Continuing Lecturer
Center for Equity, Gender, and Leadership | Center for Social Sector Leadership | Entrepreneurship & Innovation | Sustainability
Career entrepreneur, venture investment professional, management consultant, and innovation educator
About
Jorge Calderon is a career entrepreneur, venture investment professional, management consultant, and innovation educator. Calderon is Managing Director for Impact Investments at Hispanics in Philanthropy, where he leads a fund that invests Latinx-led startups. Calderon previously founded Eddily, a skill-building and campus recruiting software platform for college students, and Impact Strategy Advisors (ISA), a boutique social venture and investment design consulting firm focused on helping capital sources and operating companies transform intentional social purpose into economic and positive impact value. He has broad expertise in a variety of social themes, including education, economic development, diversity/inclusion, job creation, poverty alleviation, access to food, technology for change, and the field of impact investing. Calderon is the author of the Startup Discovery Method and Purpose-Driven Design frameworks. He has been a professional faculty member at the Haas School of Business since 2014, where he has built the Impact Startup LaunchPad, Startup Disco, and Berkeley Impact Venture Partners (BIVP) curricula, and founded the Amp Impact Accelerator. He has also been a fellow within the Institute for Business and Social Impact, was part of the faculty team for the LAUNCH accelerator, and was the faculty director for the Global Social Venture Competition. He is actively involved with campus-based inclusive innovation programs. Through Berkeley Haas, Calderon received the Richard H. Holton Teaching Fellow Award, Berkeley Haas Best Case Award, and a Continuing Lecturer appointment. Previously, Calderon founded Springworks, a program lab committed to developing paths for women and minorities in innovation-related careers; was the founding Director for the West Coast office of a tech-focused, seed-stage venture capital firm; and had roles in top-tier management consulting, banking, and technology companies. Calderon is a University of Michigan graduate and received his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Expertise and Research Interests
- Social venture design
- Social entrepreneurship
- Impact investing strategies and outcomes
- Purpose economy evolution, the infusing of traditional companies with positive purpose and values
- Convergence of investment and philanthropic services for the high-net-worth segment
- Entrepreneurship as a tool for prosperity for disadvantaged communities
- Diversity and inclusion in innovation fields
- Innovative approaches to improving education
Back to the Roots Case (published by UC Berkeley Case Series)
At Haas since 2014
2021-present, Managing Director, Impact Investments (Latinx Startup Fund), Hispanics in Philanthropy
2018 – present, Founder and Lecturer, Berkeley Haas Social Venture Fund
2016 – 2021, CEO and Founder of Eddily
2014 – present, Continuing Lecturer, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley
2014 – 2020, Social Impact Fellow at the Institute for Business and Social Impact (IBSI)
2010 – 2016, Founder/Managing Director, Impact Strategy Advisors & Promise Capital
2009 – 2015, Founder, Springworks
2015 – 2018, Faculty, UC LAUNCH Accelerator
2014 – 2015, Faculty Director, Global Social Venture Competition (GSVC)
2012 – 2013, Entrepreneur in Residence, Astia
2008 – 2009, Founding Director of West Coast Office for Seed Stage Fund
2007 – 2008, Independent Consultant
2005 – 2007, Management Consultant, Oliver Wyman
2003 – 2005, MBA Rotation Program, Bank of America
2000 – 2001, Web Consultant, Agency.com
1997 – 2000, Consultant, Accenture
2018 – 2020, Commissioner, Redwood City Park, Recreation and Community
Spanish
- 2016 Berkeley-Haas Case of the Year Award (Back to the Roots/BTTR)
- Richard H. Holton Teaching Fellow (in Entrepreneurship), 2015-2016
Program: Berkeley Haas Social Venture Program
Courses:
- Impact Startup Launchpad
- Startup Disco for Grads
- Startup Disco for Undergrads
- Impact Startup Disco for Grads
- Impact Startup Disco for Undergrads
- Berkeley Changemaker: Big Ideas (UGBA 96-2)
- BIVP Portfolio
- BIVP Accelerate