An Ecosystems Approach to Scaling Social Entrepreneurs
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Session Description
Social entrepreneurs in developing countries play a vital role in advancing innovative solutions to development challenges. But they frequently run up against systemic barriers to scale that can’t be tackled by a single entity alone. Join a discussion on the role of entrepreneurs, influencers, intermediaries, and the donor community and how they can work together within the greater entrepreneurship ecosystem to address common barriers to scale, thus unlocking the potential of promising social entrepreneurs around the world.
Time & Location
Time:
11:45 - 13:00, Wednesday, April 15, 2015
BST
Location:
SBS, Classroom 2
Speakers
-
Delegate
Director - Global Partnerships, USAID / Global Development Lab
Chris Jurgens leads Center for Transformational Partnerships at the U.S. Global Development Lab, which champions USAID’s efforts to engage the private sector to advance development outcomes. His office manages the Global Development Alliance (GDA) – the Agency's flagship model for building shared value partnerships with global corporations, local businesses, investors, and philanthropic partners – and works with USAID Missions worldwide to help them integrate partnerships with the private sector into their programs.
Chris also oversees the Lab’s Entrepreneurship and Impact Investing portfolio, which aims to strengthen entrepreneurial ecosystems in developing countries and unlock the potential of entrepreneurs to drive economic growth and innovation. This portfolio includes a major partnership with the Skoll Foundation to co-invest in scaling up promising social entrepreneurs, as well as the Partnering to Accelerate Entrepreneurship (PACE) initiative, through which the Lab is partnering with a range of seed stage impact investors and accelerators to catalyze private investment into promising entrepreneurs and support their growth.
Prior to joining USAID, Chris served as Director of Global Programs for Accenture Development Partnerships (ADP), Accenture’s not-for-profit consulting practice, where he oversaw ADP’s global portfolio of work with over 50 NGOs and donor agencies and led Accenture’s efforts in North America to engage its corporate clients in global development issues via cross-sectoral partnerships.
Chris has a Master’s degree from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and a B.A. in
Economics from Miami University, where he was a Truman Scholar and Harrison Scholar. He lives in Washington D.C. with his wife and 2 year old daughter.
