Edwin Ou
As a Principal of the Portfolio Team, Edwin Ou manages a variety of key relationships with funded social entrepreneurs, domain experts, policy makers, corporate partners and co-funders. Edwin develops and structures funding opportunities to drive large scale change in the focus areas of the foundation. Edwin also manages field-building initiatives in social entrepreneurship through grantmaking and for-profit investments.
Prior to working at Skoll, Edwin amassed a diverse set of leadership skills and experience in organizational and business planning, program and personnel management and financial development in the field of social entrepreneurship. Most recently, Edwin led programmatic efforts as Chief Operating Officer for the Marine Aquarium Council (MAC), where he managed the spin-offs of MAC’s regional capacity-building programs as newly-formed NGOs in Indonesia and the Philippines. Prior to MAC, Edwin led the business development efforts at Benetech, where he built a team that evaluated and drove the early-stage development of social ventures and fueled the organization with funding and partner resources. Edwin also gained experience in the for-profit sector as a senior product manager for a technology startup and as a mergers and acquisitions advisor for an energy investment bank.
Edwin earned his B.A. in Economics at Rice University and M.B.A. from the Walter A. Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley, where he focused his studies in social entrepreneurship and was a Packard Environment Fellow. He has served on regional boards of three not-for-profit organizations: the Red Cross, Surfrider Foundation and Taiwanese American Citizens League.