Mary Jo Cook

In September 2015, Mary Jo Cook joined Pacific Community Ventures as President and C.E.O.  She is a mission-driven leader who’s passionate about using business as a force for good. In her role as President, she oversees all of Pacific Community Ventures’ nonprofit programs, including our innovative small business lending fund and BusinessAdvising.org mentorship platform, as well as PCV InSight’s social impact assessment and public policy programs.

Mary Jo spent the past five years as the Chief Impact Officer at Fair Trade USA, where she led the organization in changing how businesses source, consumers buy, and farmers and workers produce to create sustainability across global supply chains and improve the lives of hard working families. Prior to joining Fair Trade USA, Mary Jo was a Vice President at the Clorox Company where she held senior management roles in Innovation, Sustainability, Strategy and Marketing.  She created new approaches to embedding innovation and sustainability into everyday business practices and led teams in launching new product lines such as GreenWorks, the first mainstream brand of natural cleaners.

Mary Jo holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.  She serves on the advisory board of Sustainable Brands, an organization helping embed sustainability into companies’ business strategies.  She also served for seven years on the board of LeaderSpring, a non-profit providing leadership development and management training to Bay Area executive directors.