Fighting global warming: Last year, our members helped pass clean car laws in Oregon and California.

Working Assets' Founders

Laura Scher

Co-Founder and Executive Chair, CREDO/Working Assets

Laura co-founded Working Assets in 1985 on the belief that building a business and building a better world are not mutually exclusive. Under Laura's leadership, Working Assets has grown to more than $100 million in annual revenue and donated over $65 million to progressive nonprofit groups like Planned Parenthood, Human Rights Watch, Rainforest Action Network and Oxfam America. Working Assets is the parent company of CREDO Mobile, CREDO Long Distance and CREDO Action. Laura also devotes time to helping shape the next generation of social entrepreneurs and leaders. She teaches "Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship" to Stanford University undergraduates and has co-authored chapters in several inspirational books, including The Business of Changing the World, edited by Marc Benioff; and Hands On! 33 More Things Every Girl Should Know, edited by Suzanne Harper. Laura serves on the boards of eScrip, SalesForce.com's Foundation and the Rosenberg Foundation. Laura received a bachelor's degree in economics from Yale University and studied international economics at the Institute for International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. She earned an MBA from Harvard Business School. Laura lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, daughter and son. She enjoys traveling internationally with her family.

 

Michael Kieschnick

CEO and President, CREDO/Working Assets

Michael Kieschnick is CEO, president and co-founder of CREDO/Working Assets, a company dedicated to changing the world through progressive philanthropy and political activism. Since its founding, Working Assets has donated over $65 million to progressive organizations. Its members have contacted selected decision-makers by phone, e-mail and letters over 32 million times. During the last seven years, the company has helped over four million Americans register to vote. Michael teaches a course on social innovation at Stanford University, and previously taught a graduate seminar on financial innovation at the University of California, Berkeley. Michael has a Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard University, and earned bachelor’s degrees in biology and economics at Stanford University. He currently serves as a board member for several nonprofits — the League of Conservation Voters, the OneCalifornia Bank Foundation and the Beatitudes Society. In his spare time, he helps run the Secretary of State Project, which works to elect reform candidates to the critical position of chief election officer at the state level.