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Grameen Foundation : Who we are : Our People : Committees and Councils : Technology

Technology Advisory Council

The Grameen Technology Center leverages the wealth of technology and business savvy from members of the Technology Advisory Council. They work with the Technology Center in examining technology solutions, rural development and market trends. Experts in software development and telecommunications, they provide important industry know-how and strategic direction.

Deepak Amin, Member

Deepak is the co-founder and CEO of Covelix, Inc, a Seattle and India based software consulting company. Prior to Covelix, Deepak was the Senior Vice-President at Streamserve, heading its next generation web services products division. Prior to Streamserve, Deepak was the founder and CEO of vJungle, Inc, a web services integration and deployment platform company. Deepak also worked at Microsoft for many years as a technical lead in Microsoft Works and Windows95 Networking teams and was a senior engineer in the original Internet Explorer team at Microsoft, Redmond-USA.

Peter Cowhey, Member

An internationally recognized expert in telecommunications and information policy and markets, Peter Cowhey is also a leader in building cooperative international arrangements for the management of security and economic issues. He remains dedicated to hands-on service and advocacy in creating the next networking and information technology revolution.

Cowhey serves as the head of policy studies for the California Institute on Telecommunications and Information Technology, and is the Qualcomm Chair in Communications and Technology Policy, both at the University of California, San Diego. He also serves as Director of the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC), where he is co-director of the project on Public Policy and Biological Threats. He is also Dean of the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) at U.C. San Diego. Cowhey holds a bachelor’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University, and a master’s and Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Mary Evslin, Member

Mary Evslin is currently Chairman of the Board of the Vermont Telecommunications Authority.  The VTA is tasked with assuring that high-speed Internet access and mobile phone coverage is available in every corner of that rural state by 2011.  In 1997 Mary Evslin cofounded ITXC Corp. The company grew quickly from a startup to the world’s largest carrier of international wholesale Voice over the Internet calls. Besides leading the PR and other marketing efforts through the company’s startup, IPO, and rapid growth phase, Mary was a one of the leading evangelists for VoIP and a familiar figure at telephony conferences, particularly in developing countries. Before ITXC, she was responsible for marketing paid support at Attachmate in Seattle as that company transitioned away from free support. In the 1990s, Mary was President of Solutions International, one of the first publishers of Macintosh software.

Shel Kaphan, Member

Shel Kaphan was formerly Vice President and CTO of Amazon.com where he did much of the original software design and programming. With over 25 years of experience in systems and software development, Shel has a keen interest in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and how it can empower people. He wants to see the ICT revolution reach out to the world's poor in developing countries.

Paul Maritz, Member

Paul Maritz worked for 14 years at Microsoft, where he managed major parts of the company's software business, including the development and marketing of Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office, as well as Microsoft's Internet and Development Tools and Database efforts. Before joining Microsoft, Paul worked for five years at Intel Corporation in the development tools division. Prior to that Paul worked as a software engineer at Burroughs Corporation and at the University of St. Andrews. He is a graduate of the Universities of Cape Town and Natal in South Africa. Paul serves as an advisor to companies in the software industry, and has an interest in community development and how Information and Communication Technology can help these efforts.

Craig McCaw, Member

Craig O. McCaw is Founder, Chairman and CEO of Eagle River Investments, a private company that focuses on strategic investments in the communications industry. In addition to his leadership role at Eagle River, Mr. McCaw is the Founder, Chairman and Co-CEO of Clearwire, a wireless broadband services provider; Chairman of ICO, a global satellite communications company; and is involved in a number of Internet, wireless and data communications initiatives.

Regarded as a pioneer and leader in the wireless communications industry, Mr. McCaw has been an active entrepreneur and investor in the communications industry for more than 30 years. In 1982, Craig and his colleagues challenged the status-quo by acquiring cellular licenses well before most traditional telecommunications carriers recognized their value. McCaw Cellular became the largest cellular operator in the United States and was sold to AT&T for $11.5 billion in 1994. Shortly thereafter, Craig brought together a team to take control of Nextel, which became the most successful cellular, push-to-talk company in the world.

Rob Mechaley, Member

Rob founded RadioFrame Networks and has been a leader in the convergence of voice and data on wireless networks for over a dozen years. Rob began his wireless career at McCaw Cellular Communications/ AT&T Wireless Services, where he served as senior vice president and chief scientist and helped McCaw transition into its new role as AT&T Wireless. Rob worked on revolutionary projects that have become the cornerstones of today's wireless technology. He co-invented Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD), led the team that built the nation's first seamless wireless network-the North American Cellular Network (NACN)-and developed the technology behind AT&T's Wireless Local Loop Product, otherwise known as Project Angel. He was also a key member of the standards committee that developed the IS-41 protocol for wireless communications network interoperability. Immediately prior to founding RadioFrame Networks, Rob was president and CEO of Wildfire Communications, Inc., a developer of voice-activated personal assistant technology, which is now a subsidiary of Orange.

Anand Narasimhan, Member

Anand Narasimhan is Co-Chair of Voxiva Inc., a leading social-venture provider of voice and web based disease surveillance systems. He is also a founding trustee of the Simha Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on children's education in disenfranchised communities, as well as an adviser to Healing the Divide, a non-profit organization with a mission to advance ICT in developing countries. He was previously the founding Chief Technology Officer of j2 Global Communications, the world's largest unified messaging service provider. He has also worked at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, New York. He has numerous patents and publications in the fields of wireless communications, signal processing and applications of Information Technology, and has advised numerous global organizations on various aspects of technology, markets and strategy.

Wayne Silby, Member

Wayne Silby is Founding Chair of Calvert Social Investment Fund and Calvert Foundation. He is also a Co-founder of GroupServe, a web services infrastructure company. He was a Co-Founder of the Social Venture Network, a group of social entrepreneurs and investors, and of Calvert Ventures, a venture capital firm focusing on social private equity. He is a graduate of the Wharton School and Georgetown Law Center. He sits on the Board of Grameen Foundation.

Pradeep Singh, Member

Pradeep Singh is the founder of Aditi Technologies and Talisma Corporation and currently serves as the CEO and Chairman of Aditi. Aditi specializes in e-service solutions and Talisma Corporation is a provider of interaction-centric CRM solutions. Prior to founding Aditi and Talisma, Pradeep spent over 8 years at Microsoft Corp. in various product management positions, including general manager of the Windows 95 mobile services group. Before joining Microsoft, Pradeep worked as Corporate Strategy Manager at Texas Instruments and served as a management consultant at McKinley & Company. Pradeep is a passionate advocate of offering access to Information Communication Technologies to the rural poor.

David Stephens, Member

As the co-founder of OnSat in 1997, David is working to bridge the digital divide by building Solar.net villages in remote areas of the world, including the Amazon, Honduras, Haiti, and Native American Lands throughout the United States. He is motivated by the belief that by making the Internet more affordable, useable, and available, the world will turn information into knowledge to develop sustainable economies. David has been on the Technology Advisory Council since its inception and in particular has been an invaluable resource for our Village Phone and Village Computing programs.

Deborah Arnold, Member

After 30 years working for major players in financial and telecommunications, Deborah Arnold is a consultant specializing both in new wireless technologies and microfinance. She was most recently vice president and managing director for emerging markets at Visa International. While at Visa, she led the global effort for smart card migration. Debbie was also the global project manager for Visa Horizon, Visa’s smart card product aimed at developing markets, and had overall responsibility for designing the new chip service, identifying market opportunities, and implementing the product in Russia and Ghana before general rollout. Prior to joining Visa, Ms. Arnold spent 13 years in various capacities in the telecommunications industry working with GTE (Verizon) and MCI. She also helped introduce ATMs to California through her earlier work at Bank of America and Crocker Bank. She is currently active in the NFC Forum, has served as a board advisor to the United Nations Year of Microfinance, the United Nations Building Inclusive Sectors group, Women in Technology International (WITI) and represented Visa on the Business Committee of GlobalPlatform.

Susan McCaw

Member of the Grameen Foundation Technology Advisory Council.

Peter Bladin, Staff Liaison

Peter Bladin is the founding Director of the Grameen Technology Center and Vice President of Grameen Foundation. At the Technology Center, Peter leads the microfinance industry in driving relevant and appropriate technology innovation. He was a founding member of the MTN-Village Phone board, the first public-private partnership to extend telecommunications access to the rural poor and was a member of Micro development Finance Team, a consortium dedicated improving the accessibility and efficiency of microfinance. He also leads the Mifos Initiative, a breakthrough information management platform that will change the way the microfinance industry manages technology.

Peter has a degree in Mathematics from the University of Uppsala, Sweden. He is an Executive Board Member of the ITV Connect the World initiative, a member of the Investment Council at Global Partnerships and is active in various non-profits in Seattle including NPower and Social Venture Partners.

Grameen Foundation : Who we are : Our People : Committees and Councils : Technology