Lee Davis
Co-Founder & CEO
Non-Profit Enterprise & Self-Sustainability Team (NESsT)

NESsT is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting social enterprises in emerging market countries. The NESsT Venture Fund, the first emerging markets fund supporting social enterprise, invests in a portfolio of social enterprises (i.e. for-profit businesses owned and operated by nonprofit organizations) in an effort to help them generate resources to support the financial sustainability and further the mission impact of their parent nonprofit organizations. NESsT also operates numerous projects designed to promote accountability, innovation, leadership and professionalism in the social enterprise field.

Davis is co-author of several books and articles on social enterprise and venture philanthropy. He began his career in the corporate marketing and public relations field, designing corporate annual reports and marketing strategies for Fortune 500 companies and international nonprofit and educational clients. In 1991, Davis was recruited by CARE International to start the first in-house publications design unit at CARE headquarters in New York, responsible for the development of annual reports, marketing and fundraising materials for the international relief and development agency. From 1993-1995 he worked for the Third Sector Project at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies, coordinating management training programs for nonprofit leaders throughout Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. From 1996-97, Davis worked as a Program Officer at the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe in Budapest, Hungary, coordinating public participation training programs in Bulgaria and Romania.

Mr. Davis holds an M.A. in Policy Studies from the Johns Hopkins University and a B.A., magna cum laude Phi Beta Kappa from Connecticut College.