Jessica Thomas
Managing Director
919.843.9731
Contact for inquiries related to the partnership opportunities, business engagement, curriculum and BASE (Business Accelerator for Sustainable Entrepreneurship).
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Jessica Thomas has over fifteen years of experience working domestically and internationally in sustainable enterprise, social entrepreneurship, innovation and business development. Jessica currently serves as the Managing Director of the Center for Sustainable Enterprise (CSE) at UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School where she is responsible for operations, business engagement, strategic partnerships, marketing and curriculum development. She joined CSE to design, launch and manage the Business Accelerator for Sustainable Entrepreneurship (BASE), working with over 30 students and serving over 40 sustainable ventures across North Carolina over 3 years. Prior to her work at CSE, Jessica served as a consultant providing social enterprises, community development organization and sustainable businesses with customized solutions to business development and strategic planning challenges working with organizations such as Duke University's Competition for Underserved and Resource-poor Economies (CUREs), Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi), Self-Help and CFED (formerly Center for Enterprise Development). Jessica holds a BS in Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. Prior to her MBA, Jessica was a product engineer designing mobile satellite communication systems and interactive educational children's toys. She has served on the Board of Directors of SJF Institute (then known as SJF Advisory Services) and Triangle Net Impact. Jessica is the author of several award winning academic articles as well as a novel, How Not to Save the World, published in December 2011.