Mary Jo Cook a mission-driven leader who’s passionate about using business as a force for good.
Mary Jo Cook a mission-driven leader who’s passionate about using business as a force for good. Mary Jo is currently the President and CEO of Pacific Community Ventures, a San Francisco based social enterprise which engages small businesses, investors and policymakers to create good jobs for working people and build an economy that works for everyone. Pacific Community Ventures focuses on creating quality jobs and stimulating investment in underserved communities via (1) Small Business Advising & Lending, which connects entrepreneurs to the expertise and capital they need to grow their businesses and strengthen local economies; and (2) Impact Advisory services, which works with a wide range of organizations to define, measure and communicate the social outcomes achieved from their impact investments.
Prior to joining Pacific Community Ventures, Mary Jo spent five years as the Chief Impact Officer at Fair Trade USA, where she led the organization in improving the lives of hardworking farming families by changing how businesses source and consumers buy, ultimately creating more sustainable globally supply chains that benefited everyone. Prior to joining Fair Trade USA, Mary Jo was a Vice President at the Clorox Company where she held senior management roles in Innovation, Sustainability, Strategy and Marketing. She created new approaches to embedding innovation and sustainability into everyday business practices and led teams in launching new product lines such as GreenWorks, the first mainstream brand of natural cleaners.
Mary Jo holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. In addition to serving on the advisory board of Sustainable Brands, she also served for seven years on the board of LeaderSpring, a non-profit providing leadership development and management training to Bay Area executive directors.