Bob Harris

In addition to TV and film writing, Bob is also the author of five books, most recently The International Bank of Bob (Bloomsbury, 2013), a personal study of global microfinance pursued by investing in small businesses in 89 countries via Kiva.org. Bob personally followed his own money as it passed thru Kiva; its investors and partners; local loan officers; and finally clients themselves in Rwanda, Lebanon, Kenya, India, Bosnia, Peru, Cambodia, and more than a dozen other countries. As of May 2016, nearly 2000 readers of the book have formed a Kiva lending team called Friends of Bob Harris, which has lent more than $6.8 million to small enterprises in more than 80 developing countries. As a result of this work, Bob has been invited to speak at Google, Citi, Visa, more than 30 American universities, a plenary session of the European Parliament, and a panel at the US Department of State's annual Chiefs of Mission conference. Bob also won Associated Press and L.A. Press Club "Best Feature" awards for his (now defunct) syndicated radio commentaries, which were nationally syndicated out of KNX 1070, the CBS news radio flagship in Los Angeles, from 1997-2002. Originally from Cleveland, he graduated cum laude from Case Western Reserve University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics.