A expert on using the power of markets to drive quantifiable social impact, Lisa Nitze is Managing Director of the consulting firm Mission Measurement. In this capacity, she works with leading corporations, nonprofits and governmental organizations to develop strategies for triple bottom line returns on their investments. Lisa was recently President and CEO of the largest membership network of social enterprises in the U.S. and Canada – the Social Enterprise Alliance. Previously, Lisa was the Vice-President of Global Resource Engagement at Ashoka for nearly five years. There she was responsible for a team of employees working in multiple countries to engage corporations, foundations, and philanthropists in supporting the systems-change work of leading social entrepreneurs.
Lisa was a Vice-President at the Duke Farms Foundation in New Jersey where she developed a master plan for “maximizing the public benefit of the assets” that had belonged to Doris Duke – at one time the richest woman in the world. For N.J. Governor Christine Todd Whitman, Lisa created a public-private partnership – Save Ellis Island! – to restore Ellis Island and reopen it to the public. Lisa also launched and led two statewide economic development partnerships – one for Governor Whitman, in New Jersey, and the other for Governor William Donald Schaefer, in Maryland.
Lisa serves on the Board of Directors for The American University of Cairo and for United Hands for Health Colombia. She is a Speaker Specialist on social entrepreneurship for the U.S. State Department, Office of International Information, having done speaking tours in India, Africa and Latin America.
Lisa began her career as a broadcast journalist in upstate New York. She holds an M.B.A. from Stanford University, a B.A. from Harvard University and is a graduate of the Leadership New Jersey Program. She now lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and three sons.