Eli Kennedy

Eli is an independent strategy consultant focused on organizations seeking to expand their presence and impact in the US K-12 market. Most recently he has completed projects for a database company seeking to enter the US market, a covid testing company and a national funder of charter schools. Prior to this role, Eli served for 5 years as the CEO of SMASH (a program focused on expanding the number of students of color pursuing STEM). At SMASH, Eli oversaw the rapid expansion of the program, tripling the number of students served, launching an internship program and expanding SMASH to 5 new states. Eli also led the west coast region for Platform Learning, a tutoring company focused on low ­income students and made investments in educational reform initiatives as a Director at The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Additionally, he served as the President and CEO of Pacific Charter School Development, where he developed over 50 public charter school facilities, raised more than $30M in new philanthropic funding, and scaled the organization as it expanded into three new regions.

In addition to his board service at PCSD, Eli has served on the board of Capital Impact Partners, Discovery Education and The Berkeley Public Schools Fund. He also serves on the structured finance committee for Charter School Growth Fund.

Eli has a B.S. in business administration and finance from Howard University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.