MICROFINANCE EVENT: Microfinance Pioneer Muhammad Yunus to Deliver Keynote Address at PODER Magazine’s Philanthropy Forum Devoted to the Americas in Miami, Florida

PODER PHILANTHROPY FORUM

MARCH 11-12, 2008, GUSMAN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, MIAMI, FLORIDA

PODER Magazine, a monthly publication written for business and political elite focusing on the growing influence of Latin America and the US Hispanic community, announced on Tuesday that it will be hosting, along with its partners, a Philanthropy Forum designed to encourage increased collaboration by gathering global practitioners and scholars as well as to foster innovation in private and corporate philanthropy in the region. According to the PR Newswire release, co-sponsoring partners include the City of Miami, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Foreign Policy magazine, Georgetown University, Impremedia, the Inter-American Development Bank, Miami Dade College, the Miami Herald Publishing Company, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (Knight Foundation), Synergos.org, and Univision.

Emilio Azcarraga, Chairman and CEO of Grupo Televisa, the largest media firm in the Spanish-speaking world, will chair the forum. Presiding over the forum will be Bill Emmott, the former Editor-in-Chief of The Economist magazine, a weekly British publication covering international affairs which is read by influential business and government leaders. The first of three keynote addresses will be given by Muhammad Yunus, the Bangladeshi microfinance pioneer and 2006 Nobel Prize winner for his work with Grameen Bank who will be joined by Alberto Ibarguen, President and CEO of the Knight Foundation. The two will engage the forum “in a conversation about innovation in philanthropy.”

Founded in 1976, Yunus’ Grameen Bank boasts over 6.7 million active borrowers, 96 percent of which are women, and a 2007 loan portfolio of USD 532 million, as reported by the microfinance information clearinghouse, MIX Market. Other aspects of the bank’s 2007 financial data were unavailable; however, in 2006 it had total assets of USD 820 million, a debt to equity ratio of 825.5 percent, and a return on assets of 2.44 percent.

The Knight Foundation is a non-profit, philanthropic organization, founded in Ohio in 1950, working to transform communities and journalism through grant-giving, research, and various development programs. The foundation is active in 26 communities across the United States and had total assets of USD 2.34 billion entering 2007.

Second on the list of keynote speakers is technologist, author, and philanthropist Dr. Lawrence “Larry” Brilliant, the Director of Google.org, Google’s philanthropic arm. Among other initiatives, Google.org engages in the development of small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in India and East Africa. Since its 2004 founding, Google.org and its subsidiary, Google Foundation, have committed more than USD 75 million in investments and grants.

American computer scientist Nicholas Negroponte will be the third keynote speaker at the forum. Negroponte is the Founder and Chairman of One Laptop per Child (OLPC), a non-profit organization striving to improve education in developing countries by mass-producing and distributing laptops costing USD 100. Negroponte is also the Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Laboratory, a research center working “tirelessly to invent—and reinvent—how humans experience, and can be aided by, technology.”

Other participants in the forum will include:

Manuel Arango (Founder of Mexican Center for Philanthropy), Donna Blackwell (Executive Director of The Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation), Gustavo Cisneros (Chairman of Cisneros Group of Companies), Cesar Gaviria (Former President of Columbia), Mario Kreutzberger “Don Francisco” (founder of Chile’s Telethon fundraiser and host of Univision), Monica Lozano (Chairman of Impremedia), Rick Martin (singer), Luis Alberto Moreno (President of Inter-American Development Bank), Moises Naim (Editor-in-Chief of Foreign Policy), Jorge Perez (Chairman and CEO of The Related Group), Jorge Ramos (Univision news anchor), Justin Rockefeller (Co-founder of Generation Engage), and Haim Saban (Chairman and CEO of Saban Capital Group).

On the evening of March 11^th, the forum will be opened with a concert by Grammy-winning Juan Luis Guerra and the proceeds from tickets will go to “Ya es hora,” a nonpartisan civic campaign aiming to increase Latino participation in the American political process.

For further inquiries contact Juan Miguel Mora by e-mail at juan@page1media.com or by phone at +1-786-351-0123.

By Anthony Busch, Research Assistant

Additional Resources:

The Economist: Home

Google.org: Home, SMEs, About

Grameen Bank: Home, MIX Market

Grupo Televisa: Home

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation: Home, History

Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Home, Media Laboratory, About

MIX Market: Home

One Laptop per Child: Home

PODER Magazine: Home, Philanthropy Forum