Guest blogger Sofia Leon is currently the Senior Program Coordinator at the Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION International. Her passion is sustainable social enterprise, specifically seeking to scale BOP energy delivery without subsidies.

By Sofia Leon

Following an all-star Opening Plenary, I walked upstairs at the 2008 Clinton Global Initiative to see Chris Crane of Opportunity International, Elizabeth Littlefield of CGAP, and Maria Otero of ACCION International. I work in microfinance and was clearly excited to hear this panel, but I walked into a packed room whose attention was set on the microfinance discussion at hand.

Track director Jane Wales introduced the panel, and after individual project updates from each of the three panelists, Jane asked Maria Otero to announce a new CGI Commitment spreading across the microfinance industry: The Campaign for Client Protection in Microfinance.

Maria Otero set the stage, describing how the growing interest from commercial lenders in serving the markets at the BoP make it essential for MFIs, MFI networks, and in general, institutions serving low income markets to proactively embrace client protection rather than having it forced upon them by governments, donors, or as a compliance matter by investors.

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In times like this, when clean energy technologies are the hype and talent in the sector is in high demand, Mathias Craig could have any job in the world. His training includes engineering degrees from both UC Berkeley and MIT, and his true passion is wind power. In stead of getting taking one of the job offers he got after graduate school Mathias decided to found blueEnergy Group and bring energy to underserved communities. He is now the executive director of the organization.

blueEnergy helps communities in the caribbean coast of Nicaragua develop sustainable energy systems through hybrid wind and solar technologies that are manufactured, maintained and operated by themselves.  I learned a lot from Mathias, his passion, vision and commitment. Like most entrepreneurs, he didn't have much time to plan at all when he decided to become one in such an isolated area. He just did it. Now he is living up to his dream, with all the ups and downs that entails.

Like everyone I met in GSBI, I will keep an eye out for Mathias and how he continues to build a robust organization and scale his initial idea. I wasn't able to get him on film in California but he sent us the following clip, recorded a few days ago while working with his team in the caribbean coasts of Nicaragua. 

Finally, make sure to catch Mathias' blog on Social Edge. You'll get a good feeling of the challenges he faces as an entrepreneur but mostly the drive and passion that keep him at the job.