Erica Mackey

FOUNDING PRINCIPAL, 11VEN; CO-FOUNDER, OPENTWIN

2015 Entrepreneurship Award Winner

Erica Mackey is a serial entrepreneur driving innovation in sustainable urban development. As a Founding Principal of 11VEN, she leverages investment, innovation, and policy to create sustainable cities. Her work includes launching OpenTwin, an AI-powered platform using digital twin simulations to revolutionize urban innovation. OpenTwin enables cost-effective testing of solutions through the integration of geospatial, economic, and behavioral data.

Previously, Mackey built MyVillage, addressing community childcare needs, and co-founded and served as Chief Operations Officer at Off-Grid Electric (now Zola Electric). At Zola Electric, she spearheaded efforts to connect over 1 million African households to affordable solar energy, overcoming international financing barriers through an innovative prepaid solar model. She also established the Zola Academy to train a new generation of East African solar professionals.

Mackey's accomplishments include being named a Forbes "30 Under 30" Social Entrepreneur, a Skoll Center Fellow, an Unreasonable Future of Work Fellow, and a Zayed Future Energy Prize recipient. She serves on the boards of Kidogo and HATCH Global, and her ventures have secured hundreds of millions in funding. She holds an MBA from Oxford University and a BS from the University of California, Los Angeles.