We were invited to present our work at the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship‘s annual Social Enterprise Summit near Zurich, Switzerland, in January 2008. With Mechai Viravaidya, the founder of the Population and Community Development Association (PDA), with whom we worked last summer, we will present our work adapting and piloting the Barefoot MBA for rural Thai villagers. Some 300 Schwab Foundation Fellows and social entrepreneurs from around the world attended the 2007 Summit.

In Switzerland, we will have the opportunity to meet with leading social entrepreneurs in small-group and one-on-one sessions to explore ways to improve the curriculum and replicate the Barefoot MBA around the world. We plan to look for one or two large partners with whom we can work in February and March to adapt and pilot the curriculum in other countries. We hope those partners will spread the Barefoot MBA curriculum throughout their established networks of regional offices and programs. We also hope to solicit ideas from and forge partnerships with other interested people and organizations.

Rick Aubry, our academic adviser, CEO of Rubicon Programs and a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Mechai Viravaidya, founder and chairman of PDA and our host and partner last summer, are Schwab Fellows who met at a past Summit.