Jo Opot Email & Phone Number

Nairobi County, Kenya

Gather invests in ventures that both create climate resilience and drive asset creation for women and girls across Africa. Our focus is income generation and asset creation. We have the privilege to Gather behind women changing the world. We start by listening to entrepreneurs and by learning from girls and women. Each interaction unearths challenges and opportunities that guide our due diligence process. The one thing each of our companies has in common - an unwavering commitment to gender and climate.

The Clara Lionel Foundation (CLF) was founded in 2012 by Robyn “Rihanna” Fenty in honor of her grandparents, Clara and Lionel Braithwaite. CLF invests in climate justice initiatives in the Caribbean & United States and helps communities prepare for and withstand natural disasters.

Nairobi, Kenya

Jo leads Acumen’s East Africa Fellowship program, supports African entrepreneurs and builds strategic partnerships that invest in Africa’s leading entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs.

San Francisco

Acumen raises charitable dollars to invest in companies, leaders, and ideas that are innovatively changing the way the world tackles poverty. To date Acumen has invested $106M in 96 ventures in East Africa, West Africa, India, Pakistan, Colombia and the US.As Head of Business Development, West Coast, I joined Acumen to substantively engage our existing supporters, further build our community and connect Acumen investees to post investment resources in the Bay Area, LA and Seattle. This has ranged from fundraising for various Acumen funds, partnering with tech companies to secure strategic pro-bono engagements Acumen investee companies and connecting Acumen investee CEOs to West Coast advisors who are uniquely positioned to help build these companies.

Greater Boston Area

Singlebrook provides custom web and mobile technology solutions that address the needs of higher education institutions, social enterprises and foundations. Singlebrook's team is well versed in Drupal and Ruby on Rails, and it's clients include Cornell University, University of New England, the Environmental Defense Fund, Peeled Snacks, CSRWire and RSF Social Finance.I carried out due diligence on 18 seed and early-stage tech ventures to assess business strategy, distill website and mobile app software needs and worked with the engineering team to develop custom tech solutions. I closed a number of early-stage tech ventures including one of Singlebrook's largest custom web app development projects, as well as other mobile web and website projects. In addition, I created and implemented a business development strategy for Higher Ed institutions seeking technology solutions.

Trenton

TerraCycle's is "Eliminating the Idea of Waste® by collecting and recycling almost any form of waste. TerraCycle partners with consumer product companies, retailers, manufacturers, municipalities small businesses and individuals in North America, South America, Europe, Australia and Asia.I led the global business development strategy in 22 countries and oversaw the close of deals worth $15 M+ in new business with 50+ consumer packaged goods conglomerates, including Kraft, L’Oreal, PepsiCo, Gap, Phillip Morris, Staples and Puma. I also hired, trained and supported 15 business development managers and was part of an eight-person executive team that determined overall company growth strategy, infrastructure investments and employee engagement.

Greater New York City Area

StartingBloc brings together change leaders and social innovators from across the world for 5 days of workshops that hone their leadership skills, as well as provide resources to scale ventures and develop ideas.I raised philanthropic dollars and developed revenue-generating ventures. This funding allowed my team to identify and support 1100 fellows from 70 countries including 30 entrepreneurs with early stage ventures. I also grew the entrepreneur training network by establishing and maintaining partnerships with Ashoka, GoldmanSachs, Echoing Green, White & Case, Columbia Business School, United Way, Rabobank and NYU Wagner, Yale SOM, Wharton, MIT Sloan, Center for Corporate Citizenship and London Business School

London, United Kingdom And New York City

StartingBloc brings together change leaders and social innovators from across the world for 5 days of workshops that hone their leadership skills, as well as provide resources to scale ventures and develop ideas.I created curriculum on social entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility and systems thinking that supported 750 fellows from 40+ countries . I also led the company's expansion to the United Kingdom and increased StartingBloc’s programs by 150%.

Masters, Sustainability Leadership

University of Cambridge interdisciplinary programme on sustainability offered in association with the Departments of Architecture.

Executive Program

The Executive Program examines how key converging technologies will shape our future and explores ethical leadership in a world of rapid.

Ba, Political Science & French