Brett Jenks

NEWDAY SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP DISTINGUISHED SPEAKER SERIES

Brett Jenks is President and CEO of Rare. Rare is a global conservation organization that is known for inspiring change so people and nature thrive. Under Brett’s leadership, Rare has grown more than 2800 percent since 2000, receiving four straight Fast Company magazine’s Social Capitalist Awards for combining a savvy business model with solutions to pressing social needs.

After joining Rare, Brett realized finding funding wasn’t the most limiting factor in conservation; it was actually identifying proven solutions and developing the management capacity to deliver them repeatedly. That’s why Rare has focused their efforts on identifying these solutions and rapidly scaling them.

Brett also helped scale Rare’s signature model: the Pride campaign. Rare’s Pride campaigns train and mentor local conservationists to become agents of change, helping communities establish self-sustaining conservation programs without the need for permanent philanthropy.

Through Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Vibrant Oceans Initiative, Rare focuses its efforts on scaling conservation innovations in fisheries across the globe. Brett likes to say that instead of teaching people to fish, Rare is teaching them to fish forever.