Mary Jo Kaplan

Background

About Mary Jo Kaplan

Supporting others to succeed is MJ's DNA and guiding light. She earned her stripes as an internal consultant before founding Kaplan Consulting in She leads a global consulting network and has earned the trust and confidence of clients, colleagues, entrepreneurs, academics, government leaders and innovators throughout her career. In 2013 MJ took a sabbatical to be Ian Axford Fulbright Fellow in New Zealand to focus on the social enterprise ecosystem. She’s a leading speaker, writer and teacher in social enterprise and co-chairs the board of directors for Social Enterprise Greenhouse. We were proud to host Vice President Kamala Harris and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in May, 2021. MJ was awarded the Ashoka U’s Cordes Innovation Award for her work at Brown University and honored as Outstanding Mentor for RI Business Women. Dazzled by one New Zealand venture, in 2014 MJ put consulting on hold to grow Loomio into a global social enterprise. Loomio is a SaaS platform that enables collaborative decision making. MJ joined the Loomio Board of Directors in 2017. She also serves on the Board of Commerce RI. MJ is internationally known for her writing and speaking on systems transformation, the future of work, social innovation and women and leadership. She spent years teaching in an adjunct role at Brown University, creating an award-winning course for student entrepreneurs and a class in adaptive strategy. MJ writes for publications including Stanford Social Innovation Review; Nonprofit Quarterly, OD Practitioner and The RISD Center for Complexity and publishes a blog on Medium. MJ has devoted her life to community service, from serving on boards to participating annually in the Cystic Fibrosis walk to support a dear friend and raise money for research, to supporting the Food Bank and many other social change efforts that reflect her passions. She’s a generous philanthropist and savvy social impact investor. MJ earned her M.Ed. from Harvard University and B.A. Brown University.