“In the era of total global competition for scarce resources, where ethnic groups are at war, and the rich are getting richer, where values are being tested and transformed faster than we may reflect upon them, indeed, overwhelming the sensibility of mankind; enterprise and technology solutions to poverty represent, perhaps, the best hope for poor nations.”
- Michael Fairbanks

The Process

The Legatum FORTUNE Technology Prize was announced at the FORTUNE Brainstorm Tech conference in July 2008. Nominations for the Prize were solicited from a trusted network of experts with experience in technology and development issues and almost 60 individuals and organisations were evaluated by a board of senior editors and writers from FORTUNE magazine, under the guidance of Stephanie Mehta, Asistant Managing Editor.

From this group, nine semi-finalists were selected based upon the demonstrated correlation between technology deployed and development impact; sustainability and scalability of the technology solution; and evidence that the technology solution is conducive to maintaining and sustaining a business environment that recognizes employees, rewards owners, and is environmentally sensitive and forward-looking. A further round of judging produced five finalists who were invited to a final round of face-to-face interviews with the judging panel under the leadership of Iqbal Quadir, at the FORTUNE 500 Forum on December 1^st.