Jane Leu

Founder of Smarter Good and Upwardly Global.

Jane is an expert on the intersection of the labor market and migration and an internationally recognized social entrepreneur and Ashoka Fellow with more than 20 years of experience in founding and leading social enterprises. She is the Founder and former CEO of Upwardly Global, an 18-year-old national organization that has integrated more than 10,000 skilled immigrants from over 100 countries into the US workforce through strategic partnerships with leading corporations, organizations and governments. She has worked extensively with the private sector, connecting business competitiveness to global migration and talent strategies. She is also the Founder and CEO of Smarter Good, a professional services firm that leverages talent in emerging and often high out-migration markets, like the Philippines.

She is a Lecturer in Management, Center for Social Innovation, Stanford Graduate School of Business and a member of many boards and advisory boards for organizations operating around the world.

Prior to founding Upwardly Global she was the Assistant Director for Refugee Resettlement for Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, overseeing key refugee employment outcomes and interpreting welfare reform policy for a network of affiliate organizations. She worked in Germany as a journalist for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and studied at Eberhard-Karls University in Tuebingen.

Jane's contributions and leadership have been recognized by BYU Social Innovator of the Year Award, John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award and the Manhattan Institute Social Entrepreneur Award, among others.  She holds a MA from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, a BA in German and German History from Tufts University. She lives in San Francisco, CA.