Laurene Powell Jobs

Founder and Chair

Laurene Powell Jobs is founder and chair of Emerson Collective, an organization that supports social entrepreneurs who are committed to the ideal that everyone ought to have the chance to live to their full potential.

Most of the work of Emerson Collective is anchored around ways to open doors to opportunity – focus areas include improving our nation’s schools, advocating for common sense immigration reform, and collaborating with partners who are innovating ways to create durable avenues for social and economic mobility.

Powell Jobs shapes the vision of Emerson Collective, reviews impact, amplifies the momentum of its partners, and sets the operational direction of the organization.

Many of the priorities championed by Emerson Collective are formed by the work of College Track, a program Powell Jobs founded in 1997 to prepare disadvantaged high school students for success in college. Today Powell Jobs is president of College Track’s board of directors, which now works with more than 2,000 students from Oakland, San Francisco, New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Aurora, Colorado. More than 90 percent of College Track high school graduates go on to college (many of them are first generation students), and the program’s college graduation rate is more than double to that of low-income students.

In addition to her work with Emerson Collective and College Track, she serves on the boards of directors of NewSchools Venture Fund, Teach for All, OZY Media, Conservation International and Stanford University. She also is a member of the Chairman’s advisory board of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Powell Jobs holds a BA and a BSE from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Earlier in her career, she spent several years working in investment banking and later co-founded a natural foods company in California.