GREG VAN KIRK
Greg’s worked in 25+ countries over the course of his career including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, Suriname, Brazil, Haiti, The Dominican Republic, The U.K., The Netherlands, France, Germany, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Egypt, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea, South Africa, India, Thailand, and Japan.
He wears and has worn many hats during his changemaking journey. This toolbox is a product of his diverse experiences.
Greg is a partner to Ali, dad to EvaLuna and Hudson, and the feeder and walker of Lucy and Blu.
He was a Peace Corps Volunteer. He worked in micro-finance and helped start one of the first rural internet centers in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. During this time, he used his savings to start a restaurant, education center, cook stove business, and trekking business with local community members. He failed miserably trying to start a rabbit business with a community.
Greg is an award-winning social entrepreneur. Greg was the lead designer of the award-winning MicroConsignment Model featured on the NBC Nightly News, CNNMoney, and in The New York Times, amongst other media.
He’s a World Economic Forum "Social Entrepreneur of the Year for 2012 (Latin America),” a two-time Ashoka Globalizer Fellow, and was awarded The Bishop Medal by the Miami University Alumni Association.
He co-founded and led Community Enterprise Solutions, which was awarded “Community Partner of the Year” by Levi Strauss & Co. and the “Irish Impact: Community Partner of Year” by the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame. Greg co-founded and led Social Entrepreneur Corps, one of the first “Innovation Award” winners at AshokaU.
He also co-founded Soluciones Comunitarias, winner of “Leveraging Business for Social Change” by Ashoka Changemakers.
He’s been a “Social Entrepreneur-in-Residence” at Arizona State University, Marquette University, University of San Diego, and Indiana University, amongst others.
He’s an expert in experiential/ service learning and study abroad. As president of Social Entrepreneur Corps, Greg led the start-up and overall operations in Guatemala, Ecuador, Nicaragua, South Africa, and the Dominican Republic. He created strategic partnerships with institutions including Columbia University, University of Connecticut, Cornell University, Deloitte, Duke University, Franklin & Marshall College, Kennesaw State University, University of Maryland, Miami University, University of New Mexico, University of Notre Dame, Northwestern University, NYU, Smith College, Stanford University, and Warby Parker amongst others. He led program and curriculum design.
He’s an educator. Greg started his career teaching English in Japan. He’s designed and taught entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, and social innovation courses/workshops at the professional, university, and high school levels. He’s taught at Columbia University, Fordham University, Miami University, Lehigh University, University of Notre Dame, University of New Hampshire, University of Wisconsin, and The American School of Paris, amongst other institutions.
He works as a strategic consultant. Greg's led consulting engagements for organizations such as Levi Strauss Foundation, Visa Foundation, Bespoke Education, The Spaceship Academy, USAID, Chemonics, Inter American Development Bank, IFC, Solutions Journalism Network, VisionSpring, Soros Foundation, Church World Service, Water For People, World Wide Hearing, and Fundacion Paraguaya, amongst others. This work has included everything from co-leading the design of a global worker well-being strategy to designing an entrepreneurial ecosystem to inspire displaced populations to return to their communities, to supporting the design of a global vision program, to evaluating the impact of greenhouse projects, to designing a micro franchising strategy so that micro-entrepreneurs could access outboard boat engines.
He was a structured finance advisor. Before joining the Peace Corps, Greg worked for a boutique firm in San Francisco and for UBS in New York. He focused on aircraft, digital switching equipment, and power plants.