The Global Fellows Program is a one-year full-time program that begins with two months of intensive training in New York followed by a 9-month field placement with a social enterprise in South Asia or Africa. Acumen partners with key thought leaders and some of the foremost organizations to deliver our leadership curriculum, including Cambridge Leadership Associates, TEDx, The OpEd Project, Virtuozo, General Electric, Ariel Group, and IDEO.org among many others.

Established in 2006, the Global Fellows Program is a 12-month fellowship for individuals dedicated to serving the poor and who have the business and operational expertise and moral imagination needed to effect long-term social change. The fellowship begins with an eight-week training program in the Acumen New York office, where Fellows learn about business models for the poor, hone their leadership skills, and learn more about Acumen.

After training, each Fellow works for the CEO or senior management of an Acumen investee on a critical business issue facing the organization. Fellows have worked on projects ranging from leading operations of a new business unit at a cotton ginnery in Uganda, to expanding the clinic network of a pharmacy company in India, to developing branding strategies for a microfinance institution in Pakistan.