HispanicBusiness

Social entrepreneur and author Paul Polak, who has dedicated more than three decades to coming up with practical solutions to address world poverty, will give a free talk on the University of Colorado campus Monday.

His presentation, "Leadership, Engineering and Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail," will be from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the Math 100 Auditorium on campus.

Polak in 1981 founded the Colorado-based International Development Enterprise, which manufactures and distributes affordable water recovery solutions for the developing world. The organization has received $41 million in grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Polak also launched the nonprofit product development company D-Rev and wrote the 2008 book, "Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail."

He also launched the nonprofit product development company D-Rev, and authored the 2008 book, "Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail."

He is a fellow of the Unreasonable Institute, and in 2009, he was named one of the world's "Brave Thinkers" by Atlantic Monthly, along with President Barack Obama and Steve Jobs, for being willing to "risk careers, reputations, and fortunes to advance ideas that upend an established order."

Polak's talk is part of the Engineering Leadership Program's Spring 2013 Leadership Series. Co-sponsors include the Center for Education on Social Responsibility at the Leeds School of Business and the Newton Chair in Leadership at CU-Boulder.