Press Room
Laura Scher
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Working Assets
Laura Scher is co-founder, chairperson and chief executive officer of Working Assets, a mobile and credit card company dedicated to building a world that is more just, humane and environmentally sustainable. Laura co-founded Working Assets in 1985 on the belief that building a business and building a better world are not mutually exclusive. Under Laura’s leadership, the company has donated over $50 million to progressive nonprofit groups such as Planned Parenthood, Human Rights Watch, Rainforest Action Network and Oxfam America. As CEO, Laura has helped Working Assets grow to more than $100 million in annual revenue. Laura is a lecturer at Stanford University, teaching "Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship" at the undergraduate level. Over the past 5 years, she and her colleagues have created a course series and a minor for the next generation of social entrepreneurs. She has authored chapters in several books, including The Business of Changing the World edited by Marc Benioff and Hands On! 33 More Things Every Girl Should Know edited by Suzanne Harper. Laura serves on the boards of eScrip, SalesForce.com’s Foundation, Lightfull Foods, and the Rosenberg Foundation. Laura gained a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Yale and studied international economics at the Institute for International Studies in Geneva. She earned an MBA from Harvard Business School. Laura lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, daughter and son. She enjoys traveling internationally with her family.
Michael Kieschnick
President, Working Assets
Michael Kieschnick is president and co-founder of Working Assets, a mobile and credit card company that donates a portion of its revenues to progressive nonprofit groups. Working Assets is a social change company, providing cutting edge telecommunications services and acting as a philanthropist and an activist organization. Since its founding, Working Assets has donated over $50 million to progressive organizations and its members have contacted selected decision-makers by phone, e-mail and letters over 15 million times. During the last four years, the company has registered over 1.5 million voters. Michael teaches a course on social innovation at Stanford University, and previously taught a graduate seminar on financial innovation at the University of California, Berkeley. Michael has a PhD in Public Policy from Harvard University, and previously earned bachelor's degrees in biology and economics at Stanford University. He currently serves as a board member for several nonprofits — the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, Sojourners, the One California Bank Foundation, the American Environmental Safety Institute, and the Beatitudes Society. He recently stepped down as chair of Dads & Daughters, or DADs, a nationwide organization of fathers who are looking for ways to protect girls from the damaging effects of media stereotypes.