LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (Feb. 17, 2012) – Heifer International President and CEO Pierre Ferrari has been invited to participate in this year's Social Enterprise Conference at Harvard Business School. Ferrari will participate in a panel discussion Sunday, Feb. 26, on Business Models for Food Security and Agricultural Development.
The conference, which in 2009 was named by Forbes.com as one of the "Top 12 most influential and exclusive executive gatherings," along with the World Economic Forum at Davos, TED and the Clinton Global Initiative, is co-hosted by students at the Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School.
"I am delighted to have the chance to participate in this year's conference, which focuses on 'Innovation, Inclusion and Impact,' all issues Heifer knows much about," said Ferrari. "Social enterprise— applying business strategies to achieving philanthropic goals—is critical to making change sustainable, and it's at the heart of Heifer's work.
"I look forward to discussing our leading edge work on food security, our focus on women and girls and our proven model for helping people help themselves and connect to markets."
More than 1,500 participants are expected for the two-day conference, featuring discussions on topics such as measuring impact and attracting capital, leading change, negotiating public-private solutions, supply chains, corporate investment and prototyping in poverty alleviation.
Keynotes for the 13th annual conference include Lauren Bush, co-founder of FEED; Kavita M. Shukla, founder and CEO of Fenugreen; Judith Rodin, Ph.D., The Rockefeller Foundation; and William Drayton, founder and CEO of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public.
The goals of the 2012 conference are to:
