Jessica Jackley to Join the Board of Directors

Kiva co-founder Jessica Jackley will be joining Nordic Business Forum’s board of directors.

We couldn’t be happier to share with you the great news – Jessica Jackley will be one of our board members as of 2017 together with Petteri Kilpinen, Alf Rehn, Mikko Hyppönen and Jyri Lindén.

Jackley spoke about Kiva and social entrepreneurship at our Nordic Business Forum 2016 event in October.

Hans-Peter Siefen, CEO & Co-founder of Nordic Business Forum: “We have been searching for someone with experience in internationalizing their business, knowledge in our industry and someone who is well networked internationally. Jessica represents all of this and fits well into the Nordic Business Forum culture. ‘Building leaders who change the world.’ Jessica is simply a good person and we are so lucky to have her on our board. She will be able to teach us and challenge us a lot.”

Jessica Jackley: “I’m thrilled to join this incredible team. I’ve spoken at hundreds of gatherings, and have never encountered a more well-run conference – or a more thoughtful, thorough team – than I did at the Nordic Business Forum. And it’s clear they’re just getting started. I look forward to contributing my time and energy over the next several years to NBF!”

Jackley is a founder of Kiva, the world’s first peer to peer microlending website. Kiva lets users lend as little as $25 to poor entrepreneurs around the world, providing affordable capital for them to start or expand microenterprises. Named one of the top ideas of 2006 by The New York Times Magazine, and praised by Bill Clinton and countless others, Kiva is one of the fastest-growing social benefit websites in history – in 2017 the organization will cross $1B in total loans, $25 at a time, since its founding.

Jackley is the author of the book Clay Water Brick: Finding Inspiration from Entrepreneurs Who Do the Most with the Least (Random House). She currently teaches at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, where she is also their inaugural Social Entrepreneur in Residence. She is also an investor with the Collaborative Fund, focused on entrepreneurs championing the sharing economy. She holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA in Philosophy and Political Science and serves as an active advisor and board member on several organizations championing women, microfinance, tech, and the arts. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Reza Aslan, and their three sons.