Expert on Micro-Lending and Social Entrepreneurship to Give Lecture

The University of Hartford and its Barney School of Business are hosting a talk by Jessica Jackley, co-founder of Kiva.org, the world’s first peer-to-peer online micro-lending website. Delivering the University’s annual Ellsworth Lecture, Jackley will discuss “Harnessing the Power of Perspective.”

The website was named as one of the top ideas in 2006 by The New York Times Magazine and called “revolutionary” by the BBC, Kiva lets Internet users lend as little as $25 to specific developing world entrepreneurs, providing affordable capital to help start or expand a small business. One of the fastest growing social-benefit websites in history, Kiva has loaned more than $100 million across 182 countries since its founding in 2005.

Since the website’s creation in 2005, Jackley’s work with Kiva has received extensive media and press coverage from NPR, CNN, NBC, ABC, PBS, BBC, The Today Show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Economist. A finalist for Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People of 2009” list, Jackley has received numerous awards for her work and lectures widely on microfinance and social entrepreneurship.

The Ellsworth Lecture program at the University of Hartford promotes an awareness of, and appreciation for, the American business system. It was created in 1979 by Ensign-Bickford Industries, Inc., to honor its former chairman, the late John E. Ellsworth.

This lecture is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. For tickets, call 860.768.4228 or 1.800.274.8587.