Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership | Illinois

April 15, 2011

Photo Credit: Caitlin Riederer, AEL Intern

The Subsistence Marketplaces Initiative hosted the Social Entrepreneurship Workshop, covering a range of issues from understanding social issues to designing enterprises and assessing impact. Vanita Viswanath, the CEO of Udyogini, an organization providing business development services to poor women in the backward and remote regions of India, was the speaker at the workshop.

Prior to joining Udyogini in 2000, Vanita Viswanath was a consultant to the World Bank and other international agencies. She was a staff member of the World Bank in Washington in the early 1990s. She has several writings to her credit including books and articles on political development, gender, development practice and microenterprise. She has a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin in the United States.

The workshop engaged the audience through group assignments and presentations. Participants included students and staff at the University of Illinois and social entrepreneurs and staff from non-profit organizations in the community.

AEL Faculty Fellow Professor Madhu Viswanathan is the Director of the Subsistence Marketplaces Initiative.