Contributor.

Matt Flannery and Premal Shah
CEO and President - Kiva

Matt Flannery isthe co-founder and CEO of Kiva. Hebegan developing Kiva in late 2004 as a side-project while working as a computer programmer at TiVo, Inc. In December 2005 Matt left his job to devote himself to Kiva full-time. As CEO, Matt has led Kiva’s growth from a pilot project to an established online service with partnerships across the globe and hundreds of millions in dollars loaned to low income entrepreneurs. Matt is Skoll Awardee and Ashoka Fellow and was selected toFORTUNE magazine’s “Top 40 under 40″ list in 2009. In 2011, Matt was chosen for the The Economist “No Boundaries” Innovation Award. He graduated with a BS in Symbolic Systems and a Masters in Philosophy from Stanford University.

 

Premal Shah is the president of Kiva. He first began dreaming of “internet microfinance” while working at PayPal, the online payments company. In late 2004, Premal took a 3-month leave from PayPal to develop and test the internet microfinance concept in India. When he returned to Silicon Valley, he met other like-minded dreamers and quit his job at PayPal to help bring the Kiva concept to life and eventually to scale. Kiva today raises over $1 million each week for the working poor in +60 countries and was named a Top 50 Website by TIME Magazine. For his work as a social entrepreneur, Premal was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and selected to FORTUNE magazine’s “Top 40 under 40” list. Premal began his career as a management consultant and graduated from Stanford University.

 

 

 

Articles by Matt Flannery and Premal Shah

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