Social Enterprise Initiative

Summer Associates


2006 Social Enterprise Summer Fellowship Summaries

Click on organization name for summaries.

Aavishkaar India Micro Venture Capital Fund

Clare Boland
After graduating in June 2006 I am spending six months working with the Aavishkaar India Micro Venture Capital Fund in Mumbai, India. A social enterprise fellowship helped to fund this endeavor for part of my summer under their new pilot program for the sponsorship of for–profit enterprises. Aavishkaar is a small venture capital fund which aims to fill the gap between micro–credit and venture capital by providing equity investments between $20,000 and $100,000 to small businesses which have potential to scale and which will have a positive social impact on rural or semi-urban India. The fund further supplements this capital with strategic and operational support. I have spent much of my time so far working with one of our portfolio companies, Craftsbridge, which sells custom designed handicraft products to businesses for use as corporate gifts. I have worked at the front–end helping the sales force to improve their processes and customer understanding and also on the supply–chain side developing better management of a complex system of rural artisans. It has been fascinating to apply much of what I have done before school, and what I learned at HBS, to work with socially relevant businesses. While some of the goals may be different, the same management and financial principles always apply.

Acap Development Trust

Ajmal Ahmady
During the summer of 2006, I worked with the Acap Development Trust in Kabul, Afghanistan. Since 2001, the international community has been engaged in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, one of the least developed and poorest countries in the world. The Acap Development Trust was formed to help the emerging business community of Afghanistan develop the skills and expertise needed to spur economic development by aiding businesses with business advisory and support services. My role in the organization was to work with entrepreneurs develop business plans and identify funding needs.

ACCION International

Alexander Seelenberger
In what other ways can the Microfinance Industry as a whole be helped to continue leaping forward, especially in underdeveloped economies? This is a basic question that the Financial Markets and Services department of ACCION international, a private non–profit organization with the mission of giving people the financial tools they need to work their way out of poverty, asked itself a few months ago. The answer: to channel resources into key areas where traditionally there’s been a lack of direct investment. This was the philosophy that led to the creation of the Gateway Microfinance Infrastructure Fund, a wholly owned investment fund with the objective of investing in ancillary goods and/or services to the microfinance industry, to help develop the infrastructure needed for the industry to continue its development. During my internship, I was given the task of jump-starting this fund. My responsibilities where to identify and develop an investment pipeline for the fund, and carry out any potential due diligences on selected investment targets.

Acumen Fund

Omer Ismail
I spent ten weeks this past summer at Acumen Fund, a $40 million global social venture capital fund that invests in the developing world. I was a summer associate in Acumen’s housing portfolio, with my main responsibilities falling under two broad categories – investment evaluation and investment financing / negotiation. The investment evaluation process can be divided into three stages — initial pipeline, early due diligence and final due diligence. Over the course of the summer, depending on the specific project, I was involved in all three. As part of my role, I conducted extensive industry and company due diligence, analyzed business plans and created detailed models with financials, cap structure and deal returns. I was also involved in early due diligence of two potential equity investments in low–income housing developments in Africa and South Asia. My experience at Acumen was an incredible learning opportunity.

Meghana Narayan
Acumen Fund is a non profit venture capital fund which raises charitable funds and then invests equity and loans — and intensive management assistance — in innovative entrepreneurs that bring health, water and housing to the poor; and who have the skill and the will to take their model to sustainability and scale. Currently Acumen is deeply invested in South Asia and East Africa. To–date the fund has helped enterprises deliver more than 6,000,000 long–lasting malaria bednets, 11,000 drip irrigation systems, 9,000 water filters and 7,000 hearing aids. Acumen has supported a micro–finance bank to expand its distribution network to include 12,000 new borrowers; a healthcare franchise strengthened its operations to serve 430,000 rural patients; and another enterprise provided anti-retroviral treatment to more than 18,000 patients. We have helped a company create access to affordable, clean water for 5,000 villagers; and established 20 additional facilities reaching thousands in Sri Lanka to provide clean water after the tsunami. And we have been part of generating more than 2,000 jobs in Tanzania, mostly for women who previously earned less than $2 a day. Most important, these initiatives are enabling Acumen Fund to bring forth blueprints for solving problems of global poverty using private sector initiative.
As a Summer Associate with the Metrics Team, I worked on geographic expansion strategy for the fund. It was used as input into overall business plan to become a $100M fund by 2010. Further I established a metrics collection process for portfolio clients based in India, Pakistan, Tanzania and Kenya. I also led a team of metrics analysts to evaluate and structure investment impact reports for Acumen Fund board.

Manisha Shetty
Acumen Fund is a nonprofit venture fund that believes that the best way to solve poverty is to use market–oriented approaches to bring critical goods and services to the poor. Acumen provides financial and management support to entrepreneurs that create products for the poor in South Asia and East Africa. This summer, I completed a sector analysis for Acumen Fund in the area of micro health insurance in India. Micro health insurance, with low premiums and coverage, is a promising way to reorganize out–of–pocket spending to smooth expenditures and protect low-income families from health shocks. For the sector study, I interviewed organizations in India to develop a framework for analyzing micro health insurance programs and evaluate the existing schemes based on these criteria. The summer was a great way to take an in–depth look at a base–of–the–pyramid industry in India and see its potential and its pitfalls first–hand.

American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)

Howard Berkof
Founded in 1880 as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, today's ASME is a 120,000–member professional organization focused on technical, educational and research issues of the engineering and technology community. My summer internship took place at the Washington DC office of ASME — Strategic Ventures, which has resources that reach out to government agencies, industry, federal laboratories, Congress and allied trade and professional associations. As a Business Development associate, I began implementation of the Engineering Entrepreneurship and Innovation Initiative, fulfilling the Presidential challenge of collaboratively building the 21st century economy through the development of engineering talent, innovations, and entrepreneurship. Components of the initiative include the creation of the Center for Engineering Entrepreneurship and Innovation, the generation of the Engineering Entrepreneurship Technology Showcase, the submittal of a $3.5 million grant proposal to the Department of Labor for technical workforce re–training and STEM education, and the organization of entrepreneurship and innovation focused workshops at the annual ASME conference.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA)

Roshini Moodley Naidoo
As the state’s largest health insurance company, BCBSMA has close to 2.9 million members whose healthcare wellbeing it directly manages. In the interaction with all of its stakeholders Blue Cross Blue Shield’s primary value proposition and focus is on the successful delivery and follow through of quality healthcare. I spent the summer as a part of the Business Development, Corporate Strategy and Planning team. I focused on 3 key projects where I:

  • Evaluated the impact of industry consolidation specifically analyzing M&A transactions within the past 2 years.
  • Benchmarked the company against national competitors regarding product offerings and market positioning.
  • Conducted an industry trends analysis to determine how to best position the organization given legislative changes.

The knowledge and exposure I gained over the summer has formed an important complement to my education within the healthcare field, as I experienced the day to day operations of this prominent NGO. Given my background in financial services as well as my medical background (as a medical doctor and Masters in Public Health graduate), working at BCBS over the summer was particularly exciting to me. Here, I drew on both previous work experiences as well as my MBA course material in the execution of the analysis mentioned above e.g. M&A activity analysis. In addition, being a part of a values based organization and dynamic team aiming to be at the cutting edge of healthcare developments was particularly rewarding as I engaged teams across the organization. My project scope enabled me to have broad exposure across the organization, interacting with executives and team members ranging from the CEO to the internal consulting arm. The summer was a valuable experience as I was able to make a contribution to the organization re: my projects and deliverables as well as develop a more thorough hands–on understanding of the Insurer segment of the healthcare ecosystem.

Bridges Community Ventures

Daniel Viana
Bridges Community Ventures is the first Community Development Venture Capital fund in the UK. It was established by Sir Ronald Cohen (co–founder Apax) with the goal of creating value to the community by investing specifically in the most under–invested regions of the UK and Europe. Its goal is to stimulate economic growth and create jobs, wealth and role models of business success in the most under invested regions. It differs from other traditional Community Development Venture Capital funds in a sense that it invests in any type of businesses in any sector as long as long as they offer an attractive business model and are located in an under invested area. This has proven to be a very successful and sustainable business model to stimulating economic growth and creating entrepreneurial role–models in the most under–invested regions.

Council for Business and the Arts in Canada (CBAC)

Charmian Love
Working with a nonprofit during the summer was an eye–opening experience. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with some of the most passionate individuals I have ever met, towards a goal that I truly believe in: helping art organizations develop ways to create strong and innovative partnerships with the private sector. Strong communities require strong arts and cultural organizations — art inspires, allows people to celebrate their diversity and encourages creative thinking. My internship involved creating programs with the vision of helping the private sector understand the important role that art organizations play in building these strong communities which allow businesses to flourish. The Social Enterprise summer fellowship program provided an experience that allowed me to work with a very small non–profit organization, The Council for Business and the Arts in Canada (CBAC), and have real impact on their strategic direction.

EcoLogic Finance

Brian Milder
EcoLogic Finance (EF) is a nonprofit organization based in Cambridge, MA that uses lending as a tool to mobilize the existing entrepreneurial energy in isolated rural communities, enable conservation, and encourage socially — and environmentally — responsible business practices. EF manages a portfolio of $25,000 to $500,000 loans to small– and medium–sized enterprises that do not meet traditional requirements to access loans from local financial institutions. As an Investment Officer Fellow for Ecologic Finance over the summer, I investigated and visited over forty cooperatives and associations of small–scale farmers and artisans in Central and South America that might be interested in accessing credit from EF. These field visits offered an opportunity for me to apply many of the financial and managerial tools I had learned over the course of my RC year in a social context as I met directly with both farmers and professional staff to discuss the groups’ financing needs. Several of the groups that I visited have already begun working on credit applications that they will be submitting to EF in the coming months for loans that will support investment in increased production. I look forward to continuing to work with EF over the course of the academic year to shepherd these loan applications through the review process so that many of the farmers that I met this summer will have access to affordable credit.

EdBuild

Kristy McBride
During the summer of 2006, I worked as a Strategic Initiatives Associate for a nonprofit organization in Washington, DC called EdBuild, Inc. EdBuild is a startup organization whose mission is to create more high-performing public schools in DC. EdBuild will partner with both district and charter schools to modernize school buildings, arrange school co–location within those buildings, and provide targeted support in implementing educational standards at the school level. I was the third full–time employee to be hired, after the COO and CEO. During my ten–week internship, I supported the COO in many diverse initiatives, in the sometimes haphazard manner that is characteristic of small startups. However, I did have one major project over the summer, which was to draft the EdBuild business plan. I completed this project with input from the CEO, COO, various consultants and key partners at the New Schools Venture Fund. This was a great experience for me, as I was able to contribute to an organization whose mission I believe in, and I also learned a lot about public education reform in a startup environment.

Endeavor/CallForce Direct

Rodrigo Mayo
Endeavor is a non–profit organization based in the US that aims to accelerate social development by providing guidance to intrepid local entrepreneurs in developing countries. Through them, I spent my summer in Johannesburg, South Africa working with CallForce Direct. CFD is a small company that mainly provides temporary call–center staff to large South African and multinational corporations. In an industry that inevitably evolves towards commoditization and price wars, I aimed to help Candice Roberts and her team:

  • Organize the informational systems within the company in order to take more educated business decisions in the future
  • Identify their key sources of competitive advantage
  • Identify their most profitable (and unprofitable customers)
  • Redefine their future sourcing/distribution strategy

The entire experience was incredibly exciting and fulfilling. I truly enjoyed living in South Africa and working with a small company filled with ambitious and energetic people. The Endeavor model is one that I truly believe in and one where you can immediately measure the social value you are creating, even if it is through the private enterprise arena.

Geneva Global

Cindy Rodriguez
What if there were investment banks for socially–minded nonprofits and third–party intermediaries who could give unbiased assessments of a nonprofit’s effectiveness? Geneva Global, a philanthropic intermediary strives to do just that. They search for international nonprofits that have a proven track record and find interested donors to “invest” in these organizations. This summer, I worked as an intern for the CEO helping the organization expand beyond their current scope. With the opportunity to tap into the new growth of online social networks like MySpace.com and Facebook.com, I developed the concept and market research for a new website that will bring people together to create social good. The website is currently under development and will have a beta release in January 2007, with a full-scale launch expected in May 2007.

Golden Gate Community, Inc., — Pedal Revolution

Lauren Scopaz
Who can say they he/she worked in a bike shop for his/her business school summer internship? I can, and I loved it. I worked for Pedal Revolution, a full service bicycle sales and repair shop in San Francisco, which is one of three social enterprises run by the youth development nonprofit Golden Gate Community, Inc. (GGCI). Pedal Revolution recruits, employs and trains at–risk youth to work as interns in the shop alongside its professional staff.
This summer I had a fairly open–ended but exciting opportunity to research and analyze business expansion ideas for the bike shop. I focused mainly on what it would take and if it would be a good idea to start a mobile bike repair service. My work spanned from researching and interviewing current mobile bike repair shop owners; meeting and speaking with bike related groups and individuals to assess the San Francisco biking community; soliciting and cultivating potential customers and partners; analyzing the economics of the business; assessing the appropriateness, potential role and benefits of this type of business for our youth interns; determining what internal systems and logistics would need to be in place; and coordinating a pilot mobile bike repair visit at a potential customer. It was a fantastic experience to build my entrepreneurial skills while working through the challenge of balancing social benefit/return with financial viability.

Green Order

Erika Diamond
GreenOrder, an environmental sustainability consulting firm, assists companies to develop business strategies which improve their environmental performance while adding value. As a summer associate at the firm, I worked on a variety of projects from building climate change scorecards for Fortune 500 Companies to developing an ecochallenge for universities and college’s nationwide. The work was interesting and rewarding, straddling the sphere between not–for–profits and large private sector companies. As a small company, GreenOrder offered me the opportunity to participate in business development as well; in addition to my projects I assisted in preparing proposals for potential clients and researching new opportunities. The close interactions with partners and constructive feedback I was given allowed me to really make a significant contribution in the daily business for Green Order. As I look out toward my future career, the summer will remain in my memory as an exceptionally positive experience and an important building block in whatever I do.

Jackson Lehr
As an environmental sustainability consultant in the private sector, GreenOrder plays a critical role in developing business strategies to improve the environmental performance of companies both large and small. This summer I have worked on business development with four early stage clean–tech companies, whose products benefit the environment in areas such as climate change, renewable energy, and conservation of water and other natural resources consumed in the construction or operation of buildings. My primary focus, however, was on a project to develop a green building strategy for one of the world’s largest real estate companies. Speaking the language of business, GreenOrder is able to effect tremendous change from within some of the world’s largest companies. Because GreenOrder is still a small company, however, I was given substantial responsibility, including high–level client interaction, and I am ending my summer feeling as if I have made a real difference for GreenOrder, its projects and clients, and the global environment.

InvestBulgaria

Borislav Stefanov
The Investment Agency at the Bulgarian Ministry of Economy is a one-stop shop for large scale international investors, which are interested in green field investments or in transferring some of their existing operations to Bulgaria. The agency has two major divisions: marketing department — organizing exhibits and promotional events, and helping potential investors with preliminary research and information, and jurisdictional department, which offers legal advice and consulting services for committed investors, as well as financial support from the government budget. My internship at the marketing department allowed me to understand better the realities of working in the government sector in Eastern Europe in a time of rapid economic and political changes, as well as to support an organization, which needs people with solid international experience and language skills. My daily activities included research — analyzing potential investors, industry and macroeconomic data, preparing presentations and occasionally assisting delegations of international investors during their visits to Bulgaria. I participated at a meeting between representatives of the Bulgarian government and delegates from the State of Tennessee. One of my major projects included the research and the preliminary presentations for the relocation of a major European automotive supply factory to Bulgaria.

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

Vani Krishnamurthy
This summer, I worked for Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc, a non–profit institution dedicated to presenting the finest in performing arts on its stages. My role at Lincoln Center was essentially one of an internal consultant. I took on five projects, four of which required me to work on my own, updating my internal clients periodically. The last was a group project with the other two interns from Harvard Business School. While each project had an internal, senior staff member that functioned as the client, my work always took into account the perspective of the President of the organization, Reynold Levy, as he was in fact the end client for all projects. My projects spanned the programming, public relations, development, marketing, and education departments of the institution. With the range of experiences in various parts of the large institution, the internship confirmed my belief that business skills are very important in an arts environment. In each department to which I was exposed, management skills were an asset. Luckily, at Lincoln Center, the interns from HBS have already been made credible through the president’s well–known support of the program. Accordingly, every client with whom I worked valued my insights, my work, and my time.

Kara Medoff
This summer I was one of three summer fellows at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the largest performing arts organization in the world. As an internal strategic consultant for the President of Lincoln Center, I was responsible for five special projects: 1) Developing a Program Plan and P&L for the Harmony Atrium, a privately–owned public space that Lincoln Center had recently leased to renovate and operate as a visitors’ center; 2) Determining leading technologies, service providers, and sponsors to provide free wireless Internet access across the Lincoln Center public spaces; 3) Identifying areas for growth in Lincoln Center’s nascent branding and licensing initiatives, including interviewing and recommending licensing agencies; 4) Conducting a feasibility study for future “Plaza–Casts” — free outdoor screenings of live performing arts events; 5) Creating fiscal year summary communication from the Lincoln Center Corporate Fund to the constituent arts organizations who benefit from Fund donations and to the Corporate Fund donors. The internship gave me exposure to a large nonprofit institution and to the complex web of relationships — corporate, individual, and public — that support its thriving existence. It was an especially exciting time to be part of Lincoln Center as the institution broke ground on a massive redevelopment project that will modernize and improve the campus.

Elizabeth Taxin
I was one of three Summer Fellows at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Located on a 16 acre campus in New York City, Lincoln Center is the largest performing arts organization in the world. Lincoln Center serves three primary roles: resident organization with its own series of artistic programming; a national leader in arts and education and community relations; and manager of the Lincoln Center campus. This summer, I worked on a variety of projects, many focusing on the Redevelopment effort. I built a cash flow model to match sources of funding against project expenses for reconstruction, developed strategies to acquire new clients and offer new services at CenterCharge, assessed options to monetize excess development rights and conducted a purchasing consolidation study to negotiate bulk discounts with vendors. As a lifelong musician, I am so excited that I was able to combine my passion for the arts with my interest in business this summer. I look forward to following the transformation of Lincoln Center as Redevelopment continues.

Mountains for Miracles

John Serafini
My summer internship was both a rewarding and engaging experience, certainly a worthwhile three months. This summer I had the opportunity, made possible by the SEI Summer Fellowship Program, to work full–time as the Director of Mountains for Miracles, a registered 501(c)(3) non–profit organization founded last year by HBS and KSG students. Mountains for Miracles is dedicated to supporting innovative pediatric oncology research at Boston’s Dana–Farber Cancer Institute through the pursuit of epic mountaineering and trekking endeavors.
During my three months of full–time employment, we succeeded in fundraising close to $200k in cash and in–kind contributions as well as signing partnerships with corporate sponsors Eastern Mountain Sports and Sports Club L.A. We also completed the creation of a new and innovative participatory philanthropy fundraising model which provides public climbers with the opportunity to help fight childhood cancer through participation in mountaineering and trekking expeditions as organizational fundraisers.
For 2007, the organization is presently preparing for its two group expeditions, which will include teams of private benefactors, cancer survivors, and corporate sponsors: a climb of Mount Kilimanjaro in June and Pico de Orizaba in November with a cumulative goal of $500k in total annual contributions. In addition to Mountains for Miracles’ group expeditions, the organization works with its partner guiding company, EMS, to arrange for public climbers to join worldwide EMS expeditions, receiving a significant discount in land cost in return for their fundraising assistance from within personal networks of friends and family.

Nature Conservation Research Center

Andrew Murphy
This summer I had the opportunity to return to Ghana to conduct a feasibility study to establish an ecolodge in Ghana’s largest National Park. The project was unique in that it represented the first time the Ghanaian Government allowed private sector players to operate facilities in the country’s parks, and more importantly, set the stage for launching a new model of collaborative ownership between the government, private sector, non–profits, and local communities. The project was sponsored by my pre–HBS employer, the Nature Conservation Research Centre (NCRC). NCRC has been a leading voice for initiatives that combine conservation with community economic development, and has led the process of developing community–based ecotourism destinations in the poorer, rural areas of Northern Ghana. The study allowed me to utilize the skills I have developed during my time at HBS in meeting a specific development challenge; building sustainable rural enterprises. Part of the summer involved the research for and building of the financial model for the lodge. However, the most rewarding aspect was traveling throughout the country I had lived in for six years and meeting with government officials, business leaders, entrepreneurs, local communities and their leaders (and a few elephants too) to talk through approaches to ensuring that the widespread tourism development expected in Ghana reaches the rural parts of the country and makes positive impacts on economic livelihoods. The hybrid ecolodge model with do that, and after the launch in Mole National Park, there is potential to expand to community–based destinations throughout the country.

New Sector Alliance

Kina Beale
This summer I ventured off the well–trodden path leading to traditional HBS summer internships. The alternative route I chose provided a refreshing foray into the world of non–profit organizations. As a New Sector Alliance Social Impact Consulting Fellow, I spent ten weeks developing a strategic plan to guide Cambridge College’s international expansion efforts over the next five years. The strategic plan will enable Cambridge College senior executives to systematically evaluate and target potential countries for expansion. Through international expansion, Cambridge College strives to successfully educate international students for whom access to education may have been limited or denied. Thus, international expansion is consistent with the College’s overall mission, which is to provide academically excellent, time–efficient, and cost–effective higher education for a diverse population of working adults for whom those opportunities may have been limited or denied. As a result of offering its degree programs in international markets, Cambridge College hopes to increase the diversity of its student body, provide a more enriching experience for its faculty, and improve the quality of education offered by the College in general. Overall, helping Cambridge College pursue international expansion was a rewarding experience that allowed me to apply strategic consulting concepts, hone my leadership skills, and contribute to the achievement of the organization’s remarkable mission. I would definitely encourage other MBA students to seek a summer internship in a social enterprise.

Anita Tandon
This summer, I was a member of a consulting team for New Sector Alliance, a non–profit consulting firm. I had the opportunity to work with Cambridge College, a higher education institution focused on working adults lacking resources and opportunities. Cambridge College was looking to expand internationally and our team was tasked with developing a comprehensive approach to evaluating and selecting potential expansion sites. We were able to provide Cambridge College with a full evaluation of their past expansion efforts and current trends in higher education internationally, culminating in a systematic approach for potential site analysis. Through our work, Cambridge College will be able to deliver education opportunities across the world more effectively and efficiently. Through New Sector Alliance, with the support of the Boston Consulting Group, I was able to receive in–depth training and support as we completed our project.

New Sector Alliance/Boston Consulting Group

Alexandra Rethore
This summer, I worked as part of an inaugural non–profit consulting summer program sponsored by Boston Consulting Group and New Sector Alliance. My client was an international non–profit called the YES Campaign, an organization that has been devising employment–driven, youth–led solutions to address the challenge of youth unemployment in the developing world. At the client site, I managed a team of three interns in rethinking the Campaign’s strategic direction, cataloguing activities, partnerships, and funders for the client’s 83 country affiliates, presenting the client’s value proposition and accomplishments to stakeholders, designing a performance measurement system, and structuring a global, youth entrepreneurship fund to allow the client to extend its reach. My objective this summer was to step beyond my corporate professional experience and to think more creatively about what business analysis and strategic thinking means to an organization where resources are constrained and the financial bottom line is just a more significant means to an end. This program provided a rare opportunity to have a significant impact in a short time and to work with a dynamic social entrepreneur. Ultimately, I want to be challenged by both new professional responsibilities and activities in my community. This program was a blend of both.

New York City Hall

M. Tres Watson III
This summer, I had the honor and privilege to work in the Bloomberg Administration of the great City of New York. For three months, I served under Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff, as a summer policy analyst in the Office of Economic Development and Rebuilding. This office was established as New York City’s primary vehicle for promoting economic growth in New York City. Deputy Mayor Doctoroff’s mission is to secure the city’s health through expansion and redevelopment programs that encourage investment, generate prosperity and strengthen the City's competitive position as an international destination and marketplace.
Over the summer, I worked within a team of five Senior Policy Analysts and Advisors to develop a new vision for New York City, one that does not merely rest on the financial market that continues to define New York, but one that encompasses a dedication to innovation, preservation of the culture, and sustainability of the 5–Borough community. I assisted in the construction of a land use and infrastructural development plan (energy, transportation, open space, etc.) to address the needs of the city’s population as it continues to grow over the next 20 years. My work involved a great deal of policy research and analysis of population and market shift projections. At the request of the Mayor’s Office of Operations, I co–managed a team of policy advisors to define the roll–out plan for the Administration’s sustainability strategy. In addition to daily policy briefings, my deliverables included an analysis of pressure on air travel infrastructure in the New York City region and a collective of viable initiatives proposed by City agencies and authorities, a document to be included in the final strategy policy book.

New York Presbyterian Hospital

Archana Samtani
In my eight weeks at NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital (NYPH), I conducted in–depth due diligence, including peer academic medical center and industry analysis, to evaluate various models of multidisciplinary partnerships for supporting physicians in conceiving and developing innovative procedures and products to address previously unmet clinical needs. I also evaluated critical business components to further the hospital’s work in genetic medicine. In particular, I analyzed the requirements for a biospecimen bank, the underlying business models and the competitive landscape. I have learnt about the strategic planning processes for new initiatives in a variety of areas, ranging from day–to–day operations to starting new world–class centers for stroke care and simulation training. This internship not only gave me unique insights about what it takes to provide world–class healthcare delivery but also allowed me to use my skills in technology and business to contribute to major entrepreneurial programs within New York’s best hospital.

Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF)

Kristen Keenan
Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF), a national community development financial institution (CDFI), provides capital and advice to help nonprofits achieve their mission, improve their capacity to deliver services, and strengthen their communities. NFF serves as a finance partner for community–based nonprofits by providing loans for facilities projects and working capital needs. The organization also provides financial management consulting for nonprofits through its innovative Nonprofit Business Analysis program.
As a Summer Associate with NFF’s DC–MD–VA Program, I focused on analytic work for the Financial and Advisory Services teams and developed a marketing plan to reach the local funding community and prospective nonprofit clients. This experience provided a unique opportunity to enhance my knowledge of nonprofit finance through direct experience analyzing and underwriting loans and by providing consulting services to a diverse group of nonprofit clients.

Office of Senator Barack Obama

Josh Gray
I had a great experience working in U.S. Senator Barack Obama’s office. Senator Obama has set up a policy shop in his office with two primary functions: 1) to generate new policy proposals across a range of issues; and 2) to develop plans for executing these policies. This work requires independent research, strategic thinking and development, and consultation with business leaders, think tanks, academics, and legislative aides. In my role, I researched and evaluated education, healthcare, and economic development policy, summarized below:
Education: Created an action plan for achieving the Senator’s education goals outside of the legislative process.
HealthCare: Helped the Policy Director develop a strategy for rolling out the Senator’s healthcare plan. This included developing an outreach list for soliciting endorsements, and writing talking points for the Senator’s calls with union leaders.
Economic Development: Researched U.S. industries and wrote a number of policy memos recommending solutions to the Policy Director and Senator Obama. My policy proposals included ways to (i) increase R&D spending; (ii) develop the homeland security industry; and (iii) expand broadband adoption in the U.S. Separately, I attended meetings on competitiveness and innovation and recommended a list of people to participate in an innovation taskforce for Senator Obama.

Pine Street Inn

Benjamin Arden
This summer I had the opportunity to work with the Pine Street Inn, New England’s largest homeless shelter serving over 1,200 men and women each day across all of its programs. Pine Street Inn currently runs a food services job training program, which provides trainees the opportunity to get hands–on experience in the Pine Street Inn kitchen and transition to full–time employment in the food services industry. As a way of enriching this training program, the Inn is interested in opening a restaurant at an open property in the South End. Graduates of the current training program would have the opportunity to work at the restaurant alongside full–time employees, gaining a deeper set of skills and broadening their training to include a retail customer service experience. This summer I worked with Food Services management at the Inn to validate the restaurant/training concept, create a detailed business plan for the venture, and initiate renovation and regulatory approval for the space. We are currently on track to seek final approval from the Pine Street Inn board in the fall of this year, and if approved, would plan to open the restaurant in spring/summer 2007.

Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI)

Ankit Singhvi
I had an awesome experience with my internship. One of the apprehensions I had going into the internship was the lack of work intensity and the expectation of deliverables in a typical non–profit organization. However RMI is very different. A professionally managed organization that supports business friendly solutions, RMI business model of mission based consulting is very interesting. This approach coupled with an excellent leadership, I was able to practice my learning at HBS e.g. strategic thinking, finance and above all make a positive contribution in the organization.

Social Ventures Australia

Alexandra Macoun
I spent my summer with Social Ventures Australia (SVA), a venture philanthropy fund which seeks to address some of Australia's social problems by engaging the whole community, including engaged philanthropists, outstanding social entrepreneurs, government and individuals. SVA’s goal is to improve the well–being and happiness of all Australians through sustainable economic participation, personal significance and social connection, and has three core programs: Social Investment (the funding arm), Social Leadership (training, mentoring and corporate community involvement) and Social Impact (working closely with social entrepreneurs, and investing in R&D to measure impact). SVA works in five strategic areas: Youth, Indigenous, Environment, Social Inclusion and Ageing.
During my time at SVA, I focused on Social Enterprise, by which we mean organizations that trade as a business in order to achieve their social purpose. Typically, SVA social enterprises focus on providing employment opportunities to marginalized groups, such as people with psychiatric disabilities, recently arrived immigrants, youth, or the long–term unemployed. SVA hosted a Roundtable involving participants from social ventures, foundations, commercial and government sectors, for which I helped prepare, capture learnings and implement initiatives to assist social enterprises succeed.
I also assisted in strategic planning for the Social Impact area, refinement of training tools for social entrepreneurs, and developing communications and talking points for each strategic area and for different audiences (business, social sector and personal). I was also privileged to participate in several conferences and events across the full range of SVA’s touch-points with the community.

TechnoServe

Pawel Owczarski
I worked as a Volunteer Consultant in TechnoServe Ghana, a development organization which helps entrepreneurial men and women in the developing world build businesses that provide jobs, organizing the Business Plan Competition. The project I was involved in was a practical training and business development program that helped fledgling entrepreneurs turn ideas into fundable and implementable business plans. Within the project team I was primarily responsible for the Aftercare part — building relations with external service providers, like advertising agencies, tax and accounting firms, light manufacturing experts etc. — who were to serve the start–up businesses incubated by the Business Plan Competition. I was also involved in reviewing and evaluating the business plans being submitted. During my internship, I designed and documented the entire process of providing aftercare to competition finalists, I produced the brochure to be received by the Finalists, as well as I redesigned the business plan scoring process used by TechnoServe. Working with TechnoServe in Ghana was an extremely valuable and rewarding experience.

The New Teacher Project (TNTP)

Kunal Merchant
This summer, Kunal worked as a Summer Associate for The New Teacher Project (TNTP), a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving teacher quality and student achievement in high–need public schools across the nation. Working directly for TNTP’s Vice President of Business Development and Communications, Kunal functioned largely as an internal consultant. In this capacity, Kunal explored several of the most daunting questions facing the organization in the formulation of its pricing and marketing strategies. Specifically, Kunal (1) developed a cost tracking tool to help assess TNTP prices in relation to current school district expenditures on teacher quality; (2) conducted a competitive analysis of teacher recruitment and technology products sold to school systems; and (3) proposed revisions to current marketing and pricing strategies to be discussed at upcoming organization–wide meetings.

UMass Memorial Medical Center

Laura Dicker
This summer I worked as a clinical administration intern at UMass Memorial Health Care (UMMHC) system, the largest provider of health care services in Central Massachusetts. Though I had the opportunity to work on several different projects, my primary project focused on conducting a root cause analysis of recent volume trends associated with the system’s Heart and Vascular Center of Excellence. Cardiovascular services represent one of the few high–margin services offered by hospitals, making it a critical source of revenue to help off–set the cost of uncompensated care and other mission–based activities. My work was aimed at identifying various causes of recent volume trends in cardiovascular services and developing specific tactics to gain market share. As part of the internship, I had the opportunity to work with both senior–level executives and front–line clinical staff, as well as observe hospital operations firsthand. My experience at UMMHC was both challenging and eye–opening, and has solidified my interest in pursuing a career in hospital administration.

Uncommon Schools, Inc.

Laura Lee
This summer, I was thrilled to get an internship with Uncommon Schools, Inc., a new, non–profit charter management organization that helps start and support charter schools in the Northeast. USI creates urban public schools that set out to close the achievement gap — ensuring that students of lower incomes and minority backgrounds can learn at the same levels as their white, higher–income peers. My two main projects this summer were creating a performance dashboard and year–end report card that would be used to evaluate each school’s performance during and at the end of the school year, and establishing an accompanying school inspection system to provide a qualitative review of school performance. These projects provided a fascinating opportunity to dig deep into the core indicators of school success and to learn from the experience and opinions of the USI leadership, who have started some of the nation’s most successful charter schools.

UN Development Program, Growing Sustainable Businesses Initiative

Katarzyna Biezychudek
I spent the summer of 2006 interning at the United Nations Development Program in Delhi, India and Cairo, Egypt. I worked on the Growing Sustainable Business (GSB) initiative which is a vehicle for engaging the private sector in advancing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The position gave me the opportunity to use my private equity skills and knowledge from the first year of Harvard Business School in structuring projects which result in poverty alleviation and human development. The experience was extremely rewarding both professionally and personally. It gave me first hand insight into the world of economic development and the internal workings of an organization such as the UNDP. At the same time, it provided immense satisfaction to do work which will hopefully lead to an improvement in the lives of the world’s poorest populations.

Clare Gordon
My internship at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Country Office in Malawi fell under the Growing Sustainable Business Initiative (GSB) — a program designed to identify and facilitate enterprise solutions to poverty. I identified pro–poor private sector business opportunities across a number of sectors and assessed the role that the local UNDP office could play in furthering them. Working with the Government Investment Agency, I designed a GSB program which would build Government capacity while promoting pro–poor business. The program received $500k in funding from the local office, sign–off from the Ministries of Trade and Finance and will hire permanent staff from this Fall. The internship gave me a good overview of the development agencies in Malawi, as well as experience of the role business can play in pro-poor economic development.

Adrian Mucalov
I had the great pleasure of being selected to join the United Nations Development Program’s “Growing Sustainable Business” (GSB) internship program for the summer of 2006. GSB works to support “pro–poor”, market–oriented solutions to poverty in developing countries. I was based in Banda Aceh, Indonesia; Aceh is well–known because it was near the epicenter of the tragic tsunami of December of 2004, but I actually worked mostly in the central districts of Aceh to help grow the coffee sector. Aceh is emerging from a decades–long separatist conflict and we hope that a profitable, thriving coffee industry can help to ease lingering tensions. UNDP is forming partnerships between exporters, farmers and government to undertake projects to support sustainable industry growth. I also scanned the business environment in Aceh for other promising market–oriented opportunities for potential GSB intervention in various industries.

Pouyan Salehi
This summer, I was an intern with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in India. I was working on the Growing Sustainable Business (GSB) initiative, which aims to engage the private sector in development of bottom–of–the–pyramid focused, yet commercially feasible, business opportunities. My specific project involved analyzing and assessing opportunities in the Water sector in India.

Lori Spivey
The United Nations Growing Sustainable Business (GSB) Initiative facilitates sustainable, business–led solutions to reduce poverty and improve access to livelihoods and essential goods for persons in developing countries. As the GSB intern in Zambia, I researched Zambia’s financial sector to determine appropriate partners for GSB projects (specifically sustainable energy and telecommunications), to identify the barriers to investment and private sector growth in Zambia, and to collect information for sharing with local businesses. In addition, I performed scoping work in the health care sector to determine if there were any sustainable, private sector investment opportunities worth exploring.

Andreas Sylverius
Under the coordination of Growing Sustainable Business (GSB), a division under UNDP (United Nations Development Program) that aims to involve private sectors in poverty alleviation initiative, I did my internship in Hyderabad India focusing on micro insurance schemes. In short, micro insurance is the insurance policy for the underprivileged people. My objective were twofold: to provide a recommendation for a private insurance player in India on the next strategy to launch micro insurance products and to provide overview for GSB–UNDP on how to further grow micro insurance schemes in India.
My role involved a lot of discussion with many players (NGOs, Micro Finance Institutions, Insurance Companies, Government Officials) in this scheme and it was the highlight of my summer experience. Coming from a developing country myself, it was eye opening to learn various economic development strategies in India. Furthermore, experiencing India was great as it currently has one of the fastest growing economies while, at the same time, is still facing many socio economics problems.
My summer internship helped me better understand the roles of the following parties: Government, Private Companies, NGOs, International Development bodies and Not–for–profit organizations in shaping up a country’s economic development. It also helped me significantly refocus my career plan after school.

Gregory Tademoto
Working at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Vietnam this summer was a unique opportunity to apply the skills that I gained at Harvard Business School to a social enterprise. UNDP’s Growing Sustainable Business (GSB) initiative is a business focused initiative with the objective of using the private–sector to reduce poverty. My responsibilities for the summer included conducting a country assessment to identify the areas of greatest need in Vietnam, identifying potential private sector opportunities that would address those areas of need, and developing selected ideas to the business plan or pilot stage. Examples of projects that I worked on this summer include:

  • Delivering dairy products to the malnourished poor
  • Providing telecommunications to remote rural areas
  • Delivering enterprise software to small and medium businesses in order to improve efficiency and competitiveness.

My experience this summer was both professionally and personally enriching. It provided me exposure to global business and entrepreneurial ventures as well as the opportunity to live in a developing country. Living in Vietnam has helped me to appreciate the opportunities that HBS offers and I believe that this perspective will be extremely valuable going forward.

Young–Jee Won
This summer I had the opportunity to work with the United Nations Development Programme (“UNDP”) Growing Sustainable Business (“GSB”) program in India. The mission of the GSB program is to engage the private sector in helping to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and poverty reduction. The GSB program captures the spirit of entrepreneurship by linking private sector investments and local development priorities through business models which engage local partners.
My specific role was to develop a business plan for a conservation–based economy in the Himalayan Mountain region in India. I had the opportunity to visit various towns in the northern state of Uttaranchal to evaluate their viability as potential sites for developing eco–tourism, and meet with entrepreneurs and organizations (NGOs and government authorities) who would be potential participants in the project. Uttaranchal, the youngest state in India with 67% reserved land for forestry, is home to the Himalayan Mountains, the Ganges River headwaters, rugged foothill zones, and beautiful valleys. Gradual reduction of participation of local people in the management of common property resources, such as forests, has initiated a self–perpetuating downward spiral of degradation, resulting in reduced agriculture output and migration of male workforce. In such an eco–fragile environment, it is challenging to sustain the momentum of positive social change, creation of community institutions, and conservation of natural resources without developing environment–friendly income–generating options and job opportunities. The project’s goals are: 1) to provide training and education; 2) to create a global network of partners among entrepreneurs, organizations, and government entities; 3) to give access to job opportunities to unemployed youth in villages; and 4) to develop community forestry projects in the carbon credit market.
It was an incredible experience seeing the diversity of culture and religion city to city in India as well as meeting with enthusiastic entrepreneurs with big dreams and vision who had no prior outlet to develop them. I hope as the project develops, it will be a valuable resource for these entrepreneurs and youth to develop their business ideas and live out their dreams.

U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of Insular Affairs

Hilla Talati
I spent the summer working as an Island Fellow for the Office of Insular Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Interior. As an Island Fellow, my role was to prepare a report assessing the business climate in Guam (a territory of the U.S.) and recommending policies to the local government that would encourage private sector activity on the island.
In order to prepare this report, my colleague (another intern also assigned to Guam) and I analyzed various factors that influence private sector development, including: tax policy; labor market policy; land policy/property rights; business licensing/permitting processes; infrastructure; financial sector regulation; legal sector efficiency; and transparency in government decision–making. We spent close to four weeks in Guam interviewing businesspeople and senior government officials, and the rest of the summer in Washington D.C. conducting additional research and preparing our reports. The summer gave me the opportunity to gain first–hand experience in private sector development, and observe how policies are determined at the government level.

World Bank

Syed Qasim Naqvi
I had the opportunity to pursue my summer work experience at the World Bank. In a sense this was three months of applying everything I learnt at HBS. I worked in the education department dealing with South Asia. The World Bank provides lending and technical assistance to the governments. My responsibilities were quite diverse. I helped to prepare loan conceptualization and feasibility documentation on the one hand and helped to setup many of the programs that I had recommended in my report on the other. Some of these programs were pioneering projects and analysis in the area. Specifically, I helped in analyzing and highlighting the importance of teacher training, need assessment and provision of stipends, universal distribution of textbooks, development of partnerships between the various tiers of government, the formulation and funding of School Management Committees and various analysis in, closed schools, teacher rationalization, absenteeism and recruitment. In addition I also helped in donor coordination, and developing a public communication strategy and campaign etc.

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