fellows

Recruiting for the 2009-10 Acumen Fund Fellows Program is off and rolling! The application closed this past Monday, October 20, with a pool of 342 candidates representing 49 different countries.

“It’s truly exciting to see such strong evidence of the growing appetite and global interest in supporting social enterprises,” said Abigail Keene-Babcock, Acumen Fund Talent Associate.

Now in its fourth recruitment cycle, the program has attracted applicants from Afghanistan, Finland, Mongolia, Iran, Georgia, Malta, Ukraine, Jordan, Liberia and Sudan, among other countries. By region, representation breaks down as follows:

38% from countries in Asia/Southeast Asia/Middle East
29% from countries in Africa
26% from US/Canada
6% from Europe
1% from Latin America/Caribbean

The purpose of the Fellows Program is to build an entrepreneurial community of professional talent with strong financial and operational skills, experience in low-income markets, and the moral imagination to build enterprises that meet the needs of low-income consumers. Selected participants are matched with Acumen investees and support senior management in tackling critical business issues.

Acumen Fund’s entire global team will be involved in resume review and selection process for next year’s class. To learn more, please visit the Fellows Program section of our website!

Editor’s note: Guest blogger Heather Lord is an erstwhile consumer behavior analyst currently working in the international human rights sector. Last week, she joined the 2009 Acumen Fund Fellows for their retreat.

By Heather Lord

I don’t know what you did this past week, but I just spent three days spying on the 2009 class of Acumen Fund Fellows. In my academic and professional life, I have been obsessed with the factors leading individuals and groups to act for good, for evil, and for pleasure, so I couldn’t resist crashing the Fellows’ session on social contract theory as they trotted out my old buddies Hobbes, Grotius and Rousseau. Imagine Jacqueline, Deepti and the Acumen Fund Fellows sitting in a cozy circle tucked deep into the old sofas of a country house living room while a heated debate moved at breakneck speed between close readings of the texts, Jacqueline’s probing questions, and the Fellows’ experiences of self, family and community.

In the tradition (though sadly neither in the scope, nor in the caliber) of Mallarme’s loosely structured Divagations, I offer a handful of notes, quotes and anecdotes inspired by the session for your vicarious amusement. To supply the context, snippets from the conversation come in italics, which are followed by selections from my stash of favorite quotes which came to mind during the session.

So, dear Thomas and Jean-Jacques, ask the Fellows, what is man’s fundamental nature? Are we all a bunch of violent louts in need of a good dictator and a heavy hand to keep us in line? Or are we fundamentally good and in need of opportunity and dialogue and a democratic social structure in order to flourish? Next question: how shall we form a society and market and world based on which of these paradigms we choose to believe?

Jacqueline notes that she hears a lot of disparaging talk these days from the heads of financial institutions who are dismayed by the attitudes of the young men and women entering their companies. Her response? Jacqueline doesn’t agree at all – when she looks around, she sees emerging business leaders and entrepreneurs from every corner of the globe who are brilliant, passionate, and ethical. But is this because Acumen Fund is such a particular talent magnet? Or is it because one’s paradigm creates one’s world?

Deepti shushed me; gave me the look – let’s get started, she was trying to say. I kept talking anyway. Then Abigail shushed me; same look. I still kept talking. Finally, Hali gave me a nod – the presentation was starting. I finally shut up, and politely asked Jason Rzepka from Pop!Tech to come in and have a seat. Through the shushings, Jason and I were using the last few minutes of pre-event networking to catch up on his work – a yearly conference held in Maine. But neither he nor I had come to Gibson Dunn’s 48th floor offices (sidenote: thanks to Gibson Dunn for letting us use their amazing space) to talk about Maine. We were there for a presentation by the returning class of Acumen Fund Fellows.

Why would someone from Pop!Tech – and about 50 others – be interested in the Acumen Fund Fellows? Well, in Pop!Tech’s case, they’ve just launched their own Social Innovation Fellows program. So Jason joined us – along with representatives of the financial, non-profit, academic and business sectors for the first ever Acumen Fund Fellows Knowledge Discussion.

I took my seat, and looked around the room. Moses Lee – a researcher from the William Davidson Institute – was sitting across the room from David Auerbach and Elmira Bayrasli of Endeavor. Gary Rindner – an Acumen Fund partner and one of the Fellows’ mentors – sat in front of Jason from Pop!Tech and across from Jason Spindler of the NYU Reynolds Fellowship program (more fellows!) My colleague Mariko sat with Sarah Murray from the Financial Times; Mike Hokenson from Minlam Asset Management sat in front of them. The crowd stirred and squinted – the sun set behind Acumen Fund Talent Manager Deepti Doshi as she introduced the event, sending a glare into our eyes – and the program began.

One at a time, all seven Acumen Fund Fellows presented his or her research project, each based on work they’d done in the field. First to present was Chris Walker, who spent the last 10 months working for Dial 1298 for Ambulance in Mumbai, India.

We are excited to announce that the application process for the 2009-2010 class of Acumen Fund Fellows is now open. Applications will be accepted online until noon EST on October 20, 2008. Detailed information about the program and application the process, as well as bios of current and past fellows, can be found on our website. To apply directly, please click here.

We are looking for dedicated individuals with the moral imagination, the practical skills and the leadership potential to effect real change. The program thus far has been a resounding success – both for the Fellows and the Acumen Fund enterprises they support. Fellows have called their time with the program a life-changing experience, allowing them to build critical business skills and a better understanding of the challenges involved in serving low-income consumers around the world.

We are also excited to welcome our new class of 2008-2009 Fellows later this month. They will soon join Acumen Fund in New York to begin training and to prepare to support Acumen Fund investments. The Fellows have committed to sharing their experiences both from New York and on the ground, so expect to see frequent posts from them on the Acumen Fund website and blog.

If you know exceptional individuals who should be part of our 2009-2010 class, please encourage them to apply.

Acumen Fund Fellow John Tucker was interviewed by VisionSpring’s Miriam Stone. Read the full interview here, in which John reflects on what he’s learned over the past year working in India as a Fellow. Good stuff.