May 11, 2007
Freedom From Hunger has committed to sponsoring the Chicago Microfinance Conference at the Bronze Level. Founded in 1946, Freedom from Hunger brings innovative and sustainable self-help solutions to the fight against chronic hunger and poverty. Together with local partners, Freedom from Hunger equips families with resources they need to build futures of health, hope and dignity. The Davis, Calif.-based organization is helping more than 515,000 families in 16 countries, providing resources to approximately 2.2 million people around the world to achieve lasting food security.

For more information visit:  www.freedomfromhunger.org

May 4, 2007
MicroCapital has committed to sponsoring the Chicago Microfinance Conference at the Bronze Level. MicroCapital is a news and research initiative on international microfinance investment housed in Prisma MicroFinance, a for-profit microfinance institution (MFI). Since microfinance is currently dominated by governments and charities, objective information with a business orientation is scarce and buried under academic jargon. MicroCapital seeks to provide honest, candid information on microfinance as an emerging investment class.

For more information visit:  www.microcapital.org

April 16, 2007
Elizabeth Littlefield, Chief Executive Officer of the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), has agreed to provide a keynote address at this year’s conference.  CGAP is a multi-donor organization created to help build a large scale permanent microfinance industry providing flexible, high-quality financial services on a sustainable basis to the poor. CGAP provides technical assistance and strategic advice, development and dissemination of technical tools and services, delivery of training, and in-depth research products.

Prior to joining CGAP in 1999, Ms. Littlefield was the Managing Director in charge of J.P. Morgan's financing business in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe, Central Asia, Middle East and Africa. Her responsibilities encompassed public and private financings for governments, corporations and banks, and related advisory work such as debt management and credit rating advisory. She also held positions at J.P. Morgan as a Vice President and Head Debt Trader in Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia, and as a Director in J.P. Morgan's Paris office, among others.

Ms. Littlefield also spent 1989-1990 providing banking consultancy to several microfinance institutions in West and Central Africa. She has served on the Board of Trustees of Women's World Banking from 1992-1994 and on the Executive Committee of the Board as treasurer from 1994-1999.

April 12, 2007
Chase has committed to sponsoring the Chicago Microfinance Conference at the silver level.  Chase is a leader in wholesale financial services serving one of the largest client franchises in the world. Our clients include corporations, institutional investors, hedge funds, governments and affluent individuals in more than 100 countries. Clients turn to Chase for its complete platform of financial services combined with flawless execution. 

For more information visit www.chase.com

April 5, 2007
The Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at UCLA has committed to sponsoring the Chicago Microfinance Conference at the Bronze Level.  CIBER at UCLA is part of a network of 30 CIBER university centers created by the United States Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988. The UCLA Anderson CIBER grant 2006-2010 focuses on four management issues thought to be critical for maintaining US industry competitiveness in the next decade. They are intellectual property, international entrepreneurship, services industrialization and security/risk in global business. The client groups served by CIBER programs are students, faculty, cross campus centers and institutes and the business community at large.  CIBER achieves its program goals in three ways: teaching and curriculum development; faculty development and research support; and outreach to the UCLA community and the Los Angeles business/diplomatic/education communities.  UCLA CIBER supports teaching by providing funding to encourage new international course development and foreign language education for business at undergraduate and graduate levels.  Faculty development and research support comes in the form of funds to support all aspects of international research project from the collection of data or purchase data bases to researcher assistance and travel to meetings and research sites. Finally, In its outreach efforts, CIBER works closely with other centers and institutes on the UCLA campus. Beginning within UCLA Anderson, CIBER has initiated and sponsored joint programs with the UCLA Forecast, provided funding support for Center for Management in the Information Economy, support the IS Associates to internationalize their meetings, jointly sponsored research efforts with the Price Center on international entrepreneurship and has supported Anderson’s renowned FEMBA Global Access Program (GAP). Outside of Anderson, CIBER works closely with a variety of other UCLA centers (The Asia Institute, Center for European and Eurasian Studies, Latin American Center, and African Studies Center) to put on joint programs of research and outreach to the business public.

For more information please visit: www.anderson.ucla.edu/x327.xml

March 6, 2007
The Zell Center for Risk Research has committed to sponsoring the Chicago Microfinance Conference at the Silver Level.  The goal of the Zell Center is to promote the study and understanding of the way people perceive risk, the effects of these perceptions, and the management of risk. The center does this in two ways: first, by encouraging academic research in this area; and second, through facilitating the communication of the results of this research to a wide audience of academics, students and practitioners.

To encourage academic research in this area, particularly among Kellogg School faculty, the center provides financial support for faculty research. Center visitors are invited to speak and present materials to stimulate thinking in this field and work with Kellogg School faculty in producing new ideas.  The center also supports the communication of relevant academic research to students, practitioners, and faculty in a number of ways, including sponsoring academic and student-led conferences, supporting the development of a curriculum focused on risk, providing scholarships for students pursuing studies in risk, and supporting the Kellogg School’s Asset Management Practicum.

For more information visit: http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/research/risk/index.htm

March 1, 2007
Vikram Akula, Founder of CEO of SKS Microfinance, one of the leading microfinance institutions in the world, has agreed to provide a keynote address at the Chicago Microfinance Conference. In 2006, Vikram was named by TIME Magazine as one of the world’s 100 most influential people.  He launched SKS Microfinance in 1998 and it is one of the fastest growing microfinance organizations in the world, having provided over $140 million to over 550,000 poor women in impoverished regions of India while maintaining a 98% repayment rate. In addition to rapid expansion, SKS leads the industry in the use of innovative technologies. SKS has received numerous awards and has been profiled in media ranging from CNN to front page of the Wall Street Journal.

A former management consultant with McKinsey & Company, Vikram has over a decade of experience in microfinance.  He holds a B.A. from Tufts, an M.A. from Yale, a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, and was a Fulbright scholar. He has received several awards, including the Ernst & Young Start Up Entrepreneur of the Year (India), the Schwab Social Entrepreneur of the Year (India) and the Echoing Green Public Service Entrepreneur Fellowship.

February 9, 2007
The Ford Motor Company Center for Global Citizenship at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University has committed to sponsoring the Chicago Microfinance Conference at the Silver Level. The center draws on a diverse array of Kellogg School and Northwestern faculty and researchers to investigate the role of business and its interaction with the social and political environment.

The Center's mission is to address through research and teaching the challenges faced by corporations who have become the main agents of global social and political change. Our scholars are dedicated to an interdisciplinary approach that combines ethical, strategic and organizational concerns.  Established through the generous contributions of the Ford Motor Company, the Center merged with the Center for Business, Government, and Society in September 2006.