Author Details

Dr. Raed Elaydi received his PhD from Texas A&M University, Mays Business School and has been on the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Penn State University, and University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Elaydi’s research focus examines most notably the unprecedented human migration into urban slums. This seismic change in the size and scope of the world’s population into urban areas creates many challenges and opportunities. His goal is to facilitate entrepreneurs, with a sustainability focus, in entering and developing viable firms to serve this growing market. Consistent with this goal, he has authored “Strategic Motivations and Choice in Subsistence Markets” in the Journal of Business Research and multiple case studies for WDI Publishing on Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) issues. Dr. Elaydi’s presentations focus on People Planet Profit, linking local root causes of poverty to individual social entrepreneurial ventures. His interests include social entrepreneurship in subsistence markets, collaboration platforms for sustainable innovation, entrepreneurial opportunity for poverty alleviation, and innovation and reputation in p2p entrepreneurial ventures. Dr. Elaydi has spent this summer working with his winning team of US and Indian (Vellore Institute of Technology) students to build a village solar-still that can provide 200k litres of clean water a day using only sunlight. The winning team, Team JAL, recently won the Acara Institute’s 2010 Acara Challenge, the University of Minnesota’s Acara Institute (see http://www.onebillionminds.com/2010/2535.html). Dr. Elaydi is also working with two other teams on 2 cent pocket-sized water purification systems and on slum sanitation.