Jim Schorr
Adjunct Professor of Management
Subject Area(s):
Ethics and Social Responsibility, Entrepreneurship
As a student at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in 1992, Jim Schorr was inspired by the idea and ideals of emerging “triple bottom line” businesses, and went on to help launch Net Impact, an organization that has since become a force in management education and inspired a generation of MBA students at 200+ business schools on six continents to leverage the power of business and their careers to improve the state of the world. He subsequently served for 10 years as a Director and Board Chairman during Net Impact’s growth and global expansion in the 2000s.
From 2000-07, Schorr was CEO of Juma Ventures, a San Francisco-based organization that is widely regarded as one of the leading social enterprises in the US. Juma (“work” in Ghana’s Akan) develops and operates businesses to create job opportunities for disadvantaged youth, and integrates these jobs with financial literacy and other programs that facilitate successful youth transitions to adulthood. During his tenure as CEO, Juma became nationally recognized as one of the pioneers and “success stories” in the emerging social enterprise field (Harvard Business Review). Today, more than 90% of Juma’s participants advance to college each year, and Juma’s enterprises are scaling nationally and operating sustainably, without ongoing charitable subsidies.
In 2007, Schorr accepted a teaching appointment at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business of to develop a new MBA course on social enterprise. His enthusiasm for teaching and a desire to be closer to family in Tennessee led to a full-time academic appointment at Vanderbilt University in 2009. Currently, Professor Schorr maintains faculty appointments at both Vanderbilt and UC Berkeley/Haas, where he is Senior Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship.
In 2012, Professor Schorr founded Mekong Blue International, a joint-venture with a Cambodian social enterprise to develop the US market for beautiful silk products handmade by the artisans of Stung Treng Women's Development Center, a nonprofit providing legitimate employment and careers for impoverished women. Professor Schorr also currently serves as Board Chairman of the Social Enterprise Alliance, Chair Emeritus at Net Impact, and as an advisor to numerous organizations and events in the social enterprise sector, including major field-building initiatives such as the Social Enterprise World Forum and Global Social Venture Competition, as well as a number of early-stage social enterprises founded by his former students.
Education:
BS, University of Tennessee, 1989
MBA, Northwestern University /Kellogg, 1994
Area(s) of Expertise:
Social enterprise & entrepreneurship, corporate responsibility and sustainability, corporate philanthropy
