Greg Van Kirk

Greg Van Kirk

About Greg Van Kirk

Greg Van Kirk is an Ashoka Lemelson Fellow, Ashoka Globalizer and was recently recognized as Schwab Foundation "Social Entrepreneur of the Year for 2012 (Latin America)" at the World Economic Forum. He is the the co-founder of The New Development Solutions Group. This includes Community Enterprise Solutions, Social Entrepreneur Corps and NDS Consulting. These are all ventures whose mission is to design and implement social innovation responses to long-standing development challenges. His team is now focused on expanding the reach of their award winning MicroConsignment Model globally. Greg was recently selected as a member of the Ashoka/Siemens Foundation Community Impact Development Group and the Clinton Global Initiative. He has served as an economic development consultant for organizations such as USAID, Chemonics, VisionSpring, Soros Foundation, Church World Service, IADB, Water For People and Fundacion Paraguaya. Greg also contributes time as “Social Entrepreneur in Residence” and has recently worked with Columbia University, NYU, Marquette University, Indiana University, University of San Diego and Arizona State University. He is a senior advisor for AshokaU. He has taught social entrepreneurship at Columbia University and is currently teaching part time at NYU Reynolds. He is the co-founder of The Center for MicroConsignment at Miami University. Greg began working in rural small business development as a Guatemala Peace Corps volunteer in 2001. Greg worked in investment banking for five years before arriving in Guatemala. Two deals he led at UBS during this time won "Deal of the Year" honors from Structured Finance International magazine. Greg is a graduate of Miami University and currently lives with his family in New York City. You can see Greg's recent TEDx talks at UNC here and at BYU here.
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Alva Edison

Core Value: Client-Outcomes Focused, Don’t be a Tool!

Today we are launching our January #ProjectEmpowerment campaign around the need, better put, requirement to be “client outcomes-focused” in our work. This is our fourth core value. As our followers know, in September we were excited to launch #ProjectEmpowerment, a social media campaign that highlights the core values that inspire our work at Social Entrepreneur […]

By |January 13th, 2016|Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Project Empowerment, Uncategorized|Comments Off on Core Value: Client-Outcomes Focused, Don’t be a Tool!

Core Value: Trust we Must!

Kathleen S. from Notre Dame sits and chats with a group of children outside a campaign in Riobamba, Ecuador. So much of the trust we create comes from simple moments of human interaction.
Today we are launching our December campaign around “Trust”, our third core value. We delayed a week as we know many were focused […]

By |December 9th, 2015|Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Project Empowerment, United States|Comments Off on Core Value: Trust we Must!

Core Value: We Vote for Inclusivity!

A group of SECorps interns in Ecuador pose with a group of children in Pulingui, Ecuador during the 2014 SE Corps Program. In this photo, the interns were visiting a local school to collect data and information regarding access to clean water. Much of the work that intern groups focus on involves creating access to […]

By |November 4th, 2015|Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Project Empowerment, United States|Comments Off on Core Value: We Vote for Inclusivity!

Core Value: Start with Empathy

Last month, we were excited to launch #ProjectEmpowerment, a social media campaign that will highlight the core values that inspire our work at Social Entrepreneur Corps. Our core values shape the way that we approach empowerment in all aspects of our work. They guide everything from our internal team dynamics to how we engage with […]

By |October 1st, 2015|Project Empowerment|Comments Off on Core Value: Start with Empathy

Engage in Social Entrepreneur Corps Social Media – “Project Empowerment: Twelve Months, Twelve Core Values”

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It is our belief that true social entrepreneurial change, meaning systems changing and profound social impact at scale, is at its heart, about pursuing strategies that are focused on empowerment. Everything we ALL do as a team should be centered on […]

By |September 15th, 2015|Project Empowerment|Comments Off on Engage in Social Entrepreneur Corps Social Media – “Project Empowerment: Twelve Months, Twelve Core Values”