Premal Shah
Premal Shah | |
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Education | Stanford University |
Occupation | Co-Founder Kiva |
Board member of | Center for Humane Technology, Change.org Foundation, Watsi.org, VolunteerMatch |
Website | Kiva.org |
Premal Shah is an American entrepreneur who co-founded Kiva, a global poverty alleviation non-profit that has raised over $1 billion for low-income entrepreneurs in eighty countries.[1][2]
Early life
Shah was born in Ahmedabad, India, and raised in Minnesota, graduating from Irondale High School. He attended Stanford University, where he pursued his interest in economic development, with a specific focus on microfinance.[citation needed] At the London School of Economics he received a research grant to study the microfinance work of the Self-Employed Women's Association.[3]
Career
Shah was an early employee of and principal product manager at PayPal.[4] Building on his college interest in microfinance, Shah took a sabbatical from PayPal in 2004 to prototype a concept of person-to-person microlending in India.[5][6]
Upon his return to Silicon Valley in 2005, Shah joined Matt Flannery and Jessica Jackley in launching Kiva and scaling it into a global organization.[7] Kiva has since raised over one billion dollars in loans from over a million lenders in support of over two million entrepreneurs from eighty countries. Seventy-five percent of loans are disbursed to women, with a repayment rate of ninety-six percent.[2]
In addition to serving as president of Kiva, Shah sits on the boards of other non-profit of organizations, including Center for Humane Technology, Change.org Foundation, Watsi, and VolunteerMatch.[8][9] He is considered to be a part of the PayPal Mafia, a group of PayPal alumni who have gone on to found or co-found other successful companies, including YouTube, LinkedIn, Tesla Motors, and Yelp.[10]
Premal is currently listed as a Co-Founder at renewables.org - an investment platform for renewable energy in emerging markets. [11]
Awards and honors
- Fortune Magazine's 40 Under 40 List.[12]
- Obama White House Champion of Change[13]
- Visionary of the Year Nominee, San Francisco Chronicle[14]
- World Economic Forum - Young Global Leader selection[15]
- Olympic Torch carrier for the 2008 Summer Games[16]
- Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship[17]
- Goldman Sachs 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs[18]
Personal life
Premal lives in San Francisco, California, with his wife and two children. He speaks widely about the potential for markets, technology & altruism to address some of society's toughest challenges.[19][20]
References
- ^ "Leadership | Kiva". Kiva. Retrieved 2019-03-20.
- ^ a b "Impact | Kiva". Kiva. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
- ^ UChi Pol (2014-04-21), IOP- Premal Shah: Can Social Entrepreneurship End Global Poverty?, archived from the original on 2021-12-15, retrieved 2018-07-26
- ^ "LinkedIn Profile".
- ^ "p2p microfinance concept that I was working on before joining Kiva". www.slideshare.net. 10 August 2009. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
- ^ Talks at Google (2012-06-20), Premal Shah: "Kiva's New Frontiers" | Talks at Google, retrieved 2018-07-26
{{citation}}
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has generic name (help) - ^ Kiva (2017-06-06). "$1 billion in change: How Kiva went from nonprofit startup to global force for good". Medium. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
- ^ "PayPal Mafia & Kiva President Premal Shah Joins Crowdfunding Platform Watsi's Board | Crowdfund Insider". Crowdfund Insider. 2015-01-23. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
- ^ "premal shah | Engaging Volunteers". blogs.volunteermatch.org. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
- ^ "The PayPal Mafia". Fortune. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
- ^ "renewables.org - About Us | Invest in Renewable Energy". renewables.org/our-team/. Retrieved 2021-10-24.
- ^ "40 under 40 - Premal Shah and Matthew Flannery (31) - FORTUNE".
- ^ "Obama White House Champions of Change Archive".
- ^ "Premal Shah, co-founder of Kiva, enables the poor". San Francisco Chronicle. 2018-01-18. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
- ^ "World Economic Forum Announces New Batch Of Young Global Leaders (Mark Zuckerberg, Chad Hurley, Kevin Rose And More)". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
- ^ "San Francisco Bay Area — News, Sports, Business, Entertainment, Classifieds: SFGate". Archived from the original on 2010-05-04. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
- ^ "Skoll | Kiva". skoll.org. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
- ^ Boorstin, Julia (2012-10-24). "Goldman's Blankfein on Power of Entrepreneurs". CNBC. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
- ^ "Premal Shah, President of Kiva - 2010 Social Enterprise Conference". Vimeo. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
- ^ "The Power of Giving 2015". National Museum of American History. 29 September 2017. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
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- Articles with short description
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- Living people
- American people of Indian descent
- American businesspeople
- Stanford University alumni
- Indian social entrepreneurs
- Businesspeople from Ahmedabad
- Year of birth missing (living people)