Jacqueline Novogratz is the founder and CEO of Acumen, a non-profit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of poverty. Under Jacqueline’s leadership, Acumen Fund has invested more than $80 million in 73 companies in South Asia and Africa, all focused on delivering affordable healthcare, water, housing and energy to the poor. These companies have created and supported more than 58,000 jobs, leveraged an additional $368 million, and brought basic services to more than 100 million people. Jacqueline currently sits on the advisory board of the Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Initiative, the Aspen Institute Board of Trustees, and the board of IDEO.org, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council for Social Innovation. She was also appointed by Secretary Clinton to the Department of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board. Her best-selling memoir The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World chronicles her quest to understand poverty and challenges readers to grant dignity to the poor and to rethink their engagement with the world.

Jacqueline Novogratz
Aspen Institute Trustee,
Founder and CEO, Acumen Fund