Michele Kahane: Author of Untapped: Creating Value in Underserved Markets; Director, Special Projects, Center for Corporate Citizenship, Boston College
Michele Kahane has 20 years of experience in the global business, nonprofit and philanthropy sectors. Her work has focused on building the global corporate social responsibility field and developing new business and governance models to address issues of poverty.
She joined the Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College (the “Center”) in the fall of 2004. The Center, founded in 1985, has a membership of over 300 companies, primarily from the Fortune 500. Through executive education, peer-learning networks and research, the Center is committed to enhancing the capacity of business managers to achieve excellence in corporate citizenship performance.
As Director of Special Projects, Michele is currently leading an initiative at the Center focused on building the capacity of companies to leverage their core business assets to develop breakthrough solutions to critical societal challenges. She recently co-authored
Untapped: Creating Value in Underserved Markets (Berrett-Koehler, June 2006) which provides practical insights to companies on how to implement profitable business strategies and create economic opportunity in poor communities.
Prior to working at the Center, Michele was a program officer in the Ford Foundation’s Economic Development Unit for 10 years. There she managed the Corporate Involvement Initiative, which sought to leverage private sector resources on behalf of low-income communities. Prior to her work in philanthropy, she was a Vice President in Emerging Markets Corporate Finance at Chemical Bank. In addition, Michele worked for Catholic Relief Services.
Michele holds a Master of International Affairs and Master of Business Administration from Columbia University and a Bachelor Degree from Princeton University. She is currently on the advisory boards of the Women’s Network for a Sustainable Future, the Institute for Responsible Investment, and the NY Regional Association of Grantmakers Task Force on Hurricane Katrina.
Information provided by the
Sustainability Practitioners Network.
