I often call January the "gearing-up period", the perfect time to get your pieces in place and the toolkit prepared for the projects to come in the next 11 months. It has certainly been a gearing-up (and still is, stay tuned for more announcements that are on the way) period for NextBillion. We're excited about what seems will be a fruitful year for our site and the community around it, particularly because of the remarkable people that continue to join and contribute to this effort.  

Today I'm happy to welcome Moses Lee into NextBillion's Editorial team. Moses will join Rob, Nathan and myself in keeping the site running smoothly and moderating the conversation in it. A NextBillion veteran, Moses has contributed to the site over the last two years and is an expert with a unique perspective on the challenges around social ventures an market-based approaches to poverty. We're grateful for the support of our new Managing Partner, the William Davidson Institute and look forward to working with Moses in the months to come.

This is also an opportunity to publicly thank two members of our team who will transition out of their roles as NextBillion Staff Writers: Tayo Akinyemi and Phil LaRocco. I'm a big fan and will greatly miss their writing style, but hopefully we'll keep hearing from them in the future with a Guest Post or two about their endeavors, which will surely remain closely linked to the topics discussed here in NextBillion.

Thank you, Tayo and Phil. All our best wishes for your future projects. NextBillion is possible thanks to your ideas and contributions.