SAN CARLOS, Calif., April 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Village Enterprise announced today that Bruce Sewell has joined its board of directors.  Sewell recently retired from Apple Inc. where he served for eight years as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of the Company. Sewell and his wife Cynthia are long-time supporters of Village Enterprise.

"I'm thrilled that Bruce is joining our board," said CEO Dianne Calvi. "We are eager to draw from Bruce's deep experience in intellectual property as we scale and license our model to new partners in additional African countries."

Village Enterprise's one-year microenterprise graduation program targets the ultra-poor in rural Africa and provides participants with training, mentoring, access to savings groups, and a modest cash grant. A recently released third-party randomized controlled trial (RCT) found that the Village Enterprise program led to increased assets and consumption, as well as subjective well-being and nutrition, with a full cost-recovery estimated at three to four years. Village Enterprise was recently selected from over 80 organizations to participate in the first development impact bond (DIB) for poverty alleviation in Africa.

"In this day and age, there are enough resources in the world so that extreme poverty shouldn't exist. It can be cured," said Sewell. "Through Village Enterprise, deserving people receive the tools and training they need to create sustainable businesses—it empowers people rather than giving them a handout. As a donor, I have given money to a solid team of good people as a proxy for not being able to do the work myself. Now, it's time for me to roll up my sleeves and participate at the board level."

Sewell grew up in London, England, and took his first trip to Africa when he was 14. Prior to joining Apple, he served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Intel Corporation from 2002 to 2009. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1979, a Juris Doctor degree in 1986, and an Honorary Doctorate in 2014. Bruce currently sits on two commercial boards, Vail Resorts and C3-IoT, and chairs an Alumni Advisory Board for his alma mater in the U.K.

About Village Enterprise

Village Enterprise has started over 39,000 businesses, trained over 156,000 new small business owners and positively impacted the lives of over 850,000 people.  Village Enterprise has a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator and is endorsed by The Life You Can Save and ImpactMatters as a cost-effective, high-impact charity.

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SOURCE Village Enterprise