Jessica Jackley
American Businesswoman and Co-Founder of Kiva
Jackley was the co-founder and CEO of ProFounder, a platform
that provided tools for small business entrepreneurs in the United States to
access start-up capital through crowdfunding and community involvement.
Prior to ProFounder, Jackley was co-founder and Chief
Marketing Officer of Kiva, the world's first p2p microlending website. Jackley
and Matt Flannery founded Kiva Microfunds in October 2005. Kiva is an
organization that allows people to lend money to small local businesses in
developing countries and in the United States. Named as one of the top ideas in
2006 by the New York Times Magazine, Kiva lets internet users lend as little as
$25 to individual entrepreneurs, providing affordable capital to help them
start or expand a small business. Kiva has been one of the fastest-growing social
benefit websites in history, and since its founding in October 2005, Kiva has
facilitated hundreds of millions in loans among individuals across 209
countries.
Jackley is a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University’s
Center for Philanthropy and Civil Society, and has taught Global
Entrepreneurship at the Marshall School of Business at USC. She is a member of
the Council on Foreign Relations, a 2011 World Economic Forum’s Young Global
Leader, and serves as an active board member on several organizations championing
women, microfinance, tech, and the arts, including Opportunity International,
the International Museum of Women, and Allowance for Good.
Jackley has worked in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda with
Village Enterprise Fund and Project Baobab. Jackley also spent three years in
the Stanford GSB's Center for Social Innovation and Public Management Program,
where she helped launch the inaugural Global Philanthropy Forum.
Jackley holds an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of
Business, with certificates in Public and Global Management, as well as a B.A.
in philosophy and political science from Bucknell University.
Jackley is a trained yoga instructor and avid surfer. She
lives in Los Angeles with her husband, author Reza Aslan, and their twin sons.
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