Shelly Porges

• June 16, 2016
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K. Shelly Porges is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of The Billion Dollar Fund for Women, a global consortium of venture funds pledged to invest in female-founded firms and Beyond the Billion, mobilizing LP investors into TBDF funds. She is also a Board Member of the Financial Alliance for Women and on the Advisory Board for Mindshift Capital, Different Funds and Global Invest Her.

Ms. Porges is a globally recognized expert on gender-lens venture investing and a leader in fostering global entrepreneurship. She was honored as one of the Inaugural Forbes 50 Over 50 in Investment in 2021. She served as President of the North American Jury for Cartier Women’s Initiative for over a decade and as the former Senior Advisor, Global Entrepreneurship Program (GEP) at the U.S. State Department, a program she expanded to almost 150 countries, under Secretary Hillary Clinton. Prior to that, she had a distinguished career in the private sector, including both corporate and entrepreneurial ventures. She served as executive head of marketing for American Express Canada and as chief marketing officer for Bank of America during a historic turn-around. Ms. Porges has also founded or co-founded six previous ventures including Porges/Hudson Marketing; Scudder Weisel Capital LLC, a joint venture between Thomas Weisel Partners and Zurich Scudder Investments; and Global Payments Experts LLC. As former President of the Financial Alliance for Women in San Francisco, she launched the Financial Woman of the Year event which has raised over three million dollars for women’s scholarships.

Ms. Porges is a compelling speaker who has inspired audiences globally at Politico’s Women Rule Summit (DC), the Women’s Alternative Investment Summit (NY), the Financial Alliance for Women Annual Summit (Paris), Gender Smart Investing Summit (London), High Water Women Investing for Impact Symposium (NY), the World Bank THK Blended Finance Forum (Bali),Web Summit (Lisbon), Inspirefest (Dublin), WOMEN UP/McKinsey (Stockholm), The Global Entrepreneurship Summit (Istanbul, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur), Disrupt Conference (Athens), The Women’s Forum (Deauville), WEConnect International (London), UnConference (Israel) and at universities such as American, Babson, Columbia, Cornell, Georgetown, George Washington, Harvard et al.

Ms. Porges holds both a BS with Honors and MPS degree from Cornell University.