Kim Smith
Co-Founder and Senior Advisor, NewSchools Venture Fund
Kim Smith
Kim Smith co-founded NewSchools Venture Fund in 1998 to transform public education by supporting education entrepreneurs. In NewSchools, Kim created a new "hybrid" approach to investing in social entrepreneurs. NewSchools uses grants, loans and equity investments to support a portfolio that includes nonprofit and for-profit entrepreneurs who are building sustainable, scalable education ventures. Kim served as Chief Executive Officer of NewSchools Venture Fund from 1998 until the fall of 2005, and currently serves as a senior advisor and board member, as well as Executive Director of the Aspen Institute – NewSchools Entrepreneurial Leaders for Public Education fellowship program.
Kim is a serial social entrepreneur who began her career as a consultant specializing in business-education partnerships. In 1989, she became a founding team member of Teach For America (TFA). She then put her TFA experience to work in the post of founding director of BAYAC AmeriCorps, a consortium of nonprofits in the San Francisco Bay Area working to develop young community-based leaders in education. Kim’s background includes marketing experience with Silicon Graphics’ Education Industry Group, where she focused on the online learning industry, and her role as the founding director of a trade show venture.
In 2001, Kim was featured in Newsweek's report on the "Women of the 21st Century" as "the kind of woman who will shape America's new century." She is a member of the 2002 Class of Henry Crown Fellows of the Aspen Institute. Kim has served on the boards of a number of high-performing organizations over the last two decades; her current board seats include the African Leadership Foundation, ConnectEd Partners, Education Sector, and NewSchools. She is also an advisory board member for Good Capital LLC. She has also authored a number of education publications, including “What Is Educational Entrepreneurship?” in Education Entrepreneurship: Realities, Challenges, Possibilities and “Social Purpose Capital Markets in K–12” in The Future of Educational Entrepreneurship: Possibilities for School Reform.
Kim holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and psychology from Columbia College and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two daughters.