Paul Rice
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Paul Rice is the founder and CEO of the non-profit organization Transfair USA. He lived in Nicaragua for 11 years working with local coffee farmers before he returned to the US to found what is now the largest fair trade organization in the US.
Paul comes from a strong and educated family, as well. Paul's mother, Dr. Ruth D. Rice, PhD, studied at the University of Texas and pioneered The Loving Touch Infant Massage and The Kangaroo Method out of her doctoral work entitled "The Effects of Tactile-Kinesthetic Stimulation on the Subsequent Development of Premature Infants." Paul has become an icon in the business world as a hard-working, relentless, and powerful voice for international farming autonomy and sustainability.
Paul was most recently featured in Fast Company magazine as well as on FOX Business Network as one of the leading entrepreneurs who is shaping our world internationally, for the better and greater good for all. Paul has also had spots in Time magazine, Ethisphere magazine, and innumerable other publications.
Right now TransFair USA is working with over 500 companies around the country on a whole variety of fair trade products. Coffee of course is the biggest and most important one, but tea, bananas, rice, sugar, chocolate, flowers, wine, and a whole bunch of other products are all becoming fair trade certified. Coffee is still number one, and through coffee Transfair USA has been fortunate enough to be able to forge relationships with a number of leaders in the industry like Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, Sam's Club, Costco, Wal-Mart, McDonald's, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, and many others.
He holds an Economics and Political Science degree from Yale University and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. In addition Paul Rice is the recipient of numerous awards, including the international Ashoka Fellowship and was honored by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship as one of the top 40 social entrepreneurs in the world in 2002. He was also a speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January 2004.
