Iqbal Quadir, GrameenPhone Founder

Iqbal Quadir is the Founder of GrameenPhone, the Founder and Director of the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT, and the founding co-editor of "Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization," a journal published by MIT Press. As a kid in rural Bangladesh in 1971, Iqbal Quadir had to walk half a day to another village to find the doctor - who was not there. Twenty years later he felt the same frustration while working at a New York bank, using diskettes to share information during a computer network breakdown. His epiphany: in both cases, "connectivity is productivity." Had he been able to call the doctor, it would have saved him hours of walking for nothing. Partnering with microcredit pioneer GrameenBank, in 1997 Quadir established GrameenPhone, a wireless operator now offering phone services to 100 million rural Bangladeshi. It's become the model for a bottom-up, tech-empowered approach to development.

To date, GrameenPhone has built the largest mobile phone network in the country with investments of nearly $2 billion and a net income of $250 million in 2006. Its rural program is already available in more than 68,000 villages, while helping to create 250,000 micro-entrepreneurs in these villages. Earlier in his career, Quadir served as a vice president of Atrium Capital Corp., an associate of Security Pacific Merchant Bank, both in New York, and a consultant to the World Bank in Washington DC. His work has been recognized by leaders and organizations worldwide as a new and successful approach to sustainable poverty alleviation. The World Economic Forum, based in Geneva, Switzerland, selected him as a “Global Leader for Tomorrow.” He received an MBA and an MA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a BS with honors from Swarthmore College.

Marissa Mayer, Google VP; Search Products & User Experience

Marissa Mayer leads Google's Search team and defines the experience of the Google.com homepage. She has launched hundreds of products and features on Google.com and internationalized the site to over 100 languages. In her ten years at Google, Marissa has helped lead the expansion of Google Search to include images, news, books, products, maps, and more. Marissa's responsibilities have likewise expanded to include the leadership of many initiatives such as Google Earth, Google Health, and iGoogle. She also guides Google's user experience group, with the responsibility of developing design standards that keep the company's products simple, intuitive, and useful. Marissa joined the company in 1999 as its first female engineer.

Marissa is recognized widely as a significant voice for her perspectives on the impact of technology on peoples' daily lives. Her contributions and leadership have been featured in Fortune ("50 Most Powerful Women"), Portfolio ("25 Innovators in Technology"), Newsweek, Fast Company, and BusinessWeek. She is the co-chair for the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy. She also serves the World Economic Forum as a faculty member and member of the Council on Technology and Education.

Prof. Alan Barrell; Cambridge University, Entrepreneur in Residence

Alan Barrell has spent almost 30 years in senior executive positions in technology based industries and has become one of Cambridge's most articulate promoters of entrepreneurship. He is an Entrepreneur in Residence at the University's Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning, Visiting Professor at Xiamen University in China, and International Fellow at Laurea University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki. He was instrumental in launching the Cambridge Gateway Fund to fund early stage technology businesses in the region and is involved with a number of charities including the Papworth Trust, the RSA, the Centre for Tomorrow's Company and The Prince's Trust. He has also chaired the Cambridge Enterprise Conference and works closely with a number of Science Parks and Innovation Centres in Cambridge, elsewhere in the UK and overseas. He received The Queen's Award in 2006 for Enterprise Promotion.

Michael Liebreich; New Energy Finance, Founder & CEO

Michael is an experienced venture capitalist and entrepreneur. He is the CEO of New Energy Finance, a specialist provider of financial information to the renewable energy and energy technology industry, and its investors. In 2000, Michael was UK Managing Director of a Groupe Arnault division that invested $700m in technology, media, and telecommunications. Before that, Michael was Deputy Managing Director of Associated Press Television, and also spent 5 years with McKinsey & Company. He has an MA in Engineering with 1st Class Hons from Cambridge University, and an MBA from Harvard Graduate School of Business, where he was a Baker Scholar and Harkness Fellow. Michael speaks fluent German and French, and good Spanish. He was a member of the British Ski Team from 1986-1993, competing in the World Cup and in the 1992 Albertville Olympics.