Contributor.

Rob Katz

After co-founding NextBillion.net and spending 8-plus years working at the intersection of business and international development, Rob Katz is currently pursuing a MBA at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.

 

Prior to Stanford, Rob was Acumen Fund’s Knowledge Manager, leading Acumen’s efforts to understand where markets work –and where they don’t – in terms of solving the problems of poverty. Most recently, he co-authored From Blueprint to Scale: The Case for Philanthropy in Impact Investing(Monitor Group and Acumen Fund, 2012.) In addition to writing reports, he was responsible for applied research and writing efforts across the firm; he also oversaw Acumen’s knowledge management systems.Rob joined Acumen Fund in 2008, managing online communications as well as knowledge before shifting full time into applied research work.

 

Before Acumen Fund, Rob worked with the Markets and Enterprise Program of the World Resources Institute, where he began his career researching, writing and speaking about “base of the pyramid” business approaches to poverty alleviation. At WRI, he co-founded www.NextBillion.net, a web site and blog about enterprise and development, and co-authored The Next 4 Billion: Market Size and Business Strategy at the Base of the Pyramid (IFC and WRI, 2007).

 

Here at NextBillion, Rob is both a member of our Advisory Board and a contributor to the blog.

 

Rob earned his B.A. in Political Economy from Georgetown University.

 

Follow Rob on Twitter @robertkatz.

 

Articles by Rob Katz

  • Rob Katz

    Pop!Tech – Victoria Hale’s One World Health Needs Franchising

    Victoria Hale is the founder of OneWorld Health, a nonprofit pharmaceutical company. The first of its kind in the U.S., OneWorld?s mission is to develop safe, effective, and affordable medicines for those most in need through collaboration with other pharmaceutical companies, governmental and...

    Categories
    Education
    Tags
    academia
  • Rob Katz

    Pop!Tech – Interview With Kiva’s Jessica Flannery

    Jessica Flannery is, in many ways, an accidental entrepreneur.? Had she not met a guy named Matt at a DC conference in 1999, the entire enterprise she’s known for (Kiva.org) might not exist today.? I was fortunate to be able to sit down with Jessica for an interview yesterday here at...

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  • Rob Katz

    Pop!Tech – Social Innovation Accelerator Launched

    Today at Pop!Tech, curator Andrew Zolli announced the launch of the Pop!Tech Social Innovation Accelerator.? I’ll have most of the official press release copied below, but I also want to add my 2 cents. First of all, this is a great idea, though it isn’t the first “social...

    Categories
    Education
    Tags
    academia
  • Rob Katz

    Pop!Tech – On Cell Phones, Entrepreneurship, and African Governance

    Last night, I wrote a post about Camden, Maine - where I am attending Pop!Tech 2007.? At the very end, I mentioned that I was heading out to meet up with Nathan Eagle, a MIT entrepreneur-engineer who runs the Entrepreneurial Programming and Research on Mobiles project. Well, I did run into...

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  • Rob Katz

    Pop!Tech – Innovation From the Bottom Up

    Pop!Tech session two is about to start, and I’m pumped. As you’ll see from the schedule, the speakers in session two (Jessica Flannery, Paul Polak, and Adrian Bowyer) are probably the most apropos for our “base of the pyramid” audience here at NextBillion.net. Not only that,...

    Categories
    Education
    Tags
    academia
  • Rob Katz

    Pop!Tech – Art and Data Driving Change

    Want to get someone to change the way they live?? To change their habits, lifestyles, mores, opinions?? Lectures don’t work - almost anyone will zone out.? Data help - but numbers can be soporific, too. It may be obvious to anyone who has ever attended a PowerPoint presentation, but...

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  • Rob Katz

    Breaking News: NextBillion Ally Receives $30m Investment

    I just received an e-mail from NextBillion ally and BOP enthusiast Michael Hokenson.? Michael is the Managing Director of Minlam Asset Management, a NY-based microfinance hedge fund: Minlam Asset Management LLC is a New York-based investment firm providing financial solutions for emerging...

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  • Rob Katz

    Pop!Tech – A Quiet Town Comes Alive

    Greetings from Camden, Maine - site of Pop!Tech 2007 and the “quiet town” referred to in this post’s title. I arrived here last night, after a short flight into Portland and a drive up Route 1 along the Maine coast. There’s not a whole lot going on in Camden - it’s...

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