Businesses and Non-Profits - Katherine Boas '02

Inspired by a meeting with the founder of Thailand's largest NGO, Katherine Boas '02 and Stanford business school classmate Scott Raymond created the Barefoot MBA, an adaptable tool to teach basic business to anyone, anywhere.

Microlending is hot these days. It's relatively easy to give and, increasingly, easy to get a small-scale loan to jump-start a business. But despite all that available financial capital, access to intellectual capital isn't as easy to come by. Or wasn't.

About four years ago, while on a business school trip to Thailand and Cambodia, Mechai Viravaidya, the founder of Thailand's largest NGO and a pioneer in microfinance, challenged us to find a better way. Wouldn't it be great, he wondered aloud to room full of Stanford MBAs, if we had a business curriculum that anybody could learn so people who receive these loans could use them wisely?

Over dinner that night, the Barefoot MBA was born. We spent the next few months creating the 16 lessons that would become the Barefoot MBA, working with experts in education and development to devise an elegant way to teach a common set of concepts to a range of people. Our solution? Stories.

Each Barefoot MBA lesson contains a pair of contrasting stories, each with a protagonist facing a business decision. The stories in each lesson are identical, except the protagonist in the second understands the lesson at hand and makes a different, better business decision as a result. The lesson is the difference between the stories. The format is simple – and requires no literacy or props, allowing the Barefoot MBA to go truly anywhere. And it has.

After a successful pilot on a return trip to Thailand in 2007, we've successfully adapted the Barefoot MBA with partners in places as far as Guatemala, India and the Philippines. Our latest adaptation is closer to home: Providence. We're working with Brown students and alumni at the Capital Good Fund on a basic business education workshop for immigrants and other prospective borrowers.
We're excited about future partnerships, near and far, and would be happy to talk with anyone interested in learning more. We encourage anyone to express more passive interest by following our blog, becoming a fan on Facebook and/or following us on Twitter.

For more information, please visit http://www.barefootmba.org.

Class Notes - March 2009

Alex Kruglov and Alia Zaharudin had a baby daughter Zadie on January 6th. At two months now, she's an absolute delight to her lucky parents as she's starting to smile, coo, and develop a personality. Picture attached (in front of our new home).

Dan Restuccia '02 and his wife Alissa Farber had a baby girl, Eva Jane Restuccia on February 7, 2009. Eva Jane weighed 8lbs 6 oz.

David Billings - My son Theodore Dewei Billings ('20) was born on August 28, 2008, weighing 8 lbs 4 oz. I am now working at Parsons, Behle & Latimer, the largest law firm in my home town of Salt Lake City, Utah. I do commercial litigation, especially chapter 11 bankruptcies.

Jennifer Beckmann '02 is in the middle of her MBA at the University of Cambridge (England) - but perhaps more exciting is that she got engaged at the beginning of February! Jen will marry Michael Butler (Cornell '98) in September 2009 in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Providence had to be a part of the festivities, so the rehearsal dinner will be at 3 Steeple Street! (Photos from the day we got engaged are attached - they were taken at the British Museum, London)

Jess Lopez continues to work full-time at New York Cares. On top of that she recently launched norahvincent.net and diamondbelles.com. She also just began working as an Instructor of Physical Computing at the Institute for Schools of the Future.

Kathleen Corriveau Bird '02 and Jacy Bird '03 welcomed Elena Rose Bird into the world on February 8, 2009 at 5lbs 15oz. She is absolutely perfect. Kathleen Corriveau's email is now kcorriveau@gmail.com.

Lauren Hale '02 continues to dance and choreograph for Lauren Hale Dance. She recently relocated her company to the Hudson Valley, NY. She is really excited about her new concert, Turn: Return at the Philipstown Depot Theatre in Garrison, New York on April 3rd. For more information on Lauren's work, visit her website at http://www.laurenhaledance.com/

Mark Dembitz - For the past 2.5 years I’ve been in China working in Environmental Finance. Specifically, I produce carbon credits by financing and developing projects that reduce the emissions of greenhouse gasses. It’s been great, but time for new challenges is around the corner as I’m off to Paris to get my MBA at INSEAD. I plan on leaving China slightly unconventionally: riding a motorcycle overland with a friend, from Beijing to Istanbul (Turkey). We are using this opportunity to raise funds for a new charitable organization aimed at fighting climate change and help educate and inspire people along the way that each and every one of us can make a difference by trying to minimize our impact on the environment. It will take 80 days to cover the 16,000 kilometers that separate both cities, and we will cross 8 countries as we ride along the silk road. We will be sharing our impressions and photos on a dedicated blog that people can find on www.gglobal.org and on facebook. If anyone from OH DEUCE is somewhere along the way, it would be fantastic to meet up. Any comments, encouragements, funds etc are also happily received.

Rebecca Spielfogel Polivy and Tammy Stolz Solitro met Rachel Weinstein Petterson in San Francisco to grab a bite to eat in Chinatown after her wedding in July '08. It was a great chance to catch up since Rebecca is in Seattle working at Boeing and Tammy is out in Philly saving lives as a resident. In addition, to getting married, Rachel also started a new job at Google where she can catch up with several Brown grads on a daily basis. So if you're in the Bay Area, Seattle or Philly--say hi!

Sandeep Parikh couldn't be more thrilled that his web series The Legend of Neil was nominated for 4 Streamy Awards! But he needs your help to win the Audience Choice award which requires votes to win. Please head over to http://vote.streamy.org and cast your vote, no registration necessary just a quick click. In case you need more incentive one, of the nominees is a Harvard grad, and we can't let that dude win right? Thanks for the support!

Shareef Jackson - I'm currently living in West Philly and working with Shire Pharmaceuticals. I manage databases as well as perform data analysis and product assessments. I've been married for about 3.5 years. I still love to do spoken word / rap, but haven't had much time to record.

Jessica Gonzalez Ortiz, Toni Karbe, Maria Pelaez, Ivania Perez, Divya Eapen, and Alison Lee escaped to Miami for the weekend!

Scrapbook - March 2009