William J. Kramer is principal of The Global Challenge Network, LLC, an executive education and training company founded in 2007. He is, as well, a Senior Associate of the IESE Platform on Strategy and Sustainability, in Barcelona.  From 2001 to mid-2007, he worked with World Resources Institute in a variety of posts, including Director Education and Training for the Markets & Enterprise Program, Deputy Director of the Development through Enterprise project, and Senior Fellow.  During his WRI tenure, he was involved in all aspects of the Institute’s work on pro-poor business strategies.

Prior to joining WRI, he founded The Knowledge Initiative, Inc., a non-profit organization which explored the relationship of new knowledge creation and economic development.  Through this non-governmental organization, he did extensive project field work for three years in South Africa, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, and Central Europe. 

Mr. Kramer’s work in the non-profit arena followed a 30-year career as an entrepreneur, principally in the book industry.  He owned and managed Sidney Kramer Books, for over 50 years the world’s leading bookstore for politics, economics, and area studies. He also founded Kramerbooks & afterwords, the original bookstore/café, in Washington, D.C.  His multiple enterprises in retailing, wholesaling, and publishing have served professionals and general readers worldwide. During the dot-com era, he was a principal in several companies that served colleges and universities with web-based applications for campuses, including web portals, e-procurement, digital printing and publishing, and course management tools.  Mr. Kramer remains deeply engaged in efforts to assure access to state-of-the-art knowledge for developing societies. 

Mr. Kramer is a principal author of The Next Four Billion: Market Size and Business Strategy at the Base of the Pyramid (WRI/IFC, Washington, D.C., 2007).  He served as a director of the seminal conference on business engagement in low-income markets, “Eradicating Poverty through Profit: Making Business Work for the Poor,” held in San Francisco in December, 2004. He is a frequent contributor to the DTE program’s web log, www.nextbillion.net. 

He has taught sustainable development at the University of Maryland Graduate School of Public Affairs, been a frequent lecturer at colleges and universities around the world, and a seminar leader for executive education on the subject of business engagement with low-income communities.  As a consultant on development issues, Mr. Kramer has worked with global companies, NGOs, and think tanks.