Jamie Jones

Prof. Jones serves as the Executive Director of Fuqua’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation (CEI) and is an Associate Professor of the Practice of Management.

Prior to joining Fuqua, Prof. Jones served as the Executive Director of the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (Lilie) at Rice University where she focused on developing curricular and co-curricular programs for students and faculty across the university. She taught courses on Financing the Startup Venture and Design Thinking, as well as managed the Student-lead Rice Venture Fund.

Prof. Jones co-founded Impact Engine, an investment firm with a mission to bring more capital to a market where financial returns are linked to positive social and environmental impacts. Impact Engine supported three cohorts of early-stage companies through its accelerator program and is now placing capital into seed and series A venture investments through its second venture fund.

Prior to joining Rice, Prof. Jones was an Innovation Advisor at RTI International, a leading nonprofit research institute based in North Carolina, where she supported companies, governments, and non-governmental organizations in their quest to commercialize technology-driven new products. Sitting at the nexus of technology, customers, and markets, Prof. Jones has deep expertise connecting user-insights to technology commercialization pathways and business model development and has worked on project ranging from sanitation and energy to agriculture and health.

Prof. Jones maintains an affiliation with the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University where she serves as the faculty lead for the Emerging Markets and Social Impact cohort of the Zell Fellows Program. Previously, Prof. Jones was the Director of Social Entrepreneurship and a Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Kellogg, where she worked with startups, nonprofits and companies to build and finance ventures that create both financial and social returns.

Prof. Jones has experience combining design thinking and Lean Startup practices to optimize business models. She has worked in India, East and West Africa and Latin America on agriculture, education, health, and water-focused ventures. Her contributions have been recognized by the Triangle Business Journal 40 Under 40.