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

    Report from Harvard’s Social Enterprise Conference

    Guest blogger Nicholas P. Sullivan has written widely about technology and entrepreneurship, most notably as editor-in-chief of Inc.com. He compiles the annual Wealth of Nations Index, a ranking of seventy developing countries, is publisher of Innovations: Technology/Governance/Globalization...

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  • Rob Katz

    Microfinance: Good for Growth, or Overblown?

    An interesting debate about the efficacy of microfinance has been going on lately, pitting development experts and economists against one another as they seek to understand the impact of microfinance on economic growth and well-being.The whole thing started with an op-ed in the Wall Street...

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  • Rob Katz

    Behind the Scenes at UN Meets Silicon Valley

    Last week, I attended “UN Meets Silicon Valley,” an event convened by the UN Global Alliance for ICT and Development.? Craig Barrett, former CEO and now Chairman of Intel (full disclosure: WRI and Intel are partners), also chairs the UNGAID.? Going in, I was a bit skeptical, since...

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  • Rob Katz

    BOP Announcements: Citi Job, Tech Awards, CGAP Prize

    As we move into the weekend, here are a couple of BOP announcements (a prize, an innovation challenge, and a job) that should pique your interest. Coming soon ? a report from the UN Meets Silicon Valley event held this week that I attended, and a review of the Fast 50 Awards in this...

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  • Rob Katz

    IPEG Follow-Up: Aman Bhandari and Agora Partnerships

    Last Thursday, the DC chapter of the International Private Enterprise Group (IPEG) met at the Science Club in downtown Washington, DC. About 30 people were on hand to hear presentations from Aman Bhandari, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Maryland and Beth Boomgard of AED’s...

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  • Rob Katz

    The Fair and Lovely Debate Continues

    Andrew Leonard, author of Salon.com’s excellent “How the World Works” column, continues to track the Fair and Lovely debate between C.K. Prahalad and Aneel Karnani. His latest post, from February 22, is definitely worth reading (sorry I haven’t stayed up on this as much as I...

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  • Rob Katz

    Expanding Rural Access – The Case for MicroTelcos

    Over the past ten years, significant progress has been made across the globe with regards to the expansions of mobile telecommunications. This explosive build-out has been the direct result of market liberalization activities launched by a growing number of countries. Today, in most countries...

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  • Rob Katz

    You Can Hear Me Now

    By Nathan KommersNate Kommers is a Press Officer with the World Resources Institute. Yesterday, the Aspen Institute held a book event in here DC with Nick Sullivan, author of You Can Hear Me Now: How Microloans and Cell Phones are Connecting the World?s Poor to the Global Economy, and...

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