Francisco Noguera

NextBillion Welcomes New Staff Writer Cohort

On behalf of the NextBillion Team, I’m happy to welcome seven development through enterprise professionals who will join the group of Staff Writers. Together with the current cohort of five, they will share their rich and diverse perspectives, enabling NextBillion to chronicle the development of this idea from the most relevant regions and industries.

Nilima, Josh, Heathers, Sriram, Diana and Tilak: Welcome! We look forward to your contributions and to working with you in the development of NextBillion and our field.

To our readers: Stay tuned for more announcements. They’re on the way!

Nilima Achwal (Ann Arbor, MI) is a Research Associate at the William Davidson Institute, where she conducts primary and secondary research and writes case studies related to business in emerging global economies. She is particularly interested in the economics of development and businesses that create meaningful social impact in developing countries. Read more about Nilima.

Josh Cleveland (San Francisco, CA) is the Impact Programs Manager at Net Impact where he oversees the organization’s programs focused on community, campus, and workplace change and hosts Net Impact’s Issues in Depth call series. Read more about Josh.

Heather Esper (Ann Arbor, MI) is a Research Associate at the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan. She is part of the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) Initiative team, which addresses the intersection of business strategy and poverty alleviation. Read more about Heather.

Heather Fleming (San Francisco, CA) is the CEO and co-founder of Catapult Design, a non-profit product design firm serving developing world markets. Catapult’s clients are organizations working in impoverished communities around the world with design and technology needs, including: rural electrification, water purification and transport, food security, and health. Read more about Heather


Sriram Gutta (Bangalore, India) is part of the Operations Advisory team at Unitus India. He is currently working on the Ultra Poor Initiative (UPI) and provides support to partners in areas such as program design, project planning, and impact assessment, among others.Read more about Sriram.


Diana Hollmann (Cairo, Egypt) is a Mercator Fellow on International Affairs focusing on topics concerning the interface between business and development. In the course of the one-year fellowship, she works on issues related to the advancement of inclusive and sustainable entrepreneurship. Read more about Diana.

Tilak Mishra (Chennai, India) is a social entrepreneur in residence and an impact investor at IFMR Ventures, an asset management company that exists to ensure that every enterprise has complete access to financial services. At IFMR Ventures, Tilak is working on building solutions that ensures India’s rural and semi-urban youth have improved choices to completely access employability enhancing resources and opportunities. Read more about Tilak.

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