William Foote - Root Capital

Making Capital and Markets Work for Small-Scale Farmers in Developing Countries

Of the 2.6 billion people living on less than $2 a day, three-quarters are in rural areas and agriculture is their primary economic activity. Yet working the land allows them to barely scrape by. Without access to the basics -- clean water, electricity, health clinics and medicine, basic education -- extreme poverty, hunger, and disease create human suffering, conflict, and vulnerability to extremism. Hence the World Bank estimates that growth in agriculture is twice as effective at reducing poverty than growth in any other sector.

Willy Foote, Founder and CEO of Root Capital, will describe the potential to grow rural prosperity by investing in agricultural businesses that build sustainable livelihoods across Africa and Latin America. He founded Root Capital to address the "missing middle" of rural finance -- that is, businesses that might aggregate several hundred or a few thousand small-scale producers yet are caught in the "missing middle" between microfinance and the banks. What he envisions is a thriving financial market that serves small and growing rural businesses that generate long-term social, economic, and environmental sustainability.

Mr. Foote began his career as a financial analyst in the Latin American Corporate Finance group at Lehman Brothers, and as a journalist in Mexico and Argentina. He was named an Ashoka Global Fellow in 2007, a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2008, and a member of the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO) in 2009. Mr. Foote serves on the executive committee of the Aspen Institute's Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) and is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was a founding board member of the Alliance for Sustainable Trade (FAST) and currently serves on the boards of the Open Learning Exchange (OLE) and E&Co. Mr. Foote holds a B.A. from Yale University and a M.Sc. in development economics and economic history from the London School of Economics.