The core team of the Legatum Center at MIT exemplify the very principles of innovation, entrepreneurship and grass roots development, with a wealth of hands-on experience gained through the productive application of knowledge.

Iqbal Z. Quadir is the founder and director of the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which promotes bottom-up entrepreneurship in developing countries. In the 1990s, Quadir founded GrameenPhone, which provides effective telephone access throughout Bangladesh. Quadir is an accomplished entrepreneur who writes about the critical roles of entrepreneurship and innovations in improving the economic and political conditions in low-income countries. Quadir is often credited as having been the earliest observer of the potential for mobile phones to transform low-income countries. His work has been recognized by leaders and organizations worldwide as a new and successful approach to sustainable poverty alleviation. For four years, Quadir taught at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, focusing on the impact of technologies in the politics and economics of developing countries. In 2005, he moved to MIT. His particular research interest is in the democratizing effects of technologies in developing countries with some of his initial thoughts published in the Summer/Fall 2002 issue of The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs. Click here to read more...

	Michael F. Maltese is the Managing Director of the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT. Maltese joined MIT in 2006 as a Visiting Scholar in the program on developmental entrepreneurship, and in 2007 he was appointed Lecturer at the Institute. Previously, Maltese worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Fair Isaac Corporation, and on the research staff of Princeton University, where he was a Fellow of Wilson College and served as a co-investigator for a World Health Organisation project investigating the effects of water development projects on select tropical diseases. In 2007, he founded Global Medical Knowledge, Inc., an organization that leverages technology to enhance medical training in developing countries. He has written articles and reviews in the British Medical Journal, American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Acta Tropica, Columbia Journal of European Law, Verdict and Yale Political Quarterly. Maltese studied government at Harvard University and law and history at Oxford University, where he was a writing tutor and served on the law review editorial board.
	Anna Omura is the Operations Manager at the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT. Omura lived in West Africa where she was a Natural Resource Management Extension Agent for the Peace Corps. Her work there included identifying and implementing environmental and entrepreneurial projects with farmers in rural communities. She also managed agro-forestry projects, agricultural product development and marketing, and the establishment of a health clinic. She assisted in the revamping of the national Natural Resource Management program for Peace Corps Togo. Previously Omura was a founding partner in Breaking the Mold Candle Company. She helped grow Breaking the Mold into a company with corporate and franchise stores, a manufacturing plant, and a wholesale division. She was responsible for the operations and management of the manufacturing and distribution facility as well as product development and marketing. Before joining the Legatum Center, Omura handled the Intellectual Property licensing department for the Good Deed Foundation, a not-for-profit organization, where she also worked in product development. Omura is a magna cum laude graduate of Boston University, where she studied public relations.
	Eric Mankin, MBA, PhD is a Visiting Scholar at the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT and a Vice President at the strategic innovation consultancy Product Genesis. Eric's work has enabled companies and entrepreneurs to turn their innovations into successful business results. From 2005 to 2007, Eric was the founding Executive Director of Babson’s Innovation and Corporate Entrepreneurship Research Center. There, he led research on mechanisms by which companies could improve their entrepreneurial ability and innovation performance. He organized and led a number of conferences related to these areas in addition to working with Babson students on their business plans. Previously, Eric served as the Vice President of Research at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young’s Center for Business Innovation. He also served as a consultant at Bain & Company and Integral, Inc. Eric’s current projects continue his work in the area of entrepreneurial new business development. Eric is trained as an economist, with an undergraduate degree (summa cum laude) from Yale, a PhD in Business Economics from Harvard University and an MBA (with high distinction) from Harvard Business School.
	Jesse Moore, MBA is a Visiting Scholar at the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT and a London-based specialist in mobile communications and market-based international development. Jesse currently works with the GSM Association, the global trade organization which represents over 700 mobile network operators in 200+ countries. Jesse works specifically with the Development Fund, which accelerates mobile services in base of the pyramid markets. Previously, Jesse worked with Vodafone on M-PESA, a mobile payment service targeting Kenya’s unbanked population. He founded and directed CARE Enterprise Partners, the division of CARE International that provides venture capital to businesses in the developing world. During this period, Jesse helped start base of the pyramid businesses in Bangladesh, Peru and Kenya, and spoke about social investment at dozens of international conferences and business schools. He has also worked as a management consultant at Monitor. Jesse holds a BA with distinction from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (Morehead Scholar) and earned an MBA with distinction at Oxford University’s Said Business School, where he was a Skoll Scholar for Social Enterprise.