Jonathan A. Greenblatt
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Jonathan Greenblatt (born November 21, 1970) is an American entrepreneur, corporate executive, and the sixth National Director and CEO of the
Anti-Defamation League The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), formerly known as the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, is an international Jewish non-governmental organization based in the United States specializing in civil rights law. It was founded in late Septe ...
(ADL). Prior to heading the ADL, Greenblatt served in the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
as Special Assistant to
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
and Director of the
Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation The Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation was an office new to the Obama Administration, created within the White House, to catalyze new and innovative ways of encouraging government to do business differently. Its first director w ...
.


Early life and education

Greenblatt was born on November 21, 1970, in
Trumbull, Connecticut Trumbull is a town located in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It borders on the cities of Bridgeport and Shelton and the towns of Stratford, Fairfield, Easton and Monroe. The population was 36,827 during the 2020 census. Trumbul ...
, to a Conservative Jewish family. He graduated from
Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...
in 1992, earning a Bachelor of Arts. After college, Greenblatt worked on
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
's successful presidential campaign in 1992 in
Little Rock, Arkansas (The Little Rock, The "Little Rock") , government_type = council-manager government, Council-manager , leader_title = List of mayors of Little Rock, Arkansas, Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_ ...
. He went on to join the administration as an aide in the Clinton White House and later the
United States Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce is an executive department of the U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic growth and opportunity. Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for bu ...
, where he developed international economic policy with a focus on
emerging markets An emerging market (or an emerging country or an emerging economy) is a market that has some characteristics of a developed market, but does not fully meet its standards. This includes markets that may become developed markets in the future or were ...
and post-conflict economies. Greenblatt also holds a Masters in Business Administration from the
Kellogg School of Management The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University (also known as Kellogg) is the business school of Northwestern University, a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1908, Kellogg is one of the oldest and most p ...
at
Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...
.


Career


Ethos Water

In 2002, Greenblatt and his business school roommate, Peter Thum, founded Ethos Water, a premium bottled water social enterprise. The company sought to help children around the world get access to free water by donating a portion of their profits to finance water programs in developing countries. In 2005,
Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain. As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 c ...
acquired the company for $8 million. Following the acquisition, Greenblatt served as Starbucks Vice President of Global Consumer Products, scaling Ethos across the United States. Greenblatt also co-founded Ethos International, and served on the board of directors of the Starbucks Foundation, where he developed Ethos' global investment strategy that has invested millions of dollars to bring clean water to communities in need around the world, including
Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
, the
Democratic Republic of Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
,
Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
,
Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...
,
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, and
Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...
.


All for Good

Greenblatt also founded All for Good (AFG), the open source platform developed to enable more Americans to serve. AFG is the largest aggregation of volunteer opportunities on the Web, and is supported by a coalition of leading companies, non-profits, and government agencies, all of whom shared a vision of using
open data Open data is data that is openly accessible, exploitable, editable and shared by anyone for any purpose. Open data is licensed under an open license. The goals of the open data movement are similar to those of other "open(-source)" movements ...
to increase the number of Americans that participate in service and volunteerism.
Craig Newmark Craig Alexander Newmark (born December 6, 1952) is an American internet entrepreneur and philanthropist best known as the founder of the classifieds website Craigslist. Prior to founding Craigslist, he worked as a computer programmer for companie ...
, the founder of Craigslist, helped to sponsor the organization, and the open-source code was utilized by erve.gov In 2011, AFG was acquired by the
Points of Light Institute Points of Light is an international nonprofit, nonpartisan organization headquartered in Georgia, United States dedicated to engaging more people and resources in solving serious social problems through voluntary service. Each year, Points of ...
in a strategic partnership designed to help the organization scale.


Good Worldwide

Greenblatt was formerly the CEO of GOOD Worldwide, LLC. He led GOOD's transition from a publishing company to a diversified media company. Its products include the website GOOD.is and ''GOOD Magazine''. As CEO, Greenblatt pushed a number of innovations at the company, including the launch of the GOOD Sheet, a broadsheet product distributed exclusively at Starbucks, and a name-your-own-pricing scheme that the company ran as an experiment. It is not clear whether this strategy was successful. Greenblatt said in 2008 that the broadsheets were intended to be ideologically neutral.


Impact Economy Initiative

Greenblatt founded the Impact Economy Initiative at the
Aspen Institute The Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1949 as the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies. The institute's stated aim is the realization of "a free, just, and equitable society" through seminars, policy programs ...
to help policy makers create an enabling environment for the emerging market of social enterprise and impact investing. The Initiative worked with thought leaders across impact sectors, including co-convening the Impact Economy Summit at the White House in October 2011.


Other ventures

Greenblatt served as an
operating partner An operating partner is a title used by venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) firms to describe a role dedicated to working with privately held companies to increase value. The role was created by large-capitalization private equity groups wh ...
at Satori Capital, a private equity firm focused on
conscious capitalism Conscious business enterprises and people are those that choose to follow a business strategy, in which they seek to benefit both human beings and the environment. The conscious business movement in the US emerged from the theory of corporate s ...
, and was an active
angel investor An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital for a business or businesses start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or owners ...
. He also served as a member of the faculty at the
UCLA Anderson School of Management The John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management, also known as the UCLA Anderson School of Management, is the graduate business school at the University of California, Los Angeles, one of eleven professional schools. The school offers MBA (ful ...
, where he developed and taught its coursework on social entrepreneurship. Greenblatt was named CEO of the Anti-Defamation League in 2014.


Obama administration

In the fall of 2011, Greenblatt was appointed to serve as
Special Assistant to the President The Executive Office of the President (EOP) comprises the offices and agencies that support the work of the president at the center of the executive branch of the United States federal government. The EOP consists of several offices and agenci ...
for President Obama and Director of the
Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation The Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation was an office new to the Obama Administration, created within the White House, to catalyze new and innovative ways of encouraging government to do business differently. Its first director w ...
(SICP) in the
United States Domestic Policy Council The Domestic Policy Council (DPC) is the principal forum used by the president of the United States for the consideration of domestic policy matters and senior policymaking, Cabinet, and White House officials. The Council is part of the Office o ...
. As Director, he led the Office's efforts to utilize
human capital Human capital is a concept used by social scientists to designate personal attributes considered useful in the production process. It encompasses employee knowledge, skills, know-how, good health, and education. Human capital has a substantial ...
and
financial capital Financial capital (also simply known as capital or equity in finance, accounting and economics) is any economic resource measured in terms of money used by entrepreneurs and businesses to buy what they need to make their products or to provide ...
to bring attention to community solutions. The Office focused on issues such as
national service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The l ...
,
civic engagement Civic engagement or civic participation is any individual or group activity addressing issues of public concern. Civic engagement includes communities working together or individuals working alone in both political and non-political actions to ...
,
impact investing Impact investing refers to investing, investments "made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return". At its core, impact investing is ...
, and social enterprise. In his role as Director of SICP, Greenblatt took an active role in supporting
AmeriCorps AmeriCorps (officially the Corporation for National and Community Service or CNCS) is an independent agency of the United States government that engages more than five million Americans in service through a variety of stipended volunteer work prog ...
, supporting social entrepreneurs, and working with the G8 taskforce to support
social impact investment Impact investing refers to investing, investments "made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return". At its core, impact investing is ...
. Greenblatt was involved in a number of administration priorities, including preventing gun violence and #
GivingTuesday GivingTuesday, often stylized as #GivingTuesday for the purposes of hashtag activism, is the Tuesday after Thanksgiving in the United States. It is touted as a "global generosity movement unleashing the power of people and organizations to transf ...
. Greenblatt left the administration in 2014 and was succeeded by David Wilkinson.


"Real Facebook Oversight Board"

On 30 September 2020, Greenblatt was named as one of the 25 members of the "Real Facebook Oversight Board", a group of academics, researchers and civil rights leaders created to counter the existing
Facebook Oversight Board The Oversight Board is a body that makes consequential precedent-setting content moderation decisions (see Table of decisions below) on the social media platforms Facebook and Instagram, in a form of "platform self-governance". Meta (then Fa ...
, an independent monitoring group over
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
which they view as insufficient.


Personal life

Greenblatt is the grandson of a Holocaust survivor. He is married to Marjan Keypour Greenblatt, an
Iranian Jewish Persian Jews or Iranian Jews ( fa, یهودیان ایرانی, ''yahudiān-e-Irāni''; he, יהודים פרסים ''Yəhūdīm Parsīm'') are the descendants of Jews who were historically associated with the Persian Empire, whose successor s ...
political refugee to the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
who is the founder and director of The Alliance for Rights of All Minorities (ARAM), a non-profit. They have three children.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Greenblatt, Jonathan 1970 births Living people 21st-century American businesspeople American political consultants American Zionists Anti-Defamation League members Jewish American philanthropists Jewish American writers Kellogg School of Management alumni Tufts University alumni Henry Crown Fellows 21st-century American Jews