Head of Impact, Echoing Green
Laura Weidman Powers is a social entrepreneur whose career has spanned the nonprofit, for-profit, and government sectors. She is currently the Head of Impact at Echoing Green, investing in early-stage social entrepreneurs globally. Prior to this she was Entrepreneur in Residence at New Media Ventures, supporting entrepreneurs and activists wrestling with the biggest challenges facing our democracy.
Laura is the co-founder and CEO emerita of Code2040, a nationally-recognized nonprofit that equips Black and Latinx technologists and their allies with the tools, connections, and care they need to advocate for and achieve racial equity in the tech industry.
In 2016, Laura was invited to join the Obama Administration for a six month term as senior advisor to U.S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith on issues of diversity and inclusion and equitable access to capital.
Laura has taught social entrepreneurship at Stanford and the American University at Rome, and is a frequent speaker on innovation, access, equity, and entrepreneurship.
She has received extensive recognition for her work including being named one of 10 Female Executives on the Rise by Fortune, and being named to the Ebony Power 100 list and The Root 100. She received Foreign Policy Magazine’s Global Thinker Award and the Ford Freedom Award. She was the American University of Rome’s first Social Entrepreneur in Residence in 2019, a 2018 Stanford Social Entrepreneur in Residence, a 2016 New America California Fellow, and a 2013 Echoing Green Fellow. From 2014-2016 Laura sat on the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE) for the US Department of Commerce.
Laura has a BA from Harvard and a JD/MBA from Stanford. In fall 2018 she, her husband, and their new baby took 303 days to travel across 11 countries and 48 cities and towns, and then after more than 10 years away Laura finally moved back to her hometown of New York City. More at laurawp.com and threegophers.com.
