The Legatum FORTUNE Technology Prize was founded upon the conviction that sustainable, scalable, technology-driven business enterprises offer the most effective means to promote prosperity and bring people out of poverty.
A prize fund of USD 1,000,000 will be awarded yearly to honor individuals and organizations whose application of technology solutions has demonstrably improved the quality of life among impoverished populations.
The nominations for the 2008 prize are now closed. Nominated by a trusted network of technology experts, the five finalists will be evaluated by a panel of eminent judges from the worlds of technology, business and development, whose experience will encompass grassroots development programs, private equity investment, academia, and policy-making. Iqbal Z. Quadir, Director of the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT will lead the panel. Mr. Quadir is an accomplished entrepreneur, author and lecturer on the potential of bottom-up entrepreneurship and innovation and widely credited as being among the first to recognize the empowering potential of mobile telephony to unleash economic activity in developing countries.
The judging panel will convene in December to evaluate the finalists. The panel will make their decision based upon the demonstrated correlation between technology deployed and development impact; sustainability and scalability of the technology solution; and evidence the solution is conducive to maintaining a business environment that recognizes employees, rewards owners, and is environmentally sensitive and forward-looking.
Managed and audited by independent experts, the program will culminate in the presentation of the first Legatum FORTUNE Technology Prize in Washington DC at the FORTUNE 500 Forum on December 1, 2008.
