The Bold Institute

The Bold Centre is a social enterprise anchored by its not-for-profit arm The Bold Institute, which is the home of the Bold Advisory Council. The Advisory Council is responsible for ensuring that the Institute, Centre and all Bold endeavours maintain a standard of excellence in pursuit of our mission.

The Bold Institute, through the Advisory Council, preserves the Centre’s mission, ensuring a commitment to sustainable human development and inclusive growth, and to consistently crafting new solutions to the world’s most challenging problems. The Bold Institute also focuses on the new research and innovation that allows the Centre to have greater development impact, and drives its own knowledge creation in partnership with other Institutes, Universities, Foundations and similar organisations.

A percentage of the value created by the Centre’s business is contributed to the Institute to fund governance and to invest in this innovative, partnered research and testing of ideas. The Institute also receives research grants to undertake partnered research or answer key development questions deemed by the Council to be critical to the world’s development progress. Wholly commissioned research, however, is undertaken by the Bold Centre, and not by the Institute.

Advisory Council – Role and Purpose

The Advisory Council is designed to provide strategic guidance and a thoughtful sounding board for the Centre.  The Council helps ensure that the Centre remains true to its mission.  

The Advisory Council is not a formal Board of Directors and does not have fiduciary responsibility for the Centre or Institute. This responsibility lies with the Directors. The Council is entitled to review the Institute’s budget and financial accounts each year for the purposes of guiding its work programme and helping to identify research partnering and funding opportunities.  The Council is also entitled to receive and review the Centre’s Annual Report and financial statement. Ultimate responsibility for programme implementation lies with Bold staff, but staff take seriously their commitment to operationalize and reflect the views, opinions and recommendations of the Council.

Get to know our Advisory Council members

Advisory Council members are invited to serve based on their global thought leadership and technical expertise across the Centre’s practice areas and in areas of governance necessary to inform the Centre’s mission. 

In this space we will share a bit about each of the Advisors who has joined our team. Meet three of our Advisors.

Dr. Jason Jackson

Jason Jackson

Jason Jackson is Ford Career Development Assistant Professor of Political Economy in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
More about Jason

Dr. Thabi Leoka

Dr. Thabi Leoka

Thabi Leoka is an experienced economic advisor and strategist who has worked with several financial sector institutions. In 2019, she was appointed by President Ramaphosa to the Public Investment Corporation Commission of Inquiry.
More about Thabi

Mr. Jonathan Poulin

Jonathan Poulin

Joe Poulin has over 20 years of operating and investing experience. Joe began designing websites for small businesses at the age of 15 out of his bedroom in Montreal before launching Luxury Retreats in 1999 at the age of 17, a company that changed the luxury travel industry landscape by twinning technology with dedicated  specialist skills and support.
More about Joe

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Jason Jackson

Jason Jackson is Ford Career Development Assistant Professor of Political Economy in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Jason’s research focuses on the relationship between states and markets. It seeks to understand the historical origins and evolution of the institutional arrangements through which states and markets are constituted from the late 19th century to the present. Jason’s work is particularly focused on the role of economic ideas and moral beliefs in shaping market institutions. It assesses the implications of political struggles between business, government and societal actors for market structure and resulting competitive and distributional outcomes. Empirically his work focuses on contexts ranging from the politics of monopoly and foreign investment in India from the late colonial period to the present, to the ‘sharing economy’ and urban transportation markets in contemporary cities in Asia, Europe and the United States.
Jason is also a member of the Task Force on Work of the Future at MIT.

Jason completed his Ph.D. in Political Economy at MIT. He also holds an AB in Economics from Princeton University, an MSc in Development Economics from the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School. He has won fellowships from the Social Sciences Research Council and the UK-based Overseas Development Institute, and has worked with a variety of private, non-governmental and multilateral organizations in the Caribbean, South Africa and the United States.

 

Dr. Thabi Leoka

Thabi Leoka is an experienced economic advisor and strategist who has worked with several financial sector institutions. In 2019, she was appointed by President Ramaphosa to the Public Investment Corporation Commission of Inquiry. She was also appointed by the Minister of Finance to review the zero-rated products in order to support the poor and vulnerable in the country after an increase in the VAT. Dr. Leoka now sits along with other global experts on the Presidential Economic Advisory Council.
Dr Leoka started her career as an Economist at Investec Asset Management in South Africa and London. She has also worked as an Emerging Markets Economist at Barclays Capital in London and Head of Economic Research, SA at Standard Bank and the Chief Economist for SA at Renaissance Capital.
She is a non-executive director of various companies. She also serves on the Statistics South Africa Council where she chairs the Economic Committee.
She has a PhD in Economics from the University of London, an MSc in Economics and Economic History from the London School of Economics and MA (Distinction) from the University of the Witwatersrand. She was named the Economist of the Year 2017 by The Association of Black Securities and Investment Professionals.

Jonathan Poulin

Joe Poulin has over 20 years of operating and investing experience. Joe began designing websites for small businesses at the age of 15 out of his bedroom in Montreal before launching Luxury Retreats in 1999 at the age of 17, a company that changed the luxury travel industry landscape by twinning technology with dedicated  specialist skills and support. He served as the President and Chief Executive Officer until its sale to Airbnb in February of 2017. Joe continued to run Luxury Retreats and lead Airbnb’s newly formed global luxury business.

 

In recognition for his achievements and entrepreneurial successes, Joe was nominated in 2012 as one of Canada’s Entrepreneurs of the Year by Ernst & Young. He now manages his family office, JPK Capital, which has made early investments in start-up companies including Lightspeed POS Inc., Wheels Up, Sonder, Skillz, Draftkings, Palantir, Zwift and Loanpal, among many others.