Leadership
Madhu Viswanathan, Ph.D.
Director
D.K. Kim Foundation Business for Good Program
madhubalan.viswanathan@lmu.edu
Madhu Viswanthan joined LMU in 2019 after serving on the faculty at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign for 29 years. He is the architect behind the CBA foundational course, “Business for Good,” required for all first year and transfer business students. Madhu is internationally known for pioneering the stream of subsistence marketplaces, a bottom-up approach to research, education and practice at the intersection of poverty and marketplaces. He has authored and co-authored over 80 journal articles, conference proceedings, books and book chapters. From his research insights, he also developed the concept of marketplace literacy and founded the Marketplace Literacy Project. More
Noriko Sato Ward
Assistant Director
D.K. Kim Foundation Business for Good Program
noriko.satoward@lmu.edu
Noriko Sato Ward oversees the administration of the D.K. Kim Foundation Business for Good Program. She serves as a liaison for partnerships within LMU and organizations and universities around the world. Noriko also teaches BCOR 1910 Business for Good, a required course for all CBA students. She was raised in Japan and the U.S. and has a deep understanding of the nuances of conducting international business. Noriko holds an MBA in marketing and finance from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a B.A. in government from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Partnerships
The D.K. Kim Foundation
The mission of The D.K. Kim Foundation is to construct global communities that fight poverty and promote innovation through entrepreneurship, scholarship, and service. Learn more.
Subsistence Marketplaces Initiative
Subsistence marketplace research has accumulated a substantial body of knowledge paralleling other approaches to poverty, such as the capabilities approach and base-of-the-pyramid research. The term “subsistence marketplaces” was deliberately coined to reflect the need to study these marketplaces across resource and literacy barriers in their own right, beyond being new markets for companies. Unique to this stream of work is its bottom-up approach, which is reflected in the research, education, and practice that has taken shape. Learn more.
Marketplace Literacy Project
Marketplace literacy encompasses consumer, entrepreneurial, and sustainability literacy. It aims to engender knowledge and skills, self-confidence, and awareness of rights. The curriculum was developed on the basis of rigorous, qualitative research of low-literate, low-income buyers and sellers. Learn more.