The figure that matters most in Jacqueline Novogratz’s story is 648 million. That is how many people Acumen, the non-profit venture fund she founded in 2001, estimates its investments have reached. The bottom line: she started as a bank credit analyst and ended up building an investor for the poor.
Virginia, Stanford and a bank
Novogratz was born in 1961, the eldest of seven children. Her father was a career Army officer and her mother, Barbara, ran an antiques business. She studied economics and international relations at the University of Virginia and took an MBA at Stanford Graduate School of Business. In 1983 she joined Chase Manhattan Bank as an international credit analyst.
Leaving banking
Three years later she quit to find a way to make a difference. She worked across Africa as a consultant to the World Bank and UNICEF. In Rwanda in the late 1980s she helped found Duterimbere, a microfinance institution. Back home, she founded and directed The Philanthropy Workshop and The Next Generation Leadership programs at the Rockefeller Foundation.
Acumen
In 2001 she launched Acumen, which puts what it calls patient capital into businesses that provide critical goods and services to people living in poverty. Novogratz oversaw the creation of its Fellowship program, which trains leaders for the social sector.
The Blue Sweater
Her 2009 book, The Blue Sweater, traces the move from international banker to social entrepreneur. The title comes from a moment in Kigali, where she spotted a boy in a blue sweater. It was hers, name tag still inside, given to Goodwill a decade earlier. She has said that moment sharpened her sense of how connected the world is. In 2020 she published Manifesto for a Moral Revolution.
Boards, honors and family
She sits on the Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Initiative, UNICEF, the Aspen Institute board of trustees and the Pakistan Business Council Centre of Excellence in Responsible Business. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Hillary Clinton, as Secretary of State, appointed her to the State Department’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board.
Forbes put her on its 100 Greatest Living Business Minds list in 2017 and gave her its 400 Lifetime Achievement Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2016. She is married to Chris Anderson, owner of TED Talks, and her brothers include Michael Novogratz and Robert Novogratz.
Sources
- Jacqueline Novogratz
- Jacqueline Maguire Named Assistant Director of FBI’s Training Division
- Jacqueline Maguire Named Assistant Director of FBI’s Training Division
Photo: Acumen Fund (CC BY 2.0)
