Jewel Thompson

Ms. Jewel N. Thompson is the incubator manager for the Ashesi Venture Incubator of the NEXT (New Entrepreneurs Xchange for Transformation) Idea to Impact Project, a collaboration between Ashesi and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) D-Lab. She is also an adjunct lecturer at Ashesi University, teaching the foundation of design and entrepreneurship (FDE) and Social Enterprise courses. Prior to joining Ashesi she was the Small Business Program Manager/Financial Well-Being Coach for Operation HOPE an organization with a mission to eradicate poverty and empower low-income communities. In her position she not only provided consultations for aspiring small business owners and existing small business owners within these communities but facilitated an entrepreneur training program that successfully incubated, educated and graduated over 100 individuals. In addition to this role, she was the on-site credit and money management counselor with Operation HOPE’s partnership with BB&T Bank. Her training sessions were pivotal in teaching participants how to scale their businesses and seek funding to which assisted in helping secure over $200,000 in funding. She established a management-consulting firm, titled, Efie Consulting Group.  Additionally, Ms. Thompson developed and co-chaired the Young African Leaders Conference, from this she continued to create programming geared towards the empowerment of young African millennials in the city of Atlanta. She is the outgoing Curator and former membership chair for the World Economic Forum Global Shapers Atlanta Hub. Most recently speaking on the value of public and private partnership at the ACM convening at the WEF headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. She has served on the Board of Directors for the Young Non-Profit Professionals Network of Atlanta and Diploma Plus, Inc. She is a former member of the Atlanta Metro Chamber ATL Leaders.