Founder and CEO of SKS Microfinance, Vikram Akula was named by Time as one of the world's 100 most influential people in 2006. His firm has provided more than $400 million in unsecured loans and micro-insurance products to 1.4 million poor women and their families in the villages and slums of India. A former management consultant with McKinsey & Co., Vikram holds a B.A. from Tufts, an M.A. from Yale, and a PhD from the University of Chicago and was a Fulbright Scholar.