Jonathan is a seasoned social entrepreneur and innovator who has devoted his career to building and running community-based enterprises. He is committed to strategies that foster economic development through entrepreneurship and small enterprise development in low-wealth communities and building collaborations with private sector and non-profit partners to foster business development.
Prior to coming to the West Coast, he led the lending programs at the MACED in Berea, KY, a community development financial institution (CDFI) focused on viable but unbankable small businesses throughout Appalachian Kentucky. He was also the innovator behind a web-based employer-driven alternative to payday loan program that has been implemented throughout the region.
In 1998, Jonathan co-founded alt.Consulting, a social enterprise consulting model and led the organization as Executive Director for its first five years. He specialized in management consulting to start-up social ventures including retail food co-ops, textile enterprises, gourmet food retail and wholesale enterprises, wholesale bakeries, and worked extensively with kitchen incubators, farmer’s markets and specialty retail ventures seeking access to markets and long-term growth and earnings.
Prior to his work with alt.Consulting, Jonathan was a fellow of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise and business consultant with the North Carolina Institute of Minority Economic Development. In addition to starting and operating entrepreneurial ventures including two food coops and a non-profit bakery/apprenticeship program, Mr. Harrison has years of hands-on experience in strategic planning, marketing strategy, and new venture fundraising. He spent five years in marketing management at Carnegie Hall in New York, and was an adjunct professor and business trainer at the Xi'an Institute of Finance and Economics in the Peoples' Republic of China. He has an MBA from the Yale School of Management.
