Jill Finlayson is the Director of Innovation & Social Impact at UC Berkeley’s Blum Center for Developing Economies. A seasoned ecosystem architect, she designs programs and advisory networks that scale student-driven social ventures and purpose-led technologies for global public good. She previously held leadership roles at the CITRIS and the Banatao Institute, Singularity University, and the Skoll Foundation, and has served for 13 years as a mentor with the U.S. State Department’s TechWomen program supporting global tech leaders. A proud UC Berkeley alumna, Finlayson has spent more than a decade as a Big Ideas mentor and judge, working directly with interdisciplinary student teams to turn early-stage concepts into viable impact ventures. In her role at the Blum Center, she oversees flagship entrepreneurship initiatives-including the Big Ideas Contest and the Mastercard Foundation Impact Fund.