Our People
Acumen America is a team of builders committed to solving the country’s biggest problems. We invest for the long-term—and we bring the sector expertise, network, and vision to help your company flourish.
Managing Partner
Catherine co-leads Acumen America. Prior to co-founding Acumen America, she launched Acumen’s West Africa office in Accra, Ghana, and Latin America office in Bogota, Colombia, and served as chief of staff to Acumen’s CEO. Catherine also helped build social enterprises in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, which included expanding HealthStores’ clinics in rural Kenya.
Catherine holds a BA with Highest Honors from Princeton University and an MPP from Harvard University, where she was a Catherine B. Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship.
Managing Partner
Amon co-leads Acumen America. Most recently, Amon worked on Acumen’s Global Portfolio team out of New York. Prior to that, Amon led Acumen’s agriculture and water/sanitation investing in East Africa. Amon was based in Nairobi for four years where he originated, diligenced, and managed a number of investments, building the agriculture portfolio from scratch. Prior to joining Acumen, Amon worked in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with Cherokee Investment Partners, developing an impact investing strategy and building a community of entrepreneurs.
Amon holds a bachelor's with Highest Honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead-Cain Scholar, and a MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he received the Frances & Arjay Miller Fellowship in Social Innovation and the Miller Social Change Leadership Award.
Principal
Ayanna is a leader on Acumen America's portfolio team, investing in workforce development and financial inclusion companies. Before joining Acumen, Ayanna was an investor at Precursor Ventures, an early-stage generalist fund based in San Francisco, where she led investments in eight pre-seed and seed-stage companies across fintech, climate, B2B SaaS, and marketplaces. Before Precursor Ventures, Ayanna worked for international investment banks Credit Suisse and BMO Capital.
Ayanna graduated from Baruch College's Zicklin School of Business.
VP, Partnerships & Operations
Maya leads Acumen America’s operations and manages engagement and relationship management with the Acumen America partner community.
Prior to joining Acumen, Maya worked with Ajialouna, a women-led nonprofit committed to alleviating poverty in Lebanon by ensuring access to quality healthcare, educational opportunities, food security, and women empowerment programs. Prior to pivoting to the social impact space, Maya worked in roles for a large family-owned conglomerate on restructuring, liquidations, divestitures, and project finance deals in the Middle East and Europe.
Maya holds a MSc degree in Law & Accounting from The London School of Economics and Political Science and a BBA from The American University of Beirut.
Senior Associate
As a member of the investment team, Omar works on sourcing, diligence, portfolio operations, and post-investment support to portfolio companies.
Prior to joining Acumen, Omar was an Associate at BNP Paribas where he managed a portfolio of large cap investment grade and high yield companies and underwrote new capital for M&A, share repurchases, dividend recaps, and optimization of capital structure. Prior to that, Omar was a Senior Analyst at Wells Fargo, where he worked with early-stage companies in the Financial Technology space.
Omar holds a BS in Finance from Cal Poly Pomona.
VP
As the VP of portfolio, Steven focuses on sourcing, diligence, and portfolio operations across the healthcare, workforce development, and financial inclusion sectors.
Steven previously worked at various venture capital firms, including Touchdown Ventures, Kapor Capital, and Angel Ventures, where he invested in venture and growth stage companies across consumer and enterprise verticals in the United States and Brazil. Prior to the venture sector, Steven worked in analytics and financial roles at Univision and Vanguard.
Steven holds a BA from Dartmouth College and an MBA in Operations and Innovation and Masters in International Management from The Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies at the Wharton School.
Executive Director, Medicaid Innovation Collaborative
Veenu Aulakh is the Executive Director of the Medicaid Innovation Collaborative, a program of Acumen America. She is responsible for building the strategy and partnerships to improve the health and well-being of people on Medicaid by advancing the adoption of tech-enabled innovations.
For almost 10 years, Veenu served as the President of the Center for Care Innovations (CCI) where she grew the organization’s staff, budget, and strategy to focus on strengthening the health of under-invested communities. She was responsible for building critical partnerships and implementing the overall strategy to support and spread innovation in safety net healthcare systems. Before joining CCI, Veenu worked as a senior program officer at the California Health Care Foundation, where she managed programs and investments to improve access to care and health outcomes.
Veenu holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial and operations engineering from the University of Michigan and a Master of Science in health policy and management from Harvard University.
Board Members
Founder & CEO, Acumen
Jacqueline Novogratz is the Founder and CEO of Acumen and a recognized leader in the social impact space. Jacqueline is also the author of two award-winning books: the best-selling The Blue Sweater (2010), and Manifesto for a Moral Revolution: Practices to Build a Better World (2020). She is a member of The B Team and serves on numerous boards and advisory boards and has been named one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy, one of Insider’s Climate Action 30 leaders, and one of the 25 Smartest People of the Decade by the Daily Beast.
Co-Founder and Managing Director, Ulu Ventures
Miriam Rivera is CEO, Co-Founder, and Managing Director of Ulu Ventures, a top seed stage venture fund in Silicon Valley focused on innovation across the enterprise, fintech, consumer, health, and sustainability sectors. Miriam is dedicated to increasing diversity in both the entrepreneurial and investment communities. She serves on the board of the Kauffman Foundation, Acumen America, and Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that creates the iconic Sesame Street program. Miriam is also an advisor to the Launch with GS Advisory Council, a Goldman Sachs initiative to reduce the investing gap for Black and LatinX founders.
Founder & CEO, Hope Credit Enterprise, Hope Credit Union, and Hope Policy Institute
Bill Bynum is the founding CEO of HOPE (Hope Enterprise Corporation, Hope Credit Union and Hope Policy Institute), a family of organizations dedicated to strengthening the financial health and wealth of people in under-resourced communities across the Deep South. Since 1994, HOPE has generated nearly $4 billion in financing that has benefitted more than 2.6 million people throughout Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee, while shaping policies and practices that have improved conditions in opportunity deserts nationwide. Bynum serves on the boards of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta (New Orleans branch), Aspen Institute, NAACP Legal & Education Defense Fund, Black Vision Fund, Deep South Today, Churchill Capital IV, on the U.S. Treasury Department’s Advisory Committee on Racial Equity, and as an advisor to Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, and E Pluribus Unum.
Investment Committee
President, Acumen
Carlyle Singer is the President of Acumen. Prior to joining Acumen, Carlyle spent seven years as President and CEO of Katun Corporation, a global, middle market, privately held company in the compatible consumables imaging space. Carlyle holds a MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history, with a concentration in Latin American economic development.
Founding and Managing Partner, Supply Change Capital
Noramay is a Founding Partner at Supply Change Capital, an early-stage venture capital fund focused on the rise of the rest in food—particularly women and POC who have historically created our food and flavors. Supply Change believes they'll take the helm in innovation and build the next generation of iconic brands if catalyzed by funding and support. Previously, Noramay was a Managing Partner at MiLA Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm in Los Angeles investing in tech you can touch. Noramay is a Kauffman Fellow and holds a MBA, a Master’s in Engineering Systems, and a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering—all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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Founder & General Partner, Symphonic Capital
Sydney is the Founder and General Partner of Symphonic Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in companies making life better for the 99%. She is on the strategy committee of BLCK VC, the Board of Colorwave, and the Advisory Board of Invanti, a startup generator in the midwest. Prior to her work in tech, she served in the Bloomberg Administration in New York City. Sydney holds a MBA from University of California, Berkeley and a BA from Duke.
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We support founders—from pre-seed to scale—as they build solutions to America’s biggest challenges. We're always seeking people who are ready to join in building innovative solutions to poverty in the U.S.
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Acumen America backs entrepreneurs building innovative solutions to the urgent challenges of unequal workforce development, health inequities, and financial instability.