Paul Polak is the founder of International Development Enterprises, which currently assists rural farmers in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ethiopia, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe. He is the recipient of the Scientific American Top Fifty award for agriculture policy and the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. In 2007, IDE received a $
13.4 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Polak currently heads D-Rev: Design for the Other 90%, which helps multinationals profitably develop affordable products to help the world's poor.
