Global Social Venture Competition

EcoInsure is a startup insurance company serving the needs of the land conservation community. Its primary product will be insurance covering the legal costs of enforcing and defending conservation easements. Conservation easements – legal agreements permanently limiting development of a property – are an increasingly popular tool for conserving private lands. However, many easement holding organizations (primarily land trusts) currently do not have the financial capacity to enforce or defend their easements in court. EcoInsure offers a product which ensures the continued use of the conservation easement as a tool for conservation.

Norah McVeigh has over 20 years experience serving the financial and institutional development needs of the nonprofit sector. She is currently a senior manager at the Nonprofit Finance Fund, a federally-certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) providing financial and advisory services to the nonprofit sector. In this position she is responsible for managing all financial products, raising loan fund capital, overseeing risk management and developing new products. During her tenure, NFF’s lending business has grown dramatically; the organization has lent $150 million to over 450 organizations across the country and the loan portfolio has increased from $3.8 million to $50 million.

Before joining NFF in 1993, she was Associate Director and a Loan Specialist for the Housing Development Fund in Stamford, Connecticut. Previously, she worked for International Voluntary Services, where among other responsibilities, she administered a program in Ecuador that provided assistance to rural communities. Ms. McVeigh holds an MA in Public and Private Management from The Yale School of Management and a BS from Georgetown University. She lives in New York City with her husband, Peter Szabo (also a SOM graduate), and their two children.

Planting Empowerment (PE) is the managing body and operator of partnerships that will invest in hardwood timber production in Panama. PE’s four founders, all former Peace Corps Volunteers who worked in rural Panama, realized that poor Panamanians’ agricultural current practices often lead to unchecked deforestation, soil degradation, and the loss of important biodiversity. By leasing the land of rural Panamanians for reforestation initiatives, PE offers them an alternative: an economic incentive not to deforest.

PictureRx simplifies health information and addresses the $73 billion problem of low health literacy.Through patent-pending software, PictureRx enables providers to quickly produce Picture Prescription Cards, which use pictures to help patients understand what they’re taking, how to take it, and what it’s for. In the process, PictureRx improves adherence and reduces medication errors.

Innovators in HOPE, was formed in October 2007 as team to compete in the Duke University’s 2007 Engineering World Health CURES Competition (CURES). According to leading research on investment in global health, the highest burden of disease in low and middle income countries is caused by low birth-weight, prematurity, and birth trauma. Through the development and sale of the HOPE Incubator, our vision is to save lives and prevent infant illness in these countries. Developed by an interdisciplinary team of graduate students from Duke, together with the technical assistance of 15 bioengineering undergraduate students and the guidance of a host of professionals from medical, engineering and business communities, the HOPE Incubator seeks to provide Least Developed Countries with infant incubation technology that is radically more affordable than the available alternatives and extremely effective for our target population. The HOPE Incubator will comply with all essential features for the adequate medical care of infants while also being battery powered, more easily repaired, and significantly less expensive than the new, used, and refurbished units currently found in developing world hospitals and clinics.

Michael began his career as a corporate banker with Bank of Boston. Following business school, his interest in brand management lead him to join Kraft General Foods as an Assistant Brand Manager in 1990, where he spent nine years in a series of positions of increased responsibility in brand management, new product development and strategy. He helped deliver strong business results on such brands as Stove Top(R), Shake N Bake(R), Cool Whip(R), Lender’s(R) Bagels and Baker’s(R) Chocolate. In 1998, he was promoted to a Category Business Director position in the Desserts & Snacks Division of Kraft Foods.

In 1999, he joined Newman’s Own, Inc. as Vice President, Marketing. He’s greatly enjoyed being part of a team that has continued the Company’s pattern of success by helping to deliver consistent growth in profits-for-charity. In 2006, he was promoted to a Corporate Officer of Newman’s Own, Inc.

Michael has a BA in Economics from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and an MBA with honors from Georgetown University. He and his wife Judy live in New Canaan, Connecticut, where they both report directly to their three sons: Jack, Sam and Henry. Michael is the founder and captain of the Go-The-Distance Marathon Team that raises funds for The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp.

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Arjan Schütte is the Associate Director of The Center for Financial Services Innovation (an affiliate of ShoreBank Corporation). He manages the Center’s investment and grant programs and works with portfolio companies and nonprofits to further their project goals. Under his direction, fund applicants more than doubled between 2004 and 2005, expanding the Center’s role and influence in its market. Mr. Schütte is also active in the Center’s strategic and business development work.

Prior to joining CFSI in 2004, Mr. Schütte led an array of enterprise technology development projects for clients such as Bank of America, Intel, and Target. In 2000, he founded DoTheGood, Inc., a for-profit philanthropy management company. DoTheGood innovated online workplace giving for clients including 3M, St. Paul Travelers, Lawson Software and Wells Fargo, and created an outsourced donor-advised fund platform for financial services intermediaries. In four years, DoTheGood raised funds for almost 5,000 nonprofit organizations, serving 15 corporate clients in 7 countries. As CEO, Mr. Schütte developed the strategic direction, and led the management and sales teams.

In 1998, Mr. Schütte received an MS from MIT’s prestigious Media Laboratory, where he was an Interval Fellow. Here, he worked with companies including Philips, Kodak, Sony and The Tribune Company, researching next generation technologies in interactive cinema, tangible media, and epistemology and learning. Mr. Schütte’s previous experience includes educational technology consulting for schools and technology providers across the country. He was a pioneer in interactive learning technology, producing one of the first interactive higher education CD-ROMs in 1993, as well as leading a team which produced a series of award-winning titles in various subjects for the K-12 market.

Arjan Schütte is a graduate of Lewis and Clark College, where he received a BA in Philosophy and Communication.