Jesus Amadeo is CFO and Senior VP at MDRC, a non-partisan research organization based in NYC and Oakland CA, and is a partner at an emerging venture capital fund focused on the defense and security industry.

He was born in Puerto Rico and came to study at Columbia University in New York City at the age of 17. In the early part of his career he traveled and worked extensively in Latin America and Central America, a phase that he approached with deep humility and cultural sensitivity in order to gain the trust of his new colleagues.

Our conversation covers the unique challenges of working in emerging markets and moves to his current role at a non-partisan research organization in NYC which evaluates the efficacy of certain social and educational programs. We explore the experience of running and working in a non-profit, and how returning to the underlying business reason is central to decision making.