Jessica Jackley didn’t always hold business people in high esteem.

So she never thought she would found a company that would raise more than $500 million in microloans for poor entrepreneurs.

Jackley is the co-founder of Kiva, the world’s first peer-to-peer microlending platform. She spoke in Maxwell Auditorium Tuesday night for the third installment of the Tanner Lecture Series on Ethics, Citizenship and Public Responsibility.

Jackley spoke about her work as a social entrepreneur and champion for social equality, offering advice to students and community members hoping to “change the world” through emerging technologies and innovation.

“It’s hard to imagine a person better suited for our Tanner Lecture Series than Jessica Jackley,” said Grant Reeher, the director of Maxwell’s Campbell Public Affairs Institute. “For all of her accomplishments as an entrepreneur and advocate for social change, it’s quite clear that she is just getting started in her career.”

Jackley began her lecture by drawing upon her experiences as an undergraduate student who eagerly hoped to change the world. She explained that she felt that she had a civic duty and public responsibility to make a difference.

After graduating from Bucknell University, Jackley promptly packed her bags and moved to California with no set career path in mind.

“I happened to move across from Stanford University and within a couple of days, I got a temp job,” she said. “As fate would have it, my job was in the administrative office of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.”

Jackley described that experience as a “game changer.” For the first time, she realized that the business people she once thought perpetuated inequality could actually use business skills and entrepreneurship to help the poor.

Jackley noted one particular lecture she attended at Stanford by Nobel Peace Prize recipient Dr. Muhammad Yunus. It marked a paradigm shift in her career path, she said. Yunus, a self-described “banker to the poor,” spoke about his work providing microgrants to entrepreneurs in developing countries.

The lecture inspired Jackley to move to East Africa to volunteer and work with poor entrepreneurs, ultimately leading Jackley to found her microlending company, Kiva.

“Great entrepreneurs are great at seeing opportunities that others may not see, and are confident enough to take the steps to create value in those opportunities,” Jackley said. “The entrepreneurs that are funded through Kiva realize that having nothing doesn’t mean being nothing, and the microloans help them create value for themselves and those around them.”

After warning the audience that there is no single recipe for success as an entrepreneur, Jackley offered her advice on the three most critical elements for finding success in entrepreneurial endeavors: having a firm identity, listening to others and practicing empathy, and embracing uncertainty to act with humility.

Ginny Donohue, an SU alumna whose non-profit organization On Point for College has paid for more than 4,500 first generation college students’ educations, identified with Jackley’s work as a social entrepreneur.

Said Donohue: “After volunteering in homeless shelters, I was inspired to change my career path and left my job as a CFO for a computer company to found On Point for College. Jessica is an inspiration and it’s great to see people making such a positive change in the world.”

Published on March 19, 2014 at 1:00 am

Contact Tom: tsharkey@syr.edu