Lessons in Social Enterpise
Date: Tuesday, March 18
Time: 4-5:20
Location: MacMillan 115

Venkatesh (Venky) Raghavendra is currently the Chief Philanthropy Officer of the American India Foundation (www.aif.org) and works out of AIF’s New York office. He will share best practices in the social entrepreneurship field, drawing upon case studies from South Asia.

Prior to joining AIF Venky worked in Washington DC with the global citizen sector organization “Ashoka: Innovators for the Public”. While at Ashoka Venky promoted social entrepreneurship in India and several other Asian countries. He engaged leading business entrepreneurs in the U.S. to invest in social entrepreneurs and their innovations as Director for Global Partnerships with Asia. Earlier, in the late 80s and early 90s Venky co-founded an organization in the rainforests of South India to create livelihood opportunities for indigenous communities through eco-tourism and adventure-tourism. Through activities such as hiking, canoeing & rock-climbing Venky was able to build awareness about the rich but fragile ecosystem of the Western Ghats of South India. He played an active role in replicating this new paradigm of community-owned eco-tourism enterprises across the country.

(Co-Sponsored by Brown South Asian Students Association)