CRA Podcast Episode: EBA Fund: Converting the promise of entrepreneurship into assets that build economic inclusion and equity

This episode interviews Brett Simmons, Fund Manager, and Joyce Klein, Chair of the Board of the EBA Fund and Director of Business Ownership Initiative, a program of the Aspen Institute. The podcast highlights the launch of Entrepreneur Backed Assets (EBA) Fund, is a new nonprofit creating a secondary market for microloans, a new tool to help capitalize CDFI lenders doing amazing work to serve entrepreneurs of color, small businesses in low-income communities, and the millions navigating through the pandemic.

The EBA Fund has been made possible thanks to the Citi Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Microsoft Corporation, and Woodforest National.

More information can be found at ebafund.org and at https://lnkd.in/g65muHd

Brett Simmons, Fund Manager, EBA Fund
brett@ebafund.org

Brett Simmons is the Managing Director and Principal with Revolve and leads fund management for EBA Fund. He has more than a decade of program, planning, and entrepreneurial experience across industries. As Director of Programs and Policy, he was instrumental in Accion Chicago’s efforts to expand lending more than 150% during the aftermath of the financial crisis. Since that time, he has worked with several start-up engineered systems companies and in operations strategy and planning for Cummins Power Systems, a fortune 200 manufacturing firm. Brett earned a joint B.A. in Economics and History from Xavier University and has both a Master of Business Administration and Master of Philosophy of Religion from Yale University.

Joyce Klein, Chair of the Board, EBA Fund
joyce.klein@aspeninstitute.org

Joyce Klein is the director of the Business Ownership Initiative, a program of the Aspen Institute, which advances business ownership as an economic opportunity strategy. Ms. Klein assumed the leadership of BOI (formerly FIELD) in 2012, after working as a senior consultant since the program’s inception in 1998. She is recognized as a leading expert on the field, speaking at national and regional industry conferences and being quoted in a variety of news media including The New York Times and National Public Radio’s Marketplace. Joyce has more than 20 years of experience studying and supporting microenterprise and entrepreneurial development programs in the United States, and has authored or co-authored numerous publications, including funder brief and strategy guides, evaluation and research reports, case studies and policy briefs. She has also designed and managed grant programs aimed at supporting innovation in the practice of microenterprise development in the United States.

Under Ms. Klein’s leadership FIELD launched the Microfinance Impact Collaborative, helped to create the Small Business Borrowers’ Bill of Rights and the Responsible Business Lending Coalition, and launched new research into the role of platforms and networks in expanding the scale and impact of the US microenterprise field. BOI’s work includes examining the potential role of business ownership and the microenterprise field in addressing the challenges of financial inclusion, the racial wealth gap, and career development for youth.

Ms. Klein also has worked as a consultant in the microenterprise field, providing assistance to clients including the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund of the US Department of the Treasury, and CFED (formerly the Corporation for Enterprise Development). Prior to her work with BOI, Ms. Klein led CFED’s work in microenterprise development. She holds a master’s in public policy from the University of California at Berkeley and a B.A. in economics from Boston College.

CRA Today and the CRA Hub
Linda Ezuka, Founder, CRA Today and the CRA Hub
linda@cratoday.com
www.cratoday.com
https://www.cratoday.com/Hub

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