Premal Shah
Premal Shah leads Kiva.org, a website that allows you to lend $25 to the working poor. Since 2005, Kiva lenders have financed over 1 million low-income entrepreneurs from 75 countries, with a 98% repayment rate. The site has been named as one of Oprah's Favorite Things and a Top 50 Website by TIME Magazine. Premal’s inspiration for Kiva came in 2004. Working for several years at PayPal, he took 2 months off to volunteer in India. There he worked with low-income women to help them sell handcrafts online. While the project had mixed results, it strengthened his belief that the right combination of technology, business and love can dramatically accelerate opportunity for those most left out. Today with a burgeoning community of 1 million Kiva lenders, this belief becomes more of a reality each day. For his work as a social entrepreneur, Premal was named on FORTUNE magazine’s “Top 40 under 40″ list. Premal is a graduate of Stanford University.
AGENDA
HORIZON STAGE
PANEL
INVESTING: MORE THAN MARGINS
With global Travel & Tourism forecast to inject $16.5 trillion into the global economy by 2035, strategic investment at every level, from large-scale infrastructure to micro-finance for local entrepreneurs, has never been more critical. How can leaders harness bold capital, through public–private partnerships and cross-border collaboration, to unlock innovation, empower communities, and elevate tourism’s global impact?
