Jennifer Holt

Biography

Jennifer Holt works in the field of private sector development and is known for her expertise on using market forces to create jobs in frontier economies. Currently, Jennifer advises the Livelihood Impact Fund on investments supporting market linkages and job creation.

Prior to this, Jennifer was the CEO of the award-winning social enterprise Building Markets, a New York-based organization that creates jobs and reduces poverty by connecting entrepreneurs in the developing world to new opportunities. Under her leadership the organization created over 70,000 full-time jobs in Afghanistan, Haiti, Timor-Leste, Liberia, Myanmar, and Turkey by helping local businesses win more than $1 billion in supply chain deals. Jennifer has led a successful peacekeeping reform project at the United Nations and more than half a dozen studies on the economic impact of international aid spending. She also worked for the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Refugee and Demography Program and has been an advisor o