Biography

Jonathan C. Lewis is the Founder and Host of iOnPoverty.  iOnPoverty.tv produces online videos about social entrepreneurship careers.  Candid, filmed conversations with accomplished social entrepreneurs catalyze the best and brightest students and young professionals by providing the information they need to advance careers combating social and economic injustice.

He is also the Founder and President of the Opportunity Collaboration.  This strategic business retreat and networking summit for 300 senior level anti-poverty leaders occurs annually on World Poverty Day in Ixtapa, Mexico.

Jonathan is also the Founder and Board Chair of MicroCredit Enterprises.  This innovative social venture leverages $75 million of private capital to make tiny business loans to deeply impoverished people, mostly women, in developing countries.  A rarity in the non-profit world, MicroCredit Enterprises is self-sufficient without donations or grants.

Jonathan is a Lecturer at the Blum Center for Developing Economies, University of California, Berkeley.  He blogs regularly at the Huffington Post.

In addition, he serves as:

• General Partner, Dev Equity (social impact investment fund focused on Latin America)
• Co-Founder and Chair, Copia Global (consumer catalog serving the bottom of the economic pyramid in rural Kenya)
• Member, Board of Directors, Everyone Counts (social enterprise using the Internet to assure safe and secure elections around the world)

He is a frequent public speaker on economic development issues, social entrepreneurship and social change.  Jonathan is a recipient of the Social Venture Network Innovation Award.

In his eclectic entrepreneurial career, Jonathan has served as the founder/CEO of a global business knowledge company, Chief Budget Advisor to the President of the California State Senate, founder/CEO of an urban real estate investment company and founder/owner of a contemporary art gallery.