDonough School of Business, at Georgetown University, as a John F. Connelly scholar. He also earned a B.A. from the University of Vermont with a double major in Economics and French. He is a recognized expert in private sector development and is currently authoring several publications for USAID on best practices and techniques for value chain upgrading. He is a contributor to an original book of essays focused on private sector development, called “In the River They Swim”, released by Templeton Press in April 2009.

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Kwang Kim

Kwang is a strategy and competitiveness advisor to cabinet ministers, the U.K. Department for International Development (DFID), and Fortune 500 companies in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. He is currently based in the World Bank Group’s private sector development network. Kwang’s recent engagements include developing risk management strategies to Mozambique’s agricultural sector and leading a team of advisors on economic growth strategies to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Mr. Kim's recent publications include the Pakistan Competitiveness Report and authoring a chapter in the World Bank’s Central America Trade and Competitiveness Report (forthcoming). Mr. Kim is a member of ICAP, a leadership network affiliated with the Aspen Institute, and a Board Member of the Washington Institute.

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Anne Morriss

Anne Morriss is the co-founder and managing director of the Concire Leadership Institute. She has worked with companies and governments throughout the U.S., Latin America and Africa on strategy, leadership and institutional change. Her clients have ranged from Fortune 50 companies repositioning in global markets to public sector leaders working to transform national economies. As a senior advisor with the OTF Group, Anne recently partnered with the World Bank to promote entrepreneurship and innovation in forty developing economies.

Anne's career has included leading the campaign finance team for U.S. Representative Marty Meehan and acting as the South American Director for Amigos de las Americas, an international NGO that promotes community health and leadership development in Latin America. Anne has lived and worked extensively in Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

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Diego Etcheto

As an associate at the OTF Group, Diego advised private and public sector leaders on a range of issues including competitiveness building, cluster development and strategy formulation. Diego previously worked in Afghanistan as part of the Afghanistan National Innovation and Competitiveness Project dedicated to building a sustainable framework for enhancing competitiveness in Afghan industries.

Prior to joining OTF, Diego worked as a consultant in Uzbekistan as part of the USAID SME Development Project, where he managed two Enterprise Development Centers and consulted SMEs on a range of topics such as financial planning, marketing, and strategy. He has also worked for a food ingredients company as sales manager for Latin America, and served as an infantry officer in the United States Marine Corps.

Diego attended The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania where he earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in 2003. He also has a BA in Economics and Mathematics from Cornell University.

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