Jerry Hildebrand ’64

Jerry Hildebrand ’64 is working to solve social problems with entrepreneurship as the founder and director of the Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship at the University of the Pacific. Social Entrepreneurship applies business and management skills to tackle chronic societal problems with sustainable solutions.

The goal for the center is to train people to develop creative, practical solutions to poverty, disease, illiteracy, and environmental damage.

The center isn’t Hildebrand’s first foray into socially-minded business ventures. For 17 years, he was CEO of the Katalysis Partnership, which provided training, technical assistance and credit to non-governmental microfinance institutions in Central America. And he started his career in grassroots economic development in West Virginia, setting up and directing the first economic development corporation to help address poverty by funding community-based businesses. His introduction to service came in the Peace Corps. Hildebrand was one of the first Cornellians to join the service organization, and he spent two years in Peru.

“It changed my life,” he said.