Reid Hoffman
Google “Reid Hoffman” and you might be surprised to discover that not only is he the CEO and founder of LinkedIn, but he is on the Board of Directors for Kiva.org.
Not surprisingly, Hoffman was named as one of the “Top 50 People Who Matter” by CNN Money. It’s not his undergraduate degree from Stanford, his graduate degree from Oxford, or his Board level position at Mozilla, Facebook, Technorati, and Six Apart that matters the most however.(though a resume like that is sure to weather even the worst economic downturn!) To exactly 449 people across the world, Reid Hoffman is an answer to prayer – empowering them with a small loan to lift themselves and their family out of poverty.
Fazil Khuseinov
One of Hoffman’s first loans was to a man named Fazil Khuseinov from Baku, Azerbaijan. Fazil is a Displaced Person from the occupied Agdam district of Azerbaijan. He fled to Baku in 1993. He is married, and has two children. He started his business in 2001. On April 26, 2007, Hoffman loaned Fazil $1,200 (through Kiva) to expand his textile business. The 12-month loan has been repaid in full, and since then, Hoffman’s generosity has been recycled time and time again.
Reid Hoffman loans because, ” We should approach the future with hope and optimism. Entrepreneurship helps build our future. Help good people; it improves the world.”
Why do you loan? check out www.kiva.org
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