Sutia "Kim" Alter, Managing Director

Kim Alter brings extensive skills to Virtue Ventures in: social entrepreneurship design, startup, implementation and evaluation, marketing and market research, strategic and business planning, developing and field testing technical tools and resources, and practice-to-theory documentation, and project management in both domestic and international settings.

Sutia Kim Alter has endeavored for nearly 20 years to employ business tools and market-based approaches (social enterprise) in the social sector to create social change and alleviate poverty. Alter began her career as a social entrepreneur when she co-launched and directed a social enterprise, Visions in Action, with operations in five African countries. After stints in corporate marketing at Dow Corning and Volvo, and microfinance for international agencies, Save the Children and Catholic Relief Services, Alter launched Virtue Ventures LLC in 2000. Virtue Ventures is a small, innovative management consulting firm committed to furthering the field of social entrepreneurship through action-research, technical services and its own initiatives. A sample of Virtue Ventures' clients include: Ashoka, APOPO, Benetech, Development Marketplace (World Bank), Emerging Markets Group, UNDP, Bamboo Finance, Global Giving, Vision Spring (formerly Scojo Foundation), The Lemelson Foundation, among others. Several of Virtue Ventures clients have won awards and recognition for social entrepreneurship under its tutelage.

Alter's specific expertise is in designing and implementing mission-focused social enterprises and incorporating business practices into social service organizations to strengthen institutional capacity, engender an entrepreneurial culture, and increase financial sustainability. Virtue Ventures' current lead initiative, "Social Enterprise: Building High Performance Organizations," under Alter's leadership, and funded by the Skoll Foundation, focuses on developing methodology and practical resources for social enterprise as well as facilitating practitioner collaboration. This project has received accolades from industry leaders, social entrepreneurs, foundations and partners for its innovation and effectiveness toward building social enterprise performance methodology. Alter has worked in 40 countries in: Europe, Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East and in a wide variety of industries and sectors.

In 2004, Alter was appointed Visiting Fellow to the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford where she conducts research and teaches and co-teaches courses on social entrepreneurship, including "Social Enterprise Design," "Introduction to Social Innovation," and "Social Finance." She has also guest lectured at Fuqua Business School, Duke University, Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, India, University of Michigan Business School, among others. She has spoken widely on the subject of social entrepreneurship including a keynote address at the first Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship; chief presenter at Symi Symposium for European government leaders and academics, hosted by George Papandreou f. Foreign Minister of Greece; Convocation Speaker, SIES, first graduating post graduate class in Social Enterprise Management, Mumbai, India, four annual speaking engagements to the National Gathering of Social Entrepreneurs, she is scheduled to present the Keynote address at The Asian Social Entrepreneurs Summit (ASES) in Seoul, Korea in October 2008 as well as appearances at numerous other conferences and events.

Alter is a founding member of the Social Enterprise Alliance, and served on the board of directors for three years. She is currently on the advisory board of Vision Spring; an editorial advisor for Social Enterprise Reporter; advisory board member for SIES University's (Mumbai, India), post graduate diploma program in Social Enterprise Management. She as a Bachelors degree in International Relations and a Masters of Business Administration from Boston University Brussels, Belgium and Vrij Universiteit Brussel.

Alter is author of several works on social entrepreneurship including, Managing the Double Bottom Line: A Business Planning Guide for Social Enterprises (Pact 2000), the first book of its kind on social enterprise business plans. As well, she conceived and wrote the seminal Social Enterprise Typology (IADB 2003), and online version (Virtue Ventures 2004); she is contributing author of, Generating and Sustaining Nonprofit Earned Income, (Jossey-Bass 2004), and contributing author of, Social Entrepreneurship: New Models of Sustainable Social Innovation, (Oxford University Press 2006). Integrated Approach: A New Paradigm for Social Enterprise, Social Enterprise Reporter, April 2006. Social Enterprise: Applications in International Economic Development, (SEEP 2008), Forthcoming publications include: Social Enterprise Legal Structures: Lessons from the Field, (Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, Oxford University, 2009) and Social Enterprise Performance Framework: A New Paradigm for Building High Performance Organizations, (Skoll Foundation, 2009)