Wednesday, September 18, 2024
4:00pm - 6:00pm EST
Leung Conference Room, 280 Brook Street
Commentator:
Dr. Ashok Raj Devkota, Brown University
Dr. Pukar Malla is a community organizer, leadership coach and policy entrepreneur, who has been leading with a vision of an enterprising Nepal where every individual has opportunities for a prosperous future. He is Founder and Executive Chairperson of Daayitwa, a Nepal-based social enterprise that nurtures leaders who embrace their self-responsibilities and collectively transform societal challenges into opportunities through entrepreneurship and governance innovations. He is Founder and Executive Coach at the Nepal Leadership Academy, which nurtures leadership in youth and public leaders for promoting inclusive growth in Nepal. He is also Co-Founder and Chairperson of Governance Lab, a research firm that enables the government and the private sector to make decisions by conducting evidence-based research and connecting researchers and decision-makers. He also serves as a Member of the Women’s Think Tank at the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare.
As a Senior Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, he has investigated and piloted leadership development frameworks to accelerate innovation in developing nations. As a Senior Innovation Policy Specialist at the World Bank, he has supported governments of Nepal, India, China and Ghana to promote innovation-led inclusive growth. In prior engineering career, he led design at Intel, AMD, Silicon Graphics and a Silicon Valley start-up, and secured 2 US patents.
He received his Bachelors from Swarthmore College with focus on engineering and economics. He spent 3 years at Cornell, where he attained MS/PhD in Electrical Engineering with a Minorin Business Management. He earned his MPA from Harvard Kennedy School. As the elected Student President, he has also led Harvard Graduate Student Government, the representative student body of Harvard’s 12 graduate and professional schools.
Dr. Pukar Malla's current trip is part of the larger Mission Aasha Tour, a campaign designed to ignite transformative change by connecting catalysts of hope in rural Nepal with champions of change in the United States. Through the Growth Entrepreneurship and Employment Program (GEEP), Mission Aasha empowers rural youth and women in Nepal to take charge of their communities. GEEP fosters collaboration between local and provincial governments, the Nepali diaspora, and private sectors to boost rural entrepreneurship, create sustainable jobs, and reduce youth migration.
This year, in partnership with the Gandaki and Koshi provincial governments and 10 municipalities, Daayitwa aims to:
- Accelerate over 100 rural enterprises
- Benefit more than 250,000 individuals
- Strengthen policy implementation capacity for 10 municipal governments and 2 provincial governments in the Koshi and Gandaki provinces.
For more information, visit daayitwa.org/mission-aasha.