About
Market for Change (MfC) was founded in 2007 to catalyze sustainable economic development and poverty alleviation by creating a thriving, active market for small and medium-sized business process outsourcing vendors in Africa and other developing regions. We are based in Silicon Valley and are piloting our model in Nairobi, Kenya.
What We’re Up To
- Developing a set of quality and fair trade standards designed for small and medium-sized outsourcing companies in developing countries
- Creating a web-based brokerage and escrow service that screens vendors and acts as a legal and financial intermediary between US clients and vendors
- Showcasing social impact with a custom-built wiki for audio, photo and video content generated by students and workers in the industry
Our Team
Leila Chirayath, Founder and CEO : Leila first developed the idea behind Market for Change while working as a management consultant at Katzenbach Partners, where her clients included global leaders in the outsourcing and telecom sectors. This work, combined with her experience in development with the World Bank Development Research Group and Ashoka, inspired her to start Market for Change. Leila is a Visiting Scholar at the Stanford Program on Global Justice and has a B.A. in African Development Studies from Harvard University.
Joy Sun, Acting COO : Joy comes to Market for Change with extensive experience in global health and international development in Africa. As the director of operations for the Clinton Foundation’s HIV/AIDS Initiative, she was responsible for launching and managing public health programs throughout the region and supporting the organization’s rapid growth from a start-up into a large global institution. Her prior experience includes private foundations, NGOs and the UN. Joy has a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.
Dr. Henry Thairu, Kenya Program Advisor : Dr. Thairu was previously the Deputy Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. He has also served on the boards of the Management Committee of Kenya Education Network, Kenya Council of Science and Technology, and Kenya Intellectual Property Institute. Dr. Thairu has a PhD in Thermodynamics from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim.
Samuel Imende, Kenya Program Manager : Sam recently returned to his native Kenya after studying and working in the U.S., where he earned a B.A. in Economics from Wake Forest University and worked with the International Republican Institute on strengthening democracy and governance in Africa. Sam is also a Fellow with Kiva.org in Kenya, where he works on microfinance.
Jessica Colaco, Kenya Program Coordinator: Jessica currently works at Strathmore Research and Consultancy Centre – a consulting company of Strathmore University. She earned a B.Sc in Computer Science from the School of Computing and Informatics at the University of Nairobi in September 2007. Jessica’s final project involved using Wireless Map Service and mobile GIS to develop programs for mobile phones in her hometown of Nairobi.
Advisory Board
Ken Banks, Founder, kiwanja.net : Ken specializes in the application of mobile technology for positive social and environmental change in the developing world. He combines over 22 years in IT with over 14 years experience living and working throughout Africa. Among the tools Ken has developed to help grassroots organizations in their work is FrontlineSMS, a text messaging application that was used to help monitor the Nigerian Presidential elections in 2007. Ken was recently awarded a grant from the MacArthur Foundation.
Bruce Cahan, Founder and CEO, Urban Logic Inc : Bruce is currently establishing a “Sustainable Resiliency” (SR) bank that measures the ability of a region or city to cope with change, looking at different areas of social concern from global warming to disaster preparedness. The bank translates this measure into monetary terms, giving the financial services industry a practical tool for understanding how investing in sustainability and resiliency is good for business. Bruce was selected as an Ashoka Fellow in 2007.
Emeka Okafor, Entrepreneur and Director, TED Global 2007 : Emeka Okafor is an entrepreneur. He was the Director of the recently concluded TED Global 2007 Africa: The Next Chapter. He is the founder and author of the blog, Timbuktu Chronicles, which covers the confluence of entrepreneurship, science and technology in Africa and Africa Unchained, a blog examining issues that include governance, policy, education, and institution building in Africa. He is also the director of research for the Direct Expatriate Nationals Investment initiative, a Poverty Reduction and External Resource Mobilization Program for countries that have received massive debt cancellation from the HIPC Program. Mr. Okafor is a founding member of the IPE Group and sits on the Global Entrepreneurship X PRIZE Advisory Board. He is a partner in Caranda Fine Foods, a manufacturer of a line of gourmet, naturally harvested fair trade beverages developed and produced in several African. Mr. Okafor is also a member of the global advisory board for Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship (SAGE) and a principal at the Makeda Fund.
Premal Shah, President, Kiva.org : Premal leads Kiva’s efforts to scale its partnerships and member base. Prior to Kiva, Premal was a Principal Product Manager at PayPal, an eBay company. During his 6 year career at PayPal, Premal drove a number of key initiatives including a year long project defining eBay’s role in economically empowering the global working poor. A number of corporate initiatives have come out of this effort, including PayPal’s support of Kiva. Prior to PayPal, Premal was a strategy consultant at Mercer Management Consulting in New York. Premal has had a long standing interest in microfinance. In 1997, he was awarded a grant from Stanford University to research microfinance in Gujarat, India. More recently Premal co-founded the Silicon Valley Microfinance Network and spent 2 months in India
working to refine / validate Kiva’s model. In 2006, Premal was a featured speaker at the Clinton Global Initiative and Global Microcredit Summit. Premal graduated with a B.A. in Economics from Stanford University.
To learn more, read our one-pager, check out our profile on the Business in Development Network, or contact info <at> marketforchange.org.
