Professor of Professional Practice, Milano, the New School for Management and Urban Policy.
Michele Kahane has 20 years of experience in the global business, nonprofit and philanthropy sectors. She brings a wealth of expertise in the areas of economic development, cross-sector partnerships, corporate citizenship, social investment, social entrepreneurship and strategic philanthropy.
Michele recently joined the Clinton Global Initiative in June 2007 as Director of Commitments. The Clinton Global Initiative is a non-partisan catalyst for action, bringing together a community of global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges.
Between 2004 – 2007, Michele was the Director of Special Projects at the Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College. There she advised senior business leaders on issues of corporate citizenship and helped build alliances with key policymakers and organizations concerned with the role of business in society. For 10 years prior to joining the Center, she was a program officer in the economic development unit of the Ford Foundation, where she managed the $50 million Corporate Involvement Initiative, which supported the efforts of companies, social entrepreneurs and the public sector to forge innovative, market-based approaches to development. She has also held positions as vice president, emerging markets/corporate finance at Chemical Bank and as an internal auditor for Catholic Relief Services. She holds a Masters in Business Administration and Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University, and a B.A. from Princeton.
She is the co-author of the award-winning book Untapped: Creating Value in Underserved Markets (Berrett-Koehler, June 2006), which provides advice to managers on how companies can implement profitable business strategies and make a difference in poor communities. Harvard Business Review ranked the book among its top recommendations in its 2006 list of best books to read. Michele currently serves on the board of the Women’s Network for a Sustainable Future, the steering committee of the Institute for Responsible Investment, and the NY Regional Association of Grantmakers Task Force on Hurricane Katrina.
Women's Network for a Sustainable Future 