Entrepreneurship Lecturer Featured on Top World-Changing Women List

Julianne Zimmerman was recently selected as a pivotal player in conscious business.

Every year, Conscious Company publishes a list of world-changing women "based on the impact they were making on the world, their demonstrated leadership in their respective fields, and the scope of their work and ambitions." We're thrilled to share that Julianne Zimmerman, a lecturer on social entrepreneurship here at Tufts Gordon Institute, has been honored with inclusion on the 2020 list!

Below is Julianne's profile as published by Conscious Company:

Julianne Zimmerman

Managing Director, Reinventure Capital

Julianne Zimmerman has been leveraging business as a force for good for more than 25 years. Her resume includes roles such as co-founder of a seed-stage investment firm, VP of Communications at a utility-scale energy storage company, co-founder and Director of Business Development of a biofuel company, VP of Engineering at a water purification company, and trusted mentor, board member, advisor, and consultant. Along the way, Zimmerman has experienced and seen firsthand how angel, seed, and venture investors routinely overlook and discount entrepreneurs who are women and/or people of color.

“When Reinventure Capital President Ed Dugger — a pioneer in impact investing, and one of the few veteran Black VCs — recruited me to join him in raising and operating this fund,” Zimmerman says, “it was a privilege and honor to accept the challenge.”

As Managing Director of Reinventure Capital, Zimmerman speaks and writes extensively about innovation, entrepreneurship, and social impact, and is actively raising an expansion-stage fund to invest in companies led by people of color and/or women. On top of that, she created and teaches a top-rated Innovative Social Enterprises course (ELS 141/AMER 141), and also serves as a volunteer mentor with entities like MIT Venturing Mentoring Service, advising scores of founders in the US and abroad.

What’s one key piece of advice you’d give to other women looking to excel as a leader in conscious business?

“First, be really clear about understanding your own purpose, motivations, strengths, and liabilities. Next, surround yourself with people who share your purpose but challenge you to grow, who complement your strengths and liabilities. Ask questions and ask more questions and always seek to ask better questions; keep learning from everything and everyone. Test your ideas and assumptions constantly against the available evidence, and discard what doesn’t serve the purpose.”

View the full list of 43 World-Changing Women in Conscious Business here.