Catherine Cho Yoo

Cathy is Vice President of Impact Investing at Social Finance, where she leads the workforce partnerships financing—including the buildout of coalitions to envision and create impact; leadership oversight of fund development and deployment; and participation on the firm’s Leadership Team.

Prior to joining Social Finance, Cathy served as Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships at edX, a non-profit online learning platform founded by MIT and Harvard University. There, Cathy focused on the organization’s international growth strategies, including globalization and internationalization via strategic institutional partnerships. She also led the evolution of edX’s new partnership business models, including experimentation. During Cathy’s tenure, edX’s strategic partnerships tripled to over 170 institutional partnerships worldwide with top-ranked universities, workforce development entities, and national governments spanning six continents across multiple sectors and industries.

Previously, Cathy served as the Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Director at Harvard University. At Harvard, Cathy was responsible for leading university-wide strategy development and execution efforts through a portfolio of large, complex, tech-enabled programs. Cathy also led the design, implementation, and oversight of the new governance and operating models for annual and long-term planning, risk management, and the university’s $40 million portfolio of technology-related capital investments.

Cathy began her career in healthcare and welfare reform public policy research at Harvard University. She also worked as a management consultant at Deloitte Consulting’s Public Sector Strategy and Operations practice, dedicating her more than eight years at the firm to serving state and large municipal governmental and non-profit clients with their complex ‘modernization’ and transformation efforts. Cathy was selected by North American firm leadership to serve on the CEO’s Management Advisory Council, a nomination reserved for the top <1% of upper management for excellence in client service.

Cathy holds a B.A. in Political Science from Wellesley College and a M.P.P. from the University of Chicago with a concentration in Social Policy and Public Management. While at the University of Chicago, she was selected to be a Levin Fellow.