Jerry Hildebrand '64

Jerry Hildebrand '64 is the Executive Director for the Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship Education at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California.  His responsibilities include management and administration of the Center, program design and development, formation of the Council of University Social Entrepreneurs (student arm of the Center), formation of the Advisory Board of social entrepreneurship professionals, development of the Mentorship Program, community liaison with non-profit organizations, design and development of a community-based microfinance fund, fundraising, and negotiation of contracts and grants.

Before working at the University of the Pacific, Hildebrand was the CEO for 17 years of the Katalysis Partnership, a microfinance organization that provides training, technical assistance, and credit to non-governmental microfinance institutions in Central America (Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador).  Prior to Katalysis, he was the regional field director for International Voluntary Services, based on the island of Antigua, where he directed a socio-economic development program on ten newly independent island-nations in the Eastern Caribbean. His work in grassroots economic development started in Appalachia (West Virginia coal mining region) where he worked for 10 years to develop and direct the first rural Economic Development Corporation in the U.S. to finance community-based business enterprises in a chronically depressed region of the U.S.  Immediately following his 1964 graduation from Cornell, Hildebrand was among the first volunteers for the Peace Corp.

Hildebrand returned to Cornell March 11-12, 2009, for the first time since his graduation as a Beta Omicron Distinguished Alumni Visitor, giving a public lecture and conducting a microfinance workshop.  He was also a guest in Professor A'amer Farooqi's ECB 323 International Economics Seminar.

*co sponsored by Beta Omicron Distinguished Alumni Visitors Program