NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Valeria Budinich is a Vice President and the Chief Entrepreneur who founded in 2003 Ashoka’s Full Economic Citizenship global initiative. She has worked as a social entrepreneur for over 25 years in 22 countries to create and expand new businesses with social impact. Prior to joining Ashoka, she was the Chief Operating Officer at Appropriate TechnologyInternational, a founding Vice-President for Latin America at Endeavor, and a Vice President for New Initiatives at BDA,a California-based consulting firm specializing in business process redesign and technology innovationsfor private sector clients worldwide. She was born in Chile, educated as an industrial engineer.

Ashoka Full Economic Citizenship (FEC) is a key pillar of Ashoka’s vision to create a world where Everyone is a Changemaker. It believes the path to citizens’ independence, health and futures rests on their confidence, skills and experience to participate fully in the formal economy. FEC supports new social and business frameworks to achieve this. Its umbrella innovative model, the Hybrid Value Chain (HVC), brings stakeholders together to co-create new solutions to the world’s most pressing problems, and to enlarge the market pie so that collaboration benefits both the private and social sectors. Visit: www.fec.ashoka.org.