Prof. Pirson chosen for board of high-impact Indian NGO

Faculty Stories | Mar 21, 2012 | Nicole Gesualdo

Management professor Michael Pirson has accepted an offer to join the governing board of Gram Vikas USA, the American arm of a non-governmental organization based in Orissa, India, that has earned renown worldwide for its social entrepreneurship and work to advance rural communities.

Founded in 1979, Gram Vikas — whose name means “village development” — focuses on providing clean drinking water and quality sanitation to Indian villages, but it also carries out projects related to community health, natural resource management, food provision, education and energy. Among the many honors Gram Vikas has earned for its efforts are the prestigious Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, the Alan Shawn Feinstein World Hunger Award and the Kyoto World Water Grand Prize.

Professor Pirson was invited onto the organization’s board by Vivek Shankam (GBA ’11), the CEO of Gram Vikas USA, and by Gram Vikas’s founder, Joe Madiath, a former Schwab Foundation Outstanding Social Entrepreneur, who also is a fellow at the Skoll Foundation, Ashoka and the Clinton Global Initiative. The synergy is clear between Gram Vikas and Professor Pirson, whose whose work at the Fordham Schools of Business focuses on humanistic management. This field’s underlying tenet is that business and economics must be thoroughly reimagined in ways that effectively serve the common good of society.

Congratulations to Professor Pirson on this honor! We look forward to hearing more about his work with Gram Vikas as he begins his involvement with the organization.