Linda Rottenberg

Linda Rottenberg is CEO and Co-founder of Endeavor (nonprofit), a non-profit that identifies and supports High-Impact Entrepreneurs in emerging markets. Since 1997, Linda has pioneered a new model for development that engages the private sector in mentoring and advising the most promising-yet-undiscovered entrepreneurs in Latin America, Egypt, India, Jordan, Turkey, and South Africa. After rigorously screening and selecting over 350 emerging-market entrepreneurs to date, Endeavor has helped them generate more than 90,000 high-quality jobs and, in 2007 alone, $2.5 billion in revenues. Endeavor’s model also promotes High-Impact Entrepreneurs as role models in their countries, inspiring the next generation of innovators in countries lacking a culture of entrepreneurship.

Prior to co-founding Endeavor, Linda directed the Southern Cone expansion of Ashoka, which broke new ground in the field of Venture Philanthropy by financing social entrepreneurs in over 30 developing countries. Previously, she designed and launched the first interdisciplinary Masters of Law program in Argentina and managed the Yale Law School-U.S. A.I.D. Linkage Programs in Latin America.

Linda is the subject of leading Harvard Business School and Stanford Graduate School of Business case studies. She has been featured in leading publications including Time, The Wall Street Journal, Inc., Forbes, Fast Company and the paperback edition of Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat in which he calls Endeavor “the best anti-poverty program of all.”

Recognition and awards include:
* “Innovator for the 21st Century” - Time Magazine

* One of 100 Bold Innovators of 2003–MIT Technology Review

* “Global Leader for Tomorrow” and “Young Global Leader” - World Economic Forum

* The 1st female chair of the World Economic Forum on the Middle East (2007)

* One of the World’s Top 40 Social Entrepreneurs - Schwab Foundation for social entrepreneurship (2001)

* 10 Women to Watch of 2008–Running Start

* Person of the Year–Office of Women in International Trade (2007)

* One of 25 next-generation leaders to watch - Latin Finance and America Economia

* The Most Important Not-For-Profit Leader in Latin America - Poder–BCG Business

Linda is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and Young Presidents Organization (YPO). She received her J.D. from Yale Law School and B.A. magna cum laude in Social Studies from Harvard University.

She lives in New York with her husband Bruce Feiler, author of Walking the Bible, Abraham, Learning to Bow and other best-selling non-fiction books, and their identical twin daughters.

References

* Linda Rottenberg Biography at "Sharing Witness" [http://http://www.sharingwitness.org/authors/rottenberg_linda_bio.php]