The annual “Bridging the Divide” conference on technology and the developing world kicks off April 7 and 8, marking the third year of an ongoing collaboration between UC Berkeley’s Management of Technology program (MOT) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

Keynote addresses will be given by:

• Louis Burns, vice president at Intel and general manager of Intel's Digital Health Group
• Junzo Kawakami, president of Worldwide Research and Development for Hitachi
• Theogene Rudasingwa, former Rwandan ambassador to the US and currently a visiting scholar in the MOT program
• Bernardo Mendez-Lugo, consul for Trade and Business Promotion at the Consulate General of Mexico, San Francisco
• Carol A. Dahl, chief of staff for the Gates Foundation Global Health Program
• Nils Tcheyan, director for Strategy and Operations ( Africa) at the World Bank

"The UNIDO/MOT conference brings together government, industry, and academic leaders to discuss one of the most pressing problems of the modern world -- the growing gap between the developed and less-developed regions," says Andrew Isaacs, adjunct professor and executive director of the MOT program. "This year we are focusing these discussions on four key areas -- public health, energy, the environment, and information technology."

Scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers will gather to focus on the role of technology in the world’s emerging economies in this year’s conference to be held at the Haas School of Business. The program is a key element in the collaboration between MOT and UNIDO that began in 2003.

More details on panel topics and other presenters will be announced soon.

The Bridging the Divide conference is organized at Berkeley by the Management of Technology Program, a joint graduate program of the Haas School of Business, the College of Engineering, and School of Information. Sponsors for this year's conference include Cisco Systems, Hewlett Packard, Intel, Roche, Google, Johnson & Johnson, Chevron, Microsoft, Hitachi, IBM, NEC, Panasonic, and Flextronics.

Conference information and registration can be found at http://bridge.berkeley.edu.