Jacqueline Novogratz is the Founder and CEO of the Acumen Fund. In this role, Jacqueline Novogratz is responsible for the vision behind Acumen Fund's unique approach to using philanthropic capital to invest in scalable businesses that serve the poor with life-changing goods and services.
She has led the Acumen Fund team since its launch in 2001, and under her leadership Acumen Fund has invested $40 million in over 35 companies serving 25 million low-income customers in the developing world (as of April 2009). Prior to Acumen Fund, Jacqueline Novogratz founded and directed The Philanthropy Workshop and The Next Generation Leadership program at the Rockefeller Foundation. She began her career in international banking with Chase Manhattan Bank and she founded Duterimbere, a micro-finance institution in Rwanda.
Jacqueline currently serves on the Board of the Aspen Institute as well as the advisory councils of Stanford Graduate School of Business and MIT's Legatum Center. She is an Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellow, a Synergos Institute Senior Fellow and has received honors including Ernst & Young's 2008 Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the 2009 CASE Leadership in Social Entrepreneurship Award and AWNY's 2009 Changing the Game Award.
Jacqueline Novogratz has an MBA from Stanford and a BA in Economics/International Relations from the University of Virginia. She is the author of the bestselling memoir, The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World, published in early 2009.
What we say, for shorthand, is Acumen Fund is a venture capital fund for the poor. We work between the markets and charity with this idea that, because the markets haven't solved problems of poverty, nor has charity alone, that there's room for patient capital. This idea that we can take philanthr...(Full transcript available to logged in subscribers.).
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Jacqueline Novogratz States Fundraising and Funding the Right Talent Are Usually The Two Biggest Challenges
Jacqueline Novogratz Discusses Challenges In Addressing Cultural Differences In Low Income Situations
