Loren Nadres
Loren Nadres has over 15 years of experience in innovation, entrepreneurship and inclusive economic development, of which over 10 years are at leading global institutions such as the World Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and United Nations. She has also served at government senior levels, including as part of the NYC Mayor’s leadership team and as Cabinet Member for the Mayor of Stamford, CT. She also serves as an Advisor and Contributor to the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative’s “City Leader Guide on Equitable Economic Development: Navigating Inclusive Growth, Racial Justice & Economic Resilience” which helps 100+ city leaders across the United States, translate commitment into action. In addition, she has worked at a startup tech company and an international development consulting firm. Loren has traveled to nearly 80 countries, survived triathlons, and climbed Mt. Everest Base Camp.
Prior to joining FUSE, she was Director for Inclusive Economic Growth and Strategic Partnerships at Emerging360, an international consulting firm. At Emerging360 Consulting, Loren drives business development across industries to help promote economic growth through women’s entrepreneurship, small business development, and entrepreneurship. She is the co-creator of HerVenture.org, an interactive mobile app for women entrepreneurs to start and grow their business “on-the-go”.
Previously, Loren was Director of Economic Development and Mayor’s Cabinet Member for the City of Stamford, Connecticut. In her role, she led, directed and managed all key initiatives and programs of the City’s Office of Economic Development in coordination with City departments, boards and agencies, business community, community partner organizations, and regional, state and federal agencies. Furthermore, she developed, implemented and coordinated he City’s overall economic development strategy including on key innovation growth sectors, business retention, and business attractions. Loren was the envoy and representative of the Mayor on economic development and business related matters at the city, regional, state, and federal level.
Prior, Loren was Director of International Affairs and Assistant Vice President at the NYC Economic Development Corporation. She led the international portfolio for the agency. In Loren’s capacity, she worked with the international community, businesses, partners and City agencies to help create inclusive economic opportunities for New Yorkers. Specifically, she worked with the largest diplomatic and trade corps in the world to assist international businesses and startups to start and grow their business in NYC by connecting them to the City’s opportunities and resources. She has also worked with NYC based businesses – particularly immigrant owned, minority owned and women owned businesses - to access new markets and resources. Furthermore, she worked on new policies and programs to help drive inclusive economic development which advances NYC’s international and immigrant communities. Previously, she was the Director of Economic Development at the NYC Mayor's Office for International Affairs.
In addition, she was an Advisor and Senior Consultant at the World Bank Group on innovation, entrepreneurship and gender inclusiveness. One of the programs she focused on was bolstering the growth of women owned businesses through the infoDev World Bank Group's $15 million innovation and entrepreneurship global program, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. She was also the co-author of the World Bank report titled “Women Wavemakers: Practical Strategies for Recruiting and Retaining Women in Coding Bootcamps” which is focused on increasing inclusiveness in the tech industry and beyond.
In her previous roles, she served as a leadership member providing strategic and budgetary guidance on a $20 million World Bank innovation and entrepreneurship program in Latin America and the Caribbean. Within the same program, she led and implemented a $3 million project across 14 countries in the region providing business acceleration and startup support for women entrepreneurs. In parallel, she also led a team to conduct a 14 country regional market research titled “Profile of Caribbean Women Entrepreneurs: Business Environment, Sectoral Constraints and Programming Lessons”.
Loren was also part of the scale up team at IFC’s Small Business Toolkit program, an interactive online training platform, which reached and built the capacity of over 30 million small businesses across 18 languages in 30 emerging markets. Lastly, she has had stints in Trinidad & Tobago and Thailand working on United Nations projects focused on gender, global health and youth empowerment.
She is a member of the Global Entrepreneurship Network’s Startup Nation Policy Group, which is a forum of community leaders from around the world working on advancing innovation and entrepreneurship. She is also an Advisor at the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative and a Fellow at the Disruptor Foundation.
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Loren completed a Harvard University Kennedy School of Government's Executive Education for Emerging Leaders. She holds a Master of Arts from Georgetown University and Bachelor of Arts from George Mason University. She participated in Georgetown's Graduate Business Summer Exchange Program in International Management at Oxford University. In addition, she was a Fellow in the Asia Pacific Leadership Program at the East West Center based in Hawai'i and included field studies in Thailand and Laos. Loren immigrated from the Philippines and speaks Tagalog.