Bridges for Enterprise

Jordan Wolken

Global President

Jordan is passionate about socially innovative technologies that improve living standards in low-income communities. A graduate of the Business and Political Economy (BPE) program at the NYU Stern School of Business, Jordan was one of two Stern graduates to receive the Dean Blount Social Impact Award for his commitment to the social impact space. While at NYU, he co-founded the university’s only international development club, worked for his local congressman on Capitol Hill, consulted for a social enterprise in rural Ghana, and interned for 2019 Hult Prize Finalist Proteen, a Ugandan sustainable agriculture startup. Upon graduation, Jordan worked for a think tank covering U.S.-Africa relations and a venture capital firm investing in African tech startups. Curious about the world, Jordan has studied in London, Shanghai, and Paris and interned in New York, Tel Aviv, and Washington D.C. in both the public and private sectors. He is currently pursuing a Master’s degree at HEC Paris in the Sustainability and Social Innovation program.

Jordan joined BfE in 2017 and founded and led the New York Chapter from 2018 until May 2020. He successfully grew BfE New York from 2 people to a full-fledged chapter with over 40 students working across four teams. As Global President, he is responsible for leading the global management team, developing and executing strategic objectives and representing BfE to external parties.

Vanessa Bauer

Global Incubation Head

Vanessa joined BfE in 2017 as a Global Manager of Incubation. Since 2019, she has been co-heading BfE’s global incubation division, supporting BfE Chapters in maintaining a high quality incubation programme.

Vanessa holds a B.A. in Intercultural Communication from the University of Milan-Bicocca as well as an M.St. in International Relations from the University of Cambridge. Having lived, worked and studied in Europe, Latin America and Asia, Vanessa has developed a strong intercultural competence and a passion for sustainable development, social entrepreneurship and innovation. Currently, she works as a Junior Advisor at GIZ’s Emerging Markets Sustainability Dialogues, supporting change agents from public, private and financial sectors to advance the global debate on sustainable infrastructure and to scale up innovative sustainable infrastructure solutions. Prior to that, Vanessa gained professional experience as a Carlo Schmid Fellow at UN Environment, as public sector advisor at PwC Luxembourg and as a communications consultant at the Italian SME imaginary srl.

Kristen Yang

Global Incubation Head

Kristen joined BfE in 2016 as a university fresher at Cambridge University, and was the VP of the BfE Incubation Programme in 2017-2018. She joined the Global Team upon graduation and is now co-heading the Global Incubation Team.

Kristen is a graduate of economics from Cambridge University. After graduation, she worked as a management consultant at Oliver Wyman London until July 2020. She is now pursuing a Master’s degree as a Schwarzman Scholar at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Xiao Yen Thean

Global Partnerships Head

Xiao Yen currently leads BfE’s partnership outreach efforts, aiming to form strong and sustainable relationships with organisations across the globe. Aiming to add value to the BfE programme and ecosystem, she hopes to form more meaningful and strategic partnerships with organisations within the social enterprise ecosystem. Please do get in touch with her if you are an organisation looking to work with BfE in any capacity!

Xiao Yen graduated from the University of Cambridge with a BA in Geography with Management Studies. With an interest in startups and international development, she first joined BfE Cambridge as a Consulting Associate in 2017 and led the Consulting team as a Director in 2018. Since leading the Cambridge chapter as President in 2019, she has also taken up the role of Global Startup Outreach Manager in 2020. Xiao Yen is now based in Kuala Lumpur, currently working at Strategy& Southeast Asia. Prior to this role, she has worked with Sunway iLabs Ventures and Creador.

Jeson Ng

Global Operations Head

Jeson oversees the operational flow of the BfE Incubation Programme. He is primarily responsible for assessing whether BfE is best placed to support social enterprises that apply to the Programme and subsequently matching the startups’ interests and needs with the expertise of student teams and professionals across the BfE Network.

An Arabist by training, Jeson has lived, studied and volunteered across the Middle East and has a strong interest in bridging the resource gap in developing parts of the world in sustainable ways. Jeson was a founding member of BfE in 2015 and led startup recruitment efforts in Cambridge before becoming the Chapter’s Vice President in 2017. He is now pursuing a PhD in Arabic literature at the University of Chicago.

Annie Wang

Global Strategy Head

As Global Strategy Head, Annie oversees the formulation of BfE’s organisational strategic priorities and vision. She is primarily responsible for crafting BfE’s annual and long-term strategic goals and creating action plans to address emerging challenges within the organisation. Annie joined BfE New York in Fall 2019 on the Finance Advisory Team, served as Director of the Finance Advisory Team in Spring 2020, and eventually led the New York Chapter as Chapter President from Fall 2020-Spring 2021. During her tenure, she collaborated with her leadership team to oversee sustainable organizational growth across 8 student teams and 60 students.

Annie graduated from New York University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business and Political Economy, writing her senior thesis on the time poverty of water collection in sub-Saharan Africa. She is passionate about putting local voices at the center of economic development and bringing a demand-centric approach to poverty alleviation. Her industry interests mainly lie in fostering shared prosperity amongst rural women in the Global South. Annie has experience working in social sector consulting, internal strategy for an INGO, and impact investing. Starting in Fall 2021, Annie will begin work in PwC’s Advisory practice, crafting financial institutions’ risk management strategies around U.S. Federal Reserve stress testing and emerging ESG and climate risks.

Fareeha Mahmood

Global Impact Research Head

As Global Impact Research Head, Fareeha works with the Impact Research team to measure, evaluate, and communicate BfE’s impact. The Division leverages various tools, including BfE’s very own impact framework that is designed to capture the unique characteristics of our social enterprises, mentors, and chapter members. The Division’s work is driven by stakeholder feedback and engagement, which highlight the various ways in which BfE can expand its impact. Fareeha joined BfE New York in Spring 2021 on the Consulting Team and joined the Impact Research Division as a Global Manager upon completing her undergrad.

Fareeha graduated from New York University in 2021 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Public Policy. Growing up in Dhaka, Jakarta, and Dubai prior to moving to New York, has shaped her global worldview and sparked her passion for creating positive, meaningful change. In 2020, New Degree Press published Fareeha’s debut non-fiction book, The Impact Mind, in which she shares inspiring stories of trailblazers in the social impact sphere that demonstrate how we can all become more socially conscious individuals. Fareeha’s experience has spanned across nonprofits, local government, and financial services. She is currently a Credit Risk Analyst at Morgan Stanley.

Hua Huang

Global Technology Head

Hua co-heads the BfE Technology Division and manages the general use of information technology at BfE, such as intranet, security, algorithms and data. Hua started his BfE journey in the summer of 2021, taking on an algorithm development project after which he took on the role of software development manager and was later promoted to technology head in May 2022. Hua is a strong believer in technology, and he is passionate about bringing emerging information technologies to help the organization run efficiently. The great mission of BfE to empower start-ups, volunteers, mentors and partners, requires the technology division to provide all stakeholders with a modern way of handling tasks. Hua is deeply devoted to this and how it evolves with the entire BfE Technology Division.

Hua graduated with a BSc degree in Statistics with Finance from the London School of Economics. He is currently based in London and working as a data technologist. He is mainly in charge of researching, designing and developing technology solutions, like web scraping, MLOps and data lake, as microservices used in the internal applications. The main aim of these services is to help the business solve complex problems in deals activities. Hua also has previous experience in risk management, eDiscovery and low-code development.

Kathi Kalischuk

Global Technology Head

Kathi co-heads BfE Technology Division, managing technology products, projects, tech recruitment, events and initiatives at BfE. Kathi started volunteering at BfE in April 2021, as the Global Tech Programme Manager, setting up the Project Management Office to support tech projects, helping set standards and supporting project leads. Kathi created the Tech HR Talent team to help promote the hiring of tech volunteers and promote learning programs. She spearheaded the Tech Leaders Fellowship Program which ran throughout 2022 to support new leaders at BfE. Kathi has a passion for continuous learning and feels BfE aligns well with these goals, offering volunteers opportunities to try new things and work on applicable projects all while helping to support BfEs social cause and build their skills.

Kathi graduated from the University of Calgary, in Alberta, Canada with a BSc degree in Computer Science. She has worked in the IT departments at Royal Dutch Shell and Canadian Pacific. Building, delivering and supporting applications, executing operating systems, database and computer upgrades. She is currently based in Lagos, Nigeria, on a sabbatical. She has spent the last few years building knowledge in leadership, project and product management. Being able to use her time to volunteer for organizations such as Bridges for Enterprise has been most fulfilling. The opportunities to connect with people from all areas of life and around the world are most fulfilling.