Olivier Kayser
Vice President, Ashoka
Olivier Kayser is a Senior Advisor to citizen sector organizations (Ashoka in particular) and corporations. After launching Ashoka operations in France in 2003, he is now based in London and advises and supports Ashoka in four main areas: • The development of Ashoka in Western Europe • The global roll-out of the Ashoka’s Support Network, the network of business people who support Social Entrepreneurs, which he initiated in France • The global “Hybrid Value Chain” initiative, fostering partnerships between corporations and Social Entrepreneurs to serve low income communities in developing countries • Advising individual Ashoka Fellows. Though he devotes a majority of his time to Ashoka, Olivier remains involved in business as a top management advisor as well as a non executive member of the board of GeoPost (a subsidiary of La Poste) and a member of Danone’s Social Innovation Advisory Board.. 1985-2003: Before joining Ashoka and the not-for-profit world, Olivier was a senior partner at McKinsey&Company. Throughout his 18 years with McKinsey in Paris, Chicago, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing, Olivier has served a wide variety of clients. ranging from Shanghai state-owned enterprises to a London Private Equity firm, and including a US railway, a Korean chaebol and several French industrial multinationals… 1981-1985: At age 24, Olivier had created a consulting firm specializing in transportation economics, serving mainly French public-sector clients. Olivier also lived for one year in Mexico and Belize living from shipping and trade. Olivier holds a diploma from HEC (1979). He was born in France in 1957 and spent his teen-age years in Spain. He married his wife Christine in 1980. They have three children.
