Brings over 15 years of corporate training and marketing experience in the U.S. and Japan to Microfranchise Solutions, LLC.  The last half of his professional life has been immersed in the Silicon Valley, involved in a variety of e-business activities for both a Fortune 500 company and a start-up he helped launch--INBOX Marketing.

In the doldrums of the post dot.com implosion of late 2001 and 2002, Hunter diversified his professional breadth by becoming a licensed franchise broker of the Business Alliance--a nationwide network of franchise brokers out of Atlanta.  He set up the Hunter Group which paired aspiring franchisees with the businesses most appropriate to their needs, strengths and finances.  Through this vehicle, Hunter came to understand the power of franchising.

In this latest chapter of his life here at Microfranchise Solutions LLC, Hunter wants to integrate his background in marketing, training and franchising with his interest in sustainable development.  Armed with financing, a business plan and on-going support, micro-franchises in the developing world hold the key to eradicating poverty and ensuring sustainable livelihoods for millions at the base of the economic pyramid.

grant@microfranchisesolutions.com

Most recently Fred was Senior Investment Commissioner for North America at Invest Australia responsible for leading a team of investment professionals in San Francisco, New York City and Sydney, Australia in identifying and facilitating inward investments and reinvestments in Australia by companies in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Prior to Invest Australia Fred was located in Silicon Valley for over 16 years in senior executive positions as Vice President of Americas Licensing and Worldwide Sales Operations at Palm/PalmSource, Vice President positions at Silicon Graphics including Global Accounts, Intercontinental and Latin America, as well as a seed investor and Chief Operating Officer for a mobile communications software and integration services startup company. He entered the private sector with Control Data Corporation in Minneapolis, Minnesota taking on various management assignments in international business development and marketing.

His earlier public sector career started with the Peace Corps as a Volunteer in Colombia assisting small farmer agricultural marketing/production cooperatives and later held staff positions in Bolivia and the Dominican Republic focused on programs providing technical and management assistance to agricultural cooperatives, credit unions, small farmer crop and livestock production, vocational skills training centers, health and nutrition centers, electrification of rural communities and community development projects. Subsequently, Fred became deputy head of Latin America rural development programs at the U.S. Agency for International Development/U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C. and later accepted a Senior Executive Service appointee position at the U.S. Department of Agriculture headquarters responsible for managing a multi-billion dollar export market development financing program for U.S. agricultural commodities, as well as the financing and delivery of U.S. food aid shipments, to over 50 countries worldwide.

Fred holds a B.A. in Business Administration and Economics from the University of Denver and a M.A. in International Development Public Policy & Administration and a M.S. in International Agricultural Economics, both from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is fluent in Spanish and conversant in Portuguese.

Marco Figueiredo is a social tecnology entrepreuneur and an aerospace computing researcher. He has worked with NASA since 1992 in the design, research and development of high-performance computing for space applications. As a social entrepreuneur, he started the Brazilian Gems of the Earth Rural Community Telecenter Network (www.gemasdaterra.org.br), a non-profit organization providing Internet access to isolated rural communities since 2002. He is also the director of the Center for Community Informatics at Loyola University Maryland (http://cci.cs.loyola.edu).

Stephen Stamos joined the Bucknell faculty in 1974. He was a member of the economics department for 15 years and has been in the International Relations program since. He has taught at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, the Univ. of California, San Diego, and the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City. He has served as a Director for Eastern Environmental (a public firm), has been a consultant to the Swarthmore Group (a private firm), and has been an adjunct faculty member in the international division of a training program for JP Morgan bank.

Professor Stamos teaches and does research in the following areas: international economics and finance, economic development, globalization, and energy and environmental economics. He is the author of six books: Economics: A Tool for Understanding Society; International Economics; The ABC’s of International Finance; International Economic Policy; Exploring the Global Economy; and Energy Economics.

He is currently doing a research project and book on the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic. Also, in the Dominican Republic, he is working with a young student from the community of Gualete in the Puerta Plata region. This book is titled, Voices of the Campo and will be co-authored with Ramon Ocaly Gonzales Rojas, who is currently living in the city of Santiago. Finally, he is working on a new book, Globalization in the 21st Century: A Challenge for Liberal Arts Education and Professional Practitioners.

He is Presidential Professor at Bucknell and is a recipient of the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. He is a member of the Environmental Studies and Latin American Studies programs. He is a founding member of the ILTM program and has taught in the program every year as a core faculty member.

Prof. Stamos has a B.A. in Social Science from San Diego State University, and M.S. in Social and Applied Economics, from Wright State University, and a Ph.D. in Political Economy from the Union Institute.

The Lima Team