For the last quarter of a century, NESsT has been a pioneer in venture philanthropy and a catalyst for social enterprises in global emerging markets. Core to NESsT’s success and remarkable achievements is our community of colleagues, donors, investors, and our fearless leadership.
Under the guidance of current co-CEOs, Nicole Etchart and Loic Comolli, NESsT has seen incredible growth and established meaningful impact. NESsT has invested over $24M, incubated and financed 235 enterprises, trained and supported over 24,000 entrepreneurs, sustained more than 77,000 formal jobs targeting women, at-risk youth, smallholder farmers, and minorities.
Now, as we look ahead to the next 25 years, the NESsT team is announcing two key leadership transitions to help us navigate the future of impact investing. Nicole and Loic will both transition to new opportunities and we will appoint a single CEO to continue building upon NESsT’s success.
After 17 invaluable years with NESsT, Loic has joined the Impact Investing team at The Schmidt Family Foundation. Loic started his career at NESsT as a Consulting Manager and climbed the ranks to become co-CEO in 2012, leading the organization into the Brazilian and Romanian markets and vastly expanding NESsT’s reach of impact. Loic has been a driving force for our organization and will remain a good friend of NESsT moving forward.
To ensure her expertise and experience is best deployed in critical areas, Nicole will be stepping into a new role as NESsT’s President supporting the new CEO in establishing and implementing the organization's vision. Her role will focus on trend awareness, innovation adoption, and knowledge management. Nicole will continue to work collaboratively with the Board of Directors to usher in a new generation of leadership.
We have commissioned Mission Talent to conduct the new CEO search. They have an impeccable track record of finding the best talent for mission-driven organizations. They dive deep to understand their clients and we have no doubt that they are very well equipped to find the most suitable CEO for NESsT.
Our business is stronger than ever. We thank Nicole and Loic for their singular achievements, including creating tremendous initiatives with major corporate partners; launching funds that are critically helping deserving populations; and – most importantly – demonstrably improving the lives of close to 1 million people in need.