BOSTON — Harish Hande, renowned social entrepreneur and recipient of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award, will deliver the closing keynote address at TiECON East 2025, TiE Boston announced. The event will be held this Friday, Sept. 26, at the Sheraton Boston Hotel, and Hande is scheduled to speak at 5 p.m.
Hande is the co-founder of SELCO India, a pioneering social enterprise that has brought affordable solar energy solutions to underserved communities across India. In 2011, he received the Ramon Magsaysay Award—often called Asia’s Nobel Prize—for “his pragmatic efforts to put solar power technology in the hands of the poor.”
TiECON East 2025, organized by TiE Boston and co-hosted by TiE New York, is the largest entrepreneurial conference in the region, drawing more than 400 attendees from across industries, including technology, venture capital, healthcare, arts and academia. This year’s theme, “The Heart of Entrepreneurship,” shifts the focus from funding and buzzwords to the inner journey, values, and transformative ideas that define true innovation.
Hande’s work aligns perfectly with this vision. A graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, he holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in energy engineering from the University of Massachusetts. While conducting research, a visit to the Dominican Republic inspired him—he was struck by how poor villagers were using solar lighting, and he believed the same could be possible in rural India.
In 1995, he launched SELCO with the goal of delivering decentralized, sustainable solar energy to those who needed it most. Since then, SELCO has served hundreds of thousands of low-income households, schools and health clinics. Hande has become a global voice for inclusive innovation and sustainable development, and serves on several national and international boards in the energy and development sectors.
His keynote is expected to be a powerful and fitting close to TiECON East 2025—highlighting how entrepreneurship rooted in empathy and purpose can create lasting change.
To register for TiECON East 2025, click here.
