Jacobs Social Entrepreneur Fellow

Catherine Soler

Catherine Soler’s cross-sector experience has focused on creating social impact through both business and community engagement. Catherine began her career at Deloitte & Touche in New York. She then joined Catchafire, a startup social enterprise which provides a technology platform to connect professional talent to social good organizations. At Catchafire, she consulted with nonprofit organizations, and managed custom programs with Fortune 500 companies and global foundations to pioneer a new wave in philanthropy, resulting in over $1 million in impact created in the programs’ inaugural year. Prior to pursuing her MBA program at Berkeley-Haas, Catherine undertook extensive travel to transition her career into food and agriculture, and began her own international social impact consulting firm. Additionally, she serves on the Board of Trustees for Education Africa based in South Africa. Catherine has a strong interest in business’ role in both global food system development and education as means of poverty alleviation in Latin America and Africa. Catherine holds a bachelor’s degree in accountancy from the University of Notre Dame where she served as Student Body President.

Through the Jacobs Fellowship, I plan to help build the Jacobs Talent Network community and define its vision and mission. I would love to bring the learnings from Jacobs’ research to nonprofit organizations, and engage with its work on TRECC to support sustainable global cocoa production and farmer empowerment. I’m looking forward to building relationships across sectors, learning from other fellows and contributing to their pursuits.