Recognized as a global thought leader for contributions in the field of social entrepreneurship, Sutia Kim Alter has endeavored for 18 years to employ business tools and market-based approaches in the social sector to create social change and alleviate poverty. Alter began her career as a social entrepreneur when she co-launched and directed a 100% self-financed social enterprise, Visions in Action, operating in five African countries. After a stint in corporate marketing and competitive intelligence for multinationals, Dow Corning and Volvo Construction Corp, she worked as a microfinance technical advisor for international agencies, Save the Children and Catholic Relief Services. In 2000, Alter started Virtue Ventures LLC, a small, innovative management consulting firm committed to furthering the field of social entrepreneurship through action-research, technical services and its own initiatives. Alter’s expertise is in designing and implementing mission-focused social enterprises and incorporating business practices into nonprofit management to strengthen institutional capacity, engender an entrepreneurial culture, and increase financial sustainability. She has spoken widely on the subject of social entrepreneurship and several of her clients and projects have won awards for innovation. Alter has worked in 37 countries in: Europe, Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East and in a wide variety of industries and sectors.

Alter is author of several works on social entrepreneurship including, Managing the Double Bottom Line: A Business Planning Guide for Social Enterprises (Pact 2000), the first book of its kind on social enterprise business plans. As well, she conceived and wrote the seminal Social Enterprise Typology (IADB 2003), and online version (Virtue Ventures 2004); she is contributing author of, Generating and Sustaining Nonprofit Earned Income, (Jossey-Bass 2004), and contributing author of, Social Entrepreneurship: New Models of Sustainable Social Innovation, (Oxford University Press 2006). Forthcoming are current projects for publication: Social Enterprise Legal Structures: Lessons from the Field, (Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, Oxford University, 2008) and Social Enterprise Mission First Methodology, (Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, Oxford University, 2008)

In 2004, Alter was appointed Visiting Fellow to the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford where she teaches and co-teaches several courses on social entrepreneurship, including Social Enterprise Design and Social Finance. She is a founder of the Social Enterprise Alliance, and served on the board of directors for three years. She is currently on the advisory board of Scojo Foundation; an editorial advisor for Social Enterprise Reporter; advisory board member for SIES University’s (Mumbai, India), post graduate diploma program in Social Enterprise Management. She as a Bachelors degree in International relations and a Masters of Business Administration.

Alter is also the Chief Architect and Initiative Innovator of a “Field Building Project” Funded by the Skoll Foundation. “Integrated Approach to Social Enterprise” is focused on developing a mission-first methodology and performance framework for social enterprise in the international context. The scope of this project is to create and test a conceptual design framework, resource library, case studies, market research on learning needs, practitioner knowledge sharing and exchange network, and case studies for international development practitioners. Additional funding for this project has been awarded from Lemelson Foundation and Care Enterprise Partners.

Her clients past and present clients since 2000: Freedom From Hunger, Ashoka, United Nations Development Programme (Egypt/Nigeria), Community Council of Clinics, Save the Children (Egypt/US/Morocco), Global Giving, Benetech Initiative, Seiben Foundation, Community Wealth Ventures, IONA Senior Services, Wendt Center for Loss and Healing, Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest (C-GAP, World Bank), Small Enterprise Education Promotion Network (SEEP), Weidemann Associates, Class Inc., West Oregon Cascades Council of Governments, Counterpart International, Social-Impact India, Counterpart International (Bulgaria/Belarus/Ukraine/Tajikistan/Kyrgyzstan/Kazakhstan), United Nations Special Unit for Microfinance (SUM), Partners for the Common Good (Social Fund), Grantsmanship Center, Yale-Goldman-Sachs Foundation Partnership on Nonprofit Ventures, Scojo Foundation, Cambiandos Vidas, USAID EGAT/MED, OIC International, Inter-American Development Bank, Carnegie Corporation, The Lemelson Foundation, Market Information Exchange, William Davidson Institute, University of Michigan, Oxford University, Development Marketplace (World Bank), Philippson Foundation, and Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship.