Phil Smith is a private investor, estate administrator, and advocate for microcredit and retirement issues. He writes and speaks under the banner Practicing Significance. Phil recently founded the microcredit clearinghouse, www.microcreditclearinghouse.org. He is on the boards of directors of Eagle Rock Energy and several privately owned companies. He was formerly CEO and chairman of Prize Energy Corp. and Tide West Oil Company and a director of Pioneer Natural Resources Company and HS Resources, Inc. He can be contacted at PhilipBSmith@sbcglobal.net.
Eric Thurman is one of the world’s leading experts in international philanthropy. He is president of Protos Fund and former CEO of Geneva Global Inc., where he supervised grant-making in more than half of the countries worldwide. He is a popular public speaker and appears frequently in news interviews, which recently included the Financial Times, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Time, and CNN. He has extensive experience directing microcredit programs. Earlier in his career as CEO of Opportunity International and HOPE International he managed poverty lending programs in more than 30 countries. He can be contacted at EThurman@ProtosFund.org.