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Keynote Speaker Jonathan Morduch B.A., Brown University; Ph.D., Harvard Professor Murdoch has taught at NYU since 2000, where he is a Professor of Public Policy and Economics and is Managing Director of the Financial Access Initiative (www.financialaccess.org). He has taught on the Economics faculty at Harvard University, and has held fellowships or visiting positions at Stanford, Princeton, and the University of Tokyo. His co-authored 2005 book, The Economics of Microfinance (MIT Press) is described by Thomas Easton of The Economist as: "The single best book on the economics of banking and finance, period..." His new co-authored book, Portfolios of the Poor: How the World's Poor Live on $2 a Day, will be published by Princeton in May 2009. Professor Murdoch's ongoing work on social investment applies insights from the modern theory of corporate finance to understand the limits and possibilities of markets and philanthropy. Professor Murdoch has been chair of the United Nations Committee on Poverty Statistics and belongs to the UN Advisors Group on Inclusive Financial Sectors and to the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Financial Empowerment. He advises Pro Mujer, and is a member of SafeSave in Dhaka and the Editorial Board of the World Bank Economic Review. His views on finance and development have been reported by the New York Times, The New Yorker, CNN, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and other organizations. He holds a BA from Brown and Ph.D. from Harvard, both in Economics. Professor Murdoch was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Université Libre de Bruxelles in December 2008, in recognition of his work on microfinance. |
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Kevin Altomari B.A. Duquesne University; MPPM University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs Mr. Altomari is a principle with The Redan Group, a strategic planning consulting firm that works with small to midsize for and not for profit companies. Mr. Altomari is presently involved in the development of Neighborhood Business, Inc. a not for profit micro lending group in Pittsburgh. Mr. Altomari has been critical to the development and organization of NBI and currently serves as the executive director of the organization as it begins its work in Pittsburgh's neighborhoods. Prior to his involvement with The Redan Group and NBI, Mr. Altomari served the University of Pittsburgh in several capacities including Associate Dean and Executive Director of the College of General Studies. In addition to his consulting work, Mr. Altomari teaches as an adjunct for the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and serves on several nonprofit boards in the region. |
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Douglas M. Branson BA, University of Notre Dame; JD, Northwestern University; LL.M, University of Virginia Professor Branson, one of the top corporate law experts in the country, is a prolific writer whose work has been described as the best "traditional" corporate scholarship currently being done. The most recent book on his impressive bibliography is the widely and favorably reviewed 1993 treatise, Corporate Governance (Michie & Co.). Branson, a professor at Seattle University School of Law for more than 20 years, joined the Pitt Law faculty in the fall of 1996. He has been a visiting profesor or lecturer at several law schools, including: the University of Alabama, as Charles Tweedy Distinguished Visiting Professor; the University of Oregon; Cornell University; Arizona State University; and universities in New Zealand and England. He also holds a permanent faculty appointment at the University of Melbourne, Australia, in its Master of Laws program. His reputation as one of the country's most productive and thoughtful business law scholars has earned Professor Branson an especially influential role in framing the highly prestigious American Law Institute's recommendations for corporate governance. In addition, he is considered the world's leading expert on the corporate law aspects of Alaska native corporations. |
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Deborah Burand, Esq. B.A., Depauw University; M.S.F.S. & J.D., Georgetown University Law Center Ms. Burand is a Professor from Practice and Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan Law School, where she directs the International Transactions Clinic, the first clinic of its kind to be launched at a US law school. From 2001-2008, Ms. Burand worked in the microfinance sector. Most recently she served as the Executive Vice President of Strategic Services of the Grameen Foundation. She also is a cofounder of Women Advancing Microfinance (WAM) International. Prior to entering the microfinance sector, Professor Burand worked in the private sector at the global law firm of Shearman & Sterling, and held senior, internationally focused positions in the public sector at the Federal Reserve Board and the U.S. Treasury Department. |
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Will Fitzpatrick, Esq. B.A., Harvard College; J.D., Columbia University Mr. Fitzpatrick is Director, Legal Affairs for Omidyar Network. His role allows him to combine his experience as a technology and business lawyer with his commitment to progressive social change. Prior to joining Omidyar Network, Mr. Fitzpatrick ran a solo law practice in San Francisco and represented a diverse group of technology companies on issues related to Internet and electronic commerce law, the creation and protection of intellectual property, and general corporate matters. Before entering solo practice, he served as in-house counsel, first for @Home Corporation (Excite@Home) and then for Loudcloud, Inc. Mr. Fitzpatrick started his legal career in the Bay Area as an associate at the law firm of Fenwick & West. Prior to and during law school, Mr. Fitzpatrick worked for the Alabama Capital Representation Resource Center (now the Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama), helping to provide post-conviction legal assistance to death row inmates in Alabama. Immediately after law school, he served as a law clerk for Chief Judge Myron H. Thompson of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama. |
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Jessica Jackley Flannery B.A., Bucknell University; M.B.A., Stanford University Graduate School of Business Ms. Flannery is a cofounder of Kiva.org, the world's first peer-to-peer online microlending website. Kiva lets internet users lend as little as $25 to specific developing world entrepreneurs, providing affordable capital to help them start or expand a small business. Kiva has been one of the fastest-growing social benefit websites in history, connecting hundreds of thousands of people through lending across over 120 countries and featured in a wide array of media and press including Oprah, the Today Show, CNN, BBC, NBC, ABC, PBS, NPR, the WSJ, NYTimes, the Economist, and more. Ms. Flannery speaks widely on microfinance and social entrepreneurship, and serves as a director on several boards related to microenterprise development, including Opportunity International. Ms. Flannery is a trained yoga instructor, avid surfer, and poet. |
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Daniel Friedson BA, Indiana University; JD, University of Pittsburgh In 1999, while practicing in South St. Louis, Missouri, Professor Friedson, as primary neighborhood economic development program developer for the South Side Day Nursery, helped start the Economic Development Center, the Cherokee Place Business Incubator Center and the Home Daycare Business Program. He was also a founding member of the Red Brick Community Land Trust, a scattered-site affordable housing land trust and ArtDimensions, a local artist development and art gallery membership organization. All of these programs are still operating today. He also represented the Equal Housing Opportunity Council of Metropolitan St. Louis and numerous minority firms and politicians. In Pittsburgh, Professor Friedson started the Community Economic Development Clinic (CED) at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law which focuses on legal education and representation for first-time homebuyers, minority and women owned small businesses and nuisance & blight reduction for local and county governments. In 2004, the CED instituted the Equity Protection Partnership (EPP) with Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS), a NeighborWorks organization. Since 2006 Professor Friedson has been an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs where he teaches Legal Issues for Nonprofit Managers and consults local governments and nonprofit organizations on economic development initiatives through GSPIA's Nonprofit Clinic. |
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Haider Ala Hamoudi B.Sc, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; JD, Columbia University; JSD, Columbia University Professor Hamoudi received his B.Sc. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1993, with a double major in Physics and Humanities with a Near Eastern Studies Concentration. He was both a member of the Physics Honor Society, Sigma Pi Sigma, and a Burchard Scholar for Excellence in the Humanities and Social Sciences. In 1996, Professor Hamoudi received his J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. After graduating, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Constance Baker Motley in the Southern District of New York and then worked as an Associate at the law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton until 2003. Thereafter, Professor Hamoudi went to Iraq and acted as both a legal advisor to the Finance Committee of the Iraq Governing Council, as well as a Program Manager for a project managed by the International Human Rights Law Institute of DePaul University School of Law to improve legal education in Iraq. Professor Hamoudi continues to advise the Iraqi Government, primarily through the Iraq Mission at the United Nations. Professor Hamoudi's scholarship focuses on commercial law, Islamic law, and the intersection of the two in the contemporary era. He has written for numerous law reviews, spoken at conferences sponsored by the MacMillan Center at Yale University, the American Association of Law Schools and the New York City Bar Association, and given interviews to various news organizations including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the McNeil-Lehrer News Hour Online and the New York Law Journal. Professor Hamoudi is also the author of a blog on Islamic Law entitled Islamic Law in Our Times. |
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Melanie Howard, Esq. B.A., Williams College; J.D., Harvard Law School Ms. Howard is a practicing attorney at Loeb & Loeb LLP and an adjunct professor at Pepperdine School of Law. She is also an educational consultant in the field of microfinance. Ms. Howard teaches Legal Issues in Social Entrepreneurship, a course she created that is cross-listed at Pepperdine School of Law and Pepperdine's Graziadio School of Business and Management. From 2005 to 2008, Ms. Howard served as the Director of the Geoffrey H. Palmer Center for Entrepreneurship & the Law at Pepperdine as well as the Director of the International Human Rights Program and the Associate Director of the Nootbaar Institute on Law, Religion & Ethics. Ms. Howard developed the Palmer Center Microfinance Initiative, a program offering microenterprise training and microcredit to individuals at the Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles. Outside of Pepperdine, Ms. Howard is active in a number of professional organizations, including the Hollywood Hill, Net Impact, and the Social Enterprise Alliance, as well as various bar associations. Ms. Howard is the Secretary of Fonkoze USA, a non-profit organization that raised donated funds and coordinates technical assistance for microfinance and grassroots economic development programs in Haiti. She is also a Founding Director of Opportunities Without Borders, a non-profit organization that facilitates a support network for entrepreneurial business ventures in developing countries. |
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Charlotte E. Lott A.B., A.M.L.S., University of Michigan; M.A. Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh Professor Lott has taught economics at Chatham University since 1985 where she teaches courses on economic development and international trade and finance. She has a B.A. in history and an M.A. in library science from the University of Michigan, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pittsburgh. She has been interested in economic development issues since college and her work as a librarian at the Land Tenure Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her current research interests include microfinance and pro-poor development policies. As a board member of the Western Pennsylvania Support Association of Oikocredit, she lectures and gives workshops in Pittsburgh on microcredit and how to invest in Oikocredit. Oikocredit is one of the largest microfinance investment vehicles (MIV), and it encourages investments from individuals, institutions, and churches and then lends the funds to cooperatives, small and medium enterprises, and microfinance institutions. |
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Max Miller B.A. University of Pennsylvania; M.B.A. Kellogg School of Management; J.D., University of Pittsburgh School of Law Mr. Miller is the newly appointed Director of Pitt Law's Law & Entrepreneurship Program. Mr. Miller comes to us most recently as the founder and Managing Director of one of the region's premier experiential marketing firms, Raise Your Spirits. Prior to founding Raise Your Spirits in 2005, Mr. Miller spent three years in operational and marketing roles with H.J. Heinz Company. For the nine years before that that he served five as Corporate Counsel for H.J. Heinz Company handling various domestic and international transactions, and four as an attorney for Federated Investors where he focused on general corporate and securities law. Mr. Miller has a BA in English from the University of Pennsylvania; a JD from the University of Pittsburgh and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management. He and his wife Rosa, currently live in Wexford. |
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Peter B. Oh BA, Yale University; JD, The University of Chicago Professor Oh writes and teaches in the areas of Agency & Partnership, Business Organizations, Corporate Finance, Law & Economics, and Securities Regulation. His research examines corporate phenomena utilizing interdisciplinary methods from economics, finance, and statistics, as well as intradisciplinary tools from public and private law. Professor Oh's articles have been published in prominent journals, such as the Journal of Corporation Law, Tulane Law Review, and Wake Forest Law Review; and cited in judicial opinions. He is currently undertaking a comprehensive empirical analysis of the doctrine of piercing the corporate veil within the United Kingdom and the United States. Professor Oh received his B.A. in Philosophy and Ethics, Politics & Economics from Yale University, and his J.D. from The University of Chicago Law School, where he served as a member of the Law Review. He was a law firm associate in New York City for a number of years before entering academe. He currently serves as the faculty advisor for the Journal of Law and Commerce as well as the J.D./M.B.A. programs with the University of Pittsburgh Katz School of Business and Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business. Professor Oh is also widely acclaimed for his sense of dark humor. |
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April Rinne, Esq. B.A., Emory University; J.D., Harvard Law School; M.A. Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy Ms. Rinne is currently the Director of Venture Development at Unitus, a global microfinance accelerator and provider of innovative solutions to global poverty. She is part of the team that leads the Unitus Investment Group, a new commercially-oriented investment initiative that helps incubate and support funds, companies and related opportunities to serve the base of the pyramid. In addition to her work at Unitus, Ms. Rinne is a trainer for the International Development Law Organization and its regionally-focused microfinance courses in Asia, India, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Previously Ms. Rinne was a private lawyer focusing primarily on international financings, most recently with O'Melveny & Myers LLP. |
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Penny E. Zacharias, Esq. B.S., Cornell University; M.B.S., University of Pittsburgh Katz Graduate School of Business; J.D. University of Pittsburgh School of Law Ms. Zacharias is an associate in Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney's Financial Institutions Section. She represents financial institutions in a wide variety of commercial credit transactions, including syndicated credit facilities, asset-based loans, and bond financings. She also has assisted with multiple securitizations of portfolios of loans to microfinance institutions in Latin America, Easter Europe and Asia. |