Entrepreneur and Philanthropist Urges Women in Government to Tackle Society’s Problems with Innovative Solutions from Social Entrepreneurs

Social Entrepreneurs Can Be Government’s Research and Development Arm,
Catherine B. Reynolds Tells Women in Municipal Government at National League
of Cities Congress of Cities

RENO, Nev. December 8 , 2006 - Many of society’s most nagging problems could be solved with innovative solutions from social entrepreneurs in the private sector, Catherine B. Reynolds, a leading philanthropist and pioneer of the non-government student loan industry, said today.

In a keynote address to the Women in Municipal Government’s annual membership luncheon at the National League of Cities Congress of Cities in Reno, Nev., Catherine B. Reynolds urged women at all levels of government to support innovative private sector initiatives for combating difficult social problems facing the country.

“I ask you, as leaders of government, to be the mentors, to be the advocates, to be the agents who help set loose the power of the visionaries,” said Reynolds, chairman and CEO of the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation and creator of the Loan to Learn student lending program. “Social entrepreneurship is an invention that will spur solutions. I believe these new entrepreneurs can be the research and development arm for social change,” she said.

Acknowledging the limitations of government to take innovative risks, Reynolds said social entrepreneurs have the ability and the desire to collaborate with public officials to harness market forces to improve society.

“Why did the world get so excited when Warren Buffet said he was going to give $31 billion of his stock to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation?” Reynolds asked. “The reason people got so excited was the belief that this money would be used in new ways to meet old social problems, which is how Gates’ own charitable money is being used,” she said.

Reynolds said she wants to encourage more social entrepreneurship, which is why the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation has given an initial $20 million for 250 fellowships at Harvard and at New York University to create a new breed of social activists and leaders.

“Our idea is to develop a new generation of non-profit and public service leaders who are equipped with the business savvy, financial skills and innovative passion to disrupt the status quo of our social problems, and thereby bring about large-scale change,” Reynolds said.

Citing the contributions of entrepreneurs who have changed America from Thomas Edison to Wendy Kopp, founder of Teach for America, Reynolds spoke of her own experience helping to turn a not-for-profit student loan company that was nearly bankrupt into a leading financial innovator that revolutionized the world of education financing.

“We democratized access to capital for middle class families, and that resulted in sending millions of additional students to college. In the process, we created the non-government guaranteed student loan industry,” Reynolds said.

According to Reynolds, at the heart of every breakthrough in science, exploration, public service, the arts and business has been an “outside-the-box visionary” with a passion for making a difference.

“The social entrepreneur combines the power of the individual with the power of innovation. And that is a very potent combination,” said Reynolds.

About Loan to Learn
Loan to Learn is a program of EduCap Inc. EduCap pioneered the non-government guaranteed student loan industry in the late 1980s and launched the multi-billion dollar private education financing industry. Under the leadership of financial services entrepreneur Catherine B. Reynolds, EduCap has achieved an impressive number of “firsts” in the student lending arena, including the first nationwide credit-based student loan program, the first student loan securitization in Wall Street history, and the first program to provide access to affordable student loans as an employee benefit. For more information about Loan to Learn, please visit our Web site at www.loantolearn.com