Chu, a native of China, grew up in Montevideo, Uruguay. During 4 a.m. leveraged-buyout marathons at KKR, I'd occasionally wonder if I might be doing something else, however small, that could help make the world a better place. Explain the power of microfinancing. It increases the productivity of the person engaged in economic activity, thereby creating new wealth, rather than depending on the redistribution of existing wealth.
Assets grow amid poverty, triggering an empowering ripple effect.
You've said that microlending can change the world. We provide access to credit that those people can't otherwise get. A good example is Banco Solidario, or BancoSol, in Bolivia. Six years after we helped open it as a nonprofit, the program was so successful we had to establish it as a regular commercial bank to accommodate its growth. BancoSol's success has spawned competitors in both the nonprofit and formal financial sectors that are eager to serve microentrepreneurs.