Speaker
CEO and President, Skoll Foundation
Marla Blow is the Chief Executive Officer and President of the Skoll Foundation, a global philanthropy dedicated to building a world of peace and prosperity for all. She is responsible for overseeing the Foundation’s work to invest in, connect, and champion social innovators around the globe.
Marla previously served as President and Chief Operating Officer of the Foundation, during which time she held day-to-day responsibility for meeting the Foundation’s goals and carrying out its mission. Marla continues to supervise strategic grant-making, oversee the Foundation’s endowment, and apply the organization’s operating model.
Over two decades, Marla has built a compelling track record of working within philanthropy, business, and government to create enduring systemic change, particularly for marginalized communities. She is committed to activating the Foundation’s entire balance sheet, from its grant-making dollars to its endowment, to advance the Foundation’s mission of building a world of peace and prosperity for all.
Marla has more than 25 years of experience in the financial services sector, including on Wall Street, in the U.S. federal government as a regulator, and as an entrepreneur.
Immediately prior to joining the Foundation, she served as Senior Vice President and North America Lead in the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, where she designed and led innovative philanthropic programs focused on financial inclusion, economic development, the future of work, and data for good.
Previously, Marla founded and served as CEO of FS Card Inc., a subprime credit card venture focused on moving small-dollar loan customers into more affordable products that solve the borrowing needs of these otherwise underserved consumers. FS Card successfully helped 120,000 customers access over $50 million in traditional credit, providing them an on-ramp to reenter the financial mainstream. She sold the company in 2019 in a strategic acquisition.
During her time at FS Card, she was recognized with the 2018 EY Mid-Atlantic Emerging Company Entrepreneur of the Year Award and was listed as one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business. Marla was included in the April 2018 Vanity Fair “26 Women of Color Diversifying Entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley, Media, and Beyond” feature. She is also a Henry Crown Fellow as part of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.
Earlier in her career, Marla played an integral role in launching and managing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and ultimately served as the Assistant Director for Card and Payment Markets, where she shaped the CFPB’s regulatory priorities in these markets. Additionally, Marla spent seven years in a variety of functions at Capital One in its credit card business. She started her career on Wall Street at Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase.
In addition to her work at Skoll, Marla also serves on the Board of Directors of Square Financial Services, an independent subsidiary of Block, Inc., and in 2021, she joined the Board of Directors of Etsy, Inc. She is an Operating Advisor at ABS Capital Partners and at Accion Venture Lab, and sits on multiple nonprofit boards, including the Coalition for Green Capital, Stanford GSB Advisory Council, and FinRegLab, where she is Board Chair.
Marla is a frequent speaker on topics such as entrepreneurship, social innovation, global philanthropy and civil society, impact investing, inclusive capitalism, consumer finance, leadership, and the intersection of business and regulation. She has delivered remarks and keynote addresses at the White House, UN General Assembly, US Treasury, the Federal Reserve, TED, Ford Foundation, Aspen Institute, National Press Club, and numerous industry conferences and events.
Marla was a member of the US Capital Chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization, and previously served on the Board of Directors of Care.com (NYSE: CRCM, sold to IAC), and on the Board of Directors of FactorTrust (sold to TransUnion). Marla holds an MBA from Stanford University and an undergraduate degree in international finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
