Paul Farmer, co-founder of the acclaimed Partners in Health organization, gazed out at the standing-room- only crowd in U-M’s Rackham Auditorium in February 2007 and told a story about when he had arrived in Rwanda two years earlier to begin work on HIV care and treatment. Farmer, appearing as part of WDI’s Global Impact Speaker Series, described a clean healthcare facility with running electricity, a full staff of doctors and functioning medical equipment. Farmer told Rwandan health officials his team could handle rougher conditions. They were soon shipped to a new, less pristine location. “There are moments where you wish you’d kept your mouth shut,” Farmer said to laughter. Farmer’s talk was one of dozens organized and hosted by WDI over the years, featuring leading thinkers, practitioners and innovators who work in emerging markets. The speakers share their experiences, inspire deep thinking and stimulate discussion of the successes and challenges of international development among faculty, staff and students who attend. WDI Global Impact speakers have represented a wide variety of enterprises, including Fortune 500 companies such as Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Cummins and Pfizer and global entities such as the World Trade Organization, the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank. Representatives from funders such as the Kellogg Foundation and the Clinton Foundation have also spoken at U-M as have those who served in government, such as Theodore Kattouf, a former U.S. ambassador to Syria and the United Arab Emirates, and former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. During a 2004 WDI talk, Albright shared an anecdote of being at a book fair and excitedly seeing a large crowd. But it turned out that most of the audience was there to hear the author speaking before her who had written a book on potty training. She quipped that there were “many similarities between managing world affairs and negotiating with two-year- olds. The major difference being the magnitude of the consequences when the inevitable mistakes happen.” WDI has partnered with a variety of U-M schools and colleges to bring global speakers to campus. The Ross School of Business was instrumental in sponsoring Farmer’s talk and a 2009 speech by Tachi Yamada, then- president of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Global Health Program. WDI and the Ross School Global Impact Speakers 66 William Davidson Institute