Soleman Idd and Mark Frazier

Soleman Idd is a Somali-born investor and entrepreneur active in private sector environmental initiatives including ecotourism and agricultural ventures.  He is the founding Chairman of Openworld, Inc., and works free economic zone development in Africa, the Americas and the Middle East.

Mark Frazier is the President of Openworld.  He has international experience in developing market-oriented initiatives for both the public and private sector.  Frazier is a graduate of Harvard University and is a past publisher and former managing editor of Reason magazine, co-founding the Local Government Center, which was a springboard for Reason Foundation's privatization practice. 

Idd and Frazier visited two classes while on campus, Professor Todd Knoop's Macroeconomics course and professor A'amer Farooqi's Global Environmental Economics course.  They delivered a public presentation entitled, "The Global Virtual Economy: NGOs, Micro-Finance and IT-Enabled Development" and lunched with students and faculty.