Ernst Schumacher
From 1950 through 1970 he was Chief Economic Advisor to the United Kingdom's National Coal Board, one of the world's largest organizations with 800,000 employees. In this position, he argued that coal should be the primary means to supply the world's energy.[1]
While serving as the National Coal Board's Chief Economic advisor, Schumacher also provided advisory reports first to the Government of Burma and then the Government of India. From 1955-1962, he articulated a concept of "intermediate technology" based on the principles of Buddhism and ideas of Mahatma Gandhi.
Better known today as appropriate technology, this concept was adopted in the 1970s by establishment institutions ranging from the Inter-American Development Bank to the World Health Organization and the U.S. Congress, as well as in more politically radical and/or ecologically-oriented contexts.[2]