Zenia Tata

Zenia Tata joins XPRIZE with more than 21 years of experience in program design, management and business development for not-for-profit organizations and social enterprises. Her work has spanned 20 countries in Asia, Africa and Central America, with diverse issues ranging from water and food scarcity, economic enhancement, climate change, land rights, healthcare, education and child welfare. Her unique contribution has been to infuse these traditional development solutions with an entrepreneurial approach, where all stakeholders can draw tangible value from these programs and services.

Ms. Tata’s consulting clients have included academic institutions like MIT’s D-Lab, private sector social enterprises like Spring Health and Medeem, technology incubators such as D-Rev, impact investment groups like Beyond Capital, funders like Nike, Soros’ Open Society Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations and large international NGOs such as Concern Worldwide. Before that, she was the Executive Director of International Development Enterprises (iDE) USA. iDE pioneered market-based approaches to increase income for impoverished farm families in Asia and Africa and has doubled the incomes of 20 million people living in abject poverty.

Originally from Mumbai, India, Ms. Tata is passionate about her work with economically disadvantaged populations, believes in the innate entrepreneurial qualities of the poor and is constantly searching for innovative solutions to global problems.

Ms. Tata has taught classes on social entrepreneurship in universities such as Harvard Business School, Stanford, MIT, University of Colorado and New York University.