Joe Exner is chairman and CEO of the Steele Foundation for Hope, which he launched with longtime mentor Stuart Steele in 2022. Since then, the foundation has provided $180 million in funding to 25 social enterprises and is pioneering an equity-based philanthropic model designed to help scale solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges.

Exner brings decades of leadership and investing experience, along with a deep commitment to service, to the foundation’s mission of supporting transformative enterprises and the leaders behind them. The foundation’s portfolio reaches 105 countries, including 40 in Africa, with billions in additional committed capital expected to be deployed in the years ahead.