BOARD OF DIRECTORS
MARY JO KAPLAN
Commerce Corporation Board Member
MJ is a business transformation consultant, social entrepreneur, academic, speaker and writer based in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. She founded Kaplan Consulting Network in 2000. Their multi-sector work enables leaders, teams and networks to align purpose and operationalize impact with a focus on human-centered and tech-enabled approaches to complex systems change.
Partnership is central to MJ’s work with affiliations at RISD Center for Complexity, Centre for Social Impact (New Zealand) and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. MJ teaches in the Creative Leadership Masters program at MCAD and guest lectures at Brown University, Ross School of Management, Yale University, Harvard University, Auckland University of Technology and elsewhere.
In addition to serving as a board member for Commerce RI, MJ co-chairs the board of Social Enterprise Greenhouse. MJ was an Ian Axford Fulbright Fellow in New Zealand in 2013. She helped launch
Loomio, a social enterprise software company, following her Fellowship.
MJ was honored in 2022 as a PBN Leader & Achiever and Outstanding Mentor in 2011. She was awarded the Cordes Innovation Fellowship by Asoka U. MJ earned her M.Ed. from Harvard University and B.A. Brown University.
