SEI Advisory Board

At the Social Enterprise Initiative, we’re incredibly fortunate to have the guidance and counsel of an amazing Advisory Board.

Our Board consists of 15-20 members and includes nonprofit CEOs / founders, foundation heads, corporate executives, scholars, and government leaders with expertise in a diverse array of domains and issues (e.g., governance, philanthropy, education, impact investing). Our roster of Board members for 2016-17, whom we convened in early May, includes:

• Thomas J. Tierney, Chairman and Co-Founder, The Bridgespan Group (MBA '80); Chair, Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Initiative Advisory Board
• Matt Bannick, Managing Partner, Omidyar Network (MBA '93)
• James E. Canales, President and Trustee, Barr Foundation
• Daniel Cardinali, President and Chief Executive Officer, Communities in Schools
• Jean Case, Chief Executive Officer, Case Foundation; Chairman, National Geographic Society
• Gerald Chertavian, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Year Up (MBA '92)
• Stacey Childress, Chief Executive Officer, NewSchools Venture Fund (MBA ’00)
• Maya Chorengel, Senior Partner, Impact and Financial Service Impact Sector Lead, TPG / The Rise Fund (MBA ’97)
• Sir Ronald Cohen, Chairman, Global Social Impact Investment Steering Group; Chairman, The Portland Trust (MBA '69)
• Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande, President and Chairman, Sparta Group LLC
• Helene D. Gayle, Chief Executive Officer, McKinsey Social Initiative
• Joanna Jacobson, Founder and Managing Partner, Strategic Grant Partners; President, One8 Foundation (MBA '87)
• John H. McArthur, George Fisher Baker Professor of Administration Emeritus and Dean Emeritus, Harvard Business School (MBA '59, DBA '63)
• Mario Morino, Chairman, Morino Institute; Co-Founder, Venture Philanthropy Partners
• Jacqueline Novogratz, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Acumen
• Mark Nunnelly, Executive Director of MassIT and Special Advisor to the Massachusetts Governor for Technology and Innovation (MBA ’84)
• Jeff Raikes, Co-Founder, Raikes Foundation
• Nancy Roob, President and Chief Executive Officer, The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation; Chief Executive Officer, Blue Meridian Partners
• Laurene Sperling, President, Sperling Family Charitable Foundation (MBA ’82)
• Mark Tercek, President and Chief Executive Officer, The Nature Conservancy (MBA ’84) 
• Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ayala Corporation (MBA ’87) 

The Advisory Board’s primary role is to provide advice and support to help SEI advance its strategic priorities. In addition to its support for our general efforts across MBA, executive, faculty, and alumni audiences, the Advisory Board focuses on three key areas: 

1. Impact Investing: Exploring innovative approaches to investing that create economic and social value and measuring the impact of these new models.
2. Transformative Impact: Supporting organizations and funders looking to scale from unit-/organization-level impact to system-level impact (at a scale sufficient to address society’s most complex challenges).
3. K-12 Education: Applying business practices and technology innovations to transform K-12 education in ways that lead to high-performing school systems.

Advisory Board members are appointed by the SEI Leadership Committee, comprised of the Chair of the Advisory Board, SEI’s Faculty Co-Chairs, and the SEI Director. The standard term of office for each appointed board member is three years and each Board member serves for a maximum period of two (2) three-year terms.

Our Board members serve as active thought partners to generate ideas, create connections, and foster intellectual engagement. The Board is the custodian of SEI’s continued institutional integration within HBS and Harvard University—and has been the catalyst for many of our new endeavors over the last decade.

It’s an outstanding group of people whose value to SEI is only exceeded by their individual and collective impact on the sector and the world.